“Tomorrow, we’ll upload Part Two.”She glanced at the figures again.Would all their videos get this many views?God, she hoped so.The income would see her and Karim well into next year.Would she and Dan still be friends then?Would they still be helping each other out?
“Tomorrow is also your mom’s last day on the island,” Libby said.“She invited Karim and me to dinner.”
“I know.You’re coming?”
“Yes, of course.I’ll be sad to say goodbye.”
“You’ll keep in touch.”Dan placed a cup of coffee next to her laptop, but he didn’t sayYou’ll see my mom again when you visit me in Englandlike she’d hoped he would.
“Check this comment out,” he said instead, turning his phone to her.“This guy says, ‘I knew the Lightning Strike would rise like a phoenix out of the ashes.’”
Libby put aside her hazy future with Dan.“We’ll have to use that line in our promos.”
Dan sat on the couch to work from his phone, and Libby went back to her laptop.She checked Isabella’s social media.For all Libby knew, Dan might be doing the same.She couldn’t see his screen, and he couldn’t see hers.Not that it mattered to Libby either way.It was Dan who refused to ever mention his ex.
Libby turned back to her screen.There was a whole bunch of positive stuff about Dan on all of Isabella’s platforms, and Isabella had seemingly increased her support for him by adding a load of photos of them together—in happier times.Most Libby had already seen elsewhere, but some were new private and candid moments.Just the two of them.
Seeing Dan in his past with Isabella was more than a little weird, especially considering what he and Libby had just done in bed and in the shower.
Friends who help each other out.
But they were more than that now, weren’t they?Or was intimacy between them just in her imagination?
“Dan?”In the shower, Libby had almost let slip how she felt about him, but now she needed him to know.But when Dan looked up, the words only hovered on her lips.Could she really ask him if he wanted to be more than friends?What if he rejected her like Elliot had?That would ruin everything between them and bring on a whole world of pain and awkwardness.Especially as her finances were also now thrown into the mix.There was so much at risk.
“What is it, Libby?”
“Oh, nothing.”Just then, an email pinged through.Grateful for the distraction, she turned back to her screen.“I just wondered if you were going to bed yet,” she said.
“I will in a minute.Shall I wait for you?”
“No, it’s okay.You go.I’ll finish up here and check on Karim.”She was a coward, but being brave wasn’t always the best course of action.She’d been brave with Elliot.Begging him.Sending him a photo of Karim.It was entirely possible that she’d read Dan just as wrong as she’d read Elliot.
As Dan took their coffee cups to the kitchen, Libby clicked away from Isabella’s social media and opened her inbox to read the email that she’d just received.
A name from her past glared back at her.
Juliana Cortez.
“Don’t work too hard, Libby,” Dan called out softly.
Libby tried to breathe.What did Juliana want?Why would she be emailing now after all this time?
“Libby?”
“Uh?”
“I’ll see you later?”
“Oh, yeah, I won’t be long.”She somehow found a smile then turned back to her screen to open Juliana’s email.
So you’re now BFFs with Daniel Jones?What’s the story with his ex?Rumor has it that she’s fucking Xavier Hunter.Remember we pay for intel.$$$$
Libbyremembered,allright.
All night long, she’d tossed and turned in her bed next to Karim, remembering a lot of things.
Like how much Dan hated gossip journalists.What would he say when he found out she used to be one?
