“I don’t think you want to do that,” I murmur.
“It sounds like you have him at gunpoint! What the fuck do you mean you ‘don’t think I wanna do that?’”
“Because we had another fight, Blake. A bad one,” I croak. “AJ couldn’t control himself as usual, and this was the only way to get him off me.”
“What the fuck, AJ?” he hisses.
“Wait until you see my face,” I reply. “He messed up really bad this time, and to think the staff downstairs was just bragging about how lovely we are together. You think they’ll still love the Jersey boy next door when they see what he did to me? AJ wants me to show them what happens when I don’t listen.”
“My…my face is fucked up too. She hit me too!” AJ yells.
He wipes the crusted blood from his red nose with his shoulder.
“She weighs a hundred twenty pounds soaking wet! I highly doubt it’s as fucked up as hers. Let’s be for real right now.”
“And I…I don’t have my makeup to fix this,” I stutter. “How am I gonna get out of here, Blake? How am I gonna get through the lobby and talk to the valet? How…how am I gonna explain this to my aunt and uncle when I get home? You told them AJ didn’t do stuff like this. All of this is alleged, remember?”
“Fuck!” he yells. “Her fuckin face, AJ? In a hotel? What the fuck did we talk about? People look, AJ! They talk! They gossip! Oh my God.”
“You’re the one who told me about the dude! Now you’re blaming me for reacting when you know how I get about her?”
“Reacting?Nigga, when you’re a millionaire you don’t react like this.”
“Look, go by the mall and grab some concealer and that…that powder stuff she uses.” AJ blinks, grabbing the back of his head. “She can cover it. We can tell everybody she…”
He glances around the room.
“Tell them what? Hm?” Blake asks. “That she tripped and fell on your fist? We’re not gonna get lucky and get some fanned-out cop every time you wanna go off and backhand her.”
“Look, you just need to get here. Now. We…we want you to help us,” AJ stammers.
“We?” Blake screams. “We?She has a gun to your head, and she’s asking about the NDA! There is no ‘we’! Open your eyes, you idiot! None of this is for your benefit.”
AJ’s eyes flicker up to mine, and a bead of sweat rolls down his forehead.
“You’ve completely lost control of a situation you told me you could always control!” Blake hollers. “You said you hadherunder control! This don’t look like the case to me, playboy!”
AJ’s eyes rake across my hot face. “Is that true, Lovie?”
“Is what true?”
“You don’t really want to fix us?”
I push the gun deeper into his head at the sound of “us” coming out of his mouth.
“It’s that dude, huh? You let him come between us.”
“There was nothing for him to come between.”
“What the fuck do you mean? We were in love! I love you! My family loves you! You know all of my secrets, my fears, my…my weaknesses. How can you do this to me?”
He scoffs, then jerks his arm up, and I strike his mouth with the gun. He blubbers out an agonizing scream.
“Shut up.” I breathe out as blood gushes from his mouth. “I’m so tired of hearing about you.Everythingis always aboutyou! What about me? What about what I’ve been through? Wha?—”
“That’s enough! What do you want, Lovie? How can we make this go away? How can we make you go away?” Blake asks.
“I want money.”
