I text.
Levi:Please talk to me.
Levi:Whatever it is, we can figure it out.
Levi:Delilah?
Nothing. No response.
I’m pacing the room, trying to figure out what went wrong, when my phone rings. Diane.
“Have you seen it?” she asks before I can say hello.
“Seen what?”
“Check your mentions. Or just Google yourself. Call me back.”
She hangs up.
I pull up my browser with shaking hands. Type my name.
The first result is a tabloid headline: “LEVI COLE’S NEW ROMANCE? Rock Star Gets Cozy with Pop Princess Mia Monroe”
And there’s the photo.
It’s from my last trip. Mia hugging me outsidethe label building. Her arms around me, her hand on my back, her face tilted toward mine like she’s about to kiss me. My expression is caught mid-surprise, but in the photo it looks like something else entirely. It looks like I’m enjoying it.
It looks like I’m with her.
My stomach drops.
This is what Delilah saw. This is why her voice went flat. This is why she said she needed to “think about some things.”
She thinks I’m cheating on her.
I call her. Voicemail. Again.
Levi:Delilah, I just saw the photo. It’s not what it looks like.
Levi:She hugged me. I didn’t want it. I pushed her away right after.
Levi:Please let me explain.
Nothing.
I call Harper. “Get the jet ready. I need to leave tonight.”
“Tonight? Levi, it’s almost midnight. The pilot...”
“Triple his pay. Whatever it takes. I need to get home.”
A pause. “What happened?”
“There’s a photo. Mia Monroe. Delilah saw it and she’s not answeringmy calls.”
Harper doesn’t ask any more questions. “Give me twenty minutes.”
I hang up and stare at the photo again. At Mia’s arms around me. At my face, frozen in a moment that tells a completely different story than the truth.
