Slowly, she reached for him. His fingers closed around hers as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Her throat tightened.
“Tacos,” she managed.
Chapter 30
PR manager on one shoulder, Darren Cole on the other.
Yeah. You’ll figure it out.
They made it as far as the lobby.
Leah intercepted them like a storm front rolling in. Disapproval flashed across her face the moment she clocked Darren at Emma’s side.
“Right,” she snorted. “Why am I even surprised? Emma, we have a problem.”
Emma blinked. “Leah, what—”
“Not here. Come on. Both of you.”
She ushered them in front of her to a more secluded part of the floor. “Don’t,” she hissed at Darren when his hand moved toward Emma’s back. He frowned, looking over his shoulder.
Emma felt her own expression mirroring his. Confusion laced with a vague unease stirred through her. Leah could have strong opinions about public image, but this was different.
They ducked into a quiet corner at the far end of the lobby, half shielded behind a curtain. Leah whirled on them.
“Well, we have an internet meltdown on our hands,” she said, holding up her phone. “And this time, it’s not the fun kind.”
Emma’s own face stared back from Leah’s phone in shaky vertical footage. Her features were sharp with anger, words spewing out. Leahhad muted it, but the headline screamed:Author Emma Whitehart Snaps at Fans—PR Stunt with Darren Cole?
Her stomach plummeted as the girl in the My Little Pony hoodie appeared on-screen, mouthing into the camera, looking wounded. “Oh no. Leah, I’m sorry. She jumped me—”
“That kid is an idiot,” Leah said flatly. “And I get it, Emma. But for some godforsaken reason, she has four hundred thousand followers on TikTok, and frankly, this isn’t your best look.”
Emma shrank in on herself, cheeks burning. She hated that Darren saw her like that. Then realized thateveryonecould see her like that. Her hands clenched, nails biting into the skin.
She’d been seconds away from safety in the elevator. How could she have been so stupid as to lose her temper?
“So what?” Darren cut in, catching on quickly. “We’ve all been caught in moments like that. That doesn’t mean they get to decide what we can and can’t do.”
“Yeah, well, the timing matters, Cole,” Leah shot back. “You two have been reigning king and queen of the Internet for the last few days. And do you know what happens when you’re on top?”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “People want to knock you down.”
“Precisely.”
“What’s that other thing?” Emma asked, mouth dry. “About the PR stunt?”
Leah let out a frustrated sigh. “When the Internet turns sour, it turns sour, Emma. Speculation is already brewing that this whole thing with you two—the panel, the flirting, the whole octopus debacle—has been staged. A PR trick to boost book sales, hype the show. Strengthen visibility and brand for both of you.” Her eyes cut to Darren.
“But that’s . . . ridiculous,” Emma managed.
“Doesn’t matter. It’s gaining traction. And we all know how fast things move online. If it snowballs, we’ll be forced to issue statements. This is not the focus that we want. You’ve got the bookstore tour coming up, Emma, and Darren—”
“I know,” he said, cool and measured. The voice of someone who’d been here before. Emma thought of the photos of him and Alana. Theway he’d had to live it all in public. The scrutiny, the dissection of every look, every gesture.
For a moment, sympathy and dread tangled inside her. Because if people believed this really was a stunt, her own credibility could vanish overnight.
She would be defined by who she was seen with rather than by her work—her words, the stories she wanted to share with the world. Everything she’d worked for reduced to gossip.
