“Jaz,” her mother said, hands around her mug. “What happened between you and Nate?—”
“Is over.” She set the dumpling down. “The arrangement is over. Everything that went with it is over.”
“I don’t mean the arrangement,” her mother said. “I mean the other thing.”
Jasmine looked at the table.
“You came to my home with that man,” her mother continued, “and I watched him sit on my sofa and eat my food and look at you when you weren’t watching him. And I know what that look is.” She paused. “I also know what you look like when you’re trying to convince yourself of something. What the two of you had was real.”
“What am I trying to convince myself of?” Jasmine asked, choosing to avoid the other part of her argument.
“That it’s hopeless.”
“It is hopeless.” She picked the dumpling up again because she needed something to do with her hands. “He created this whole situation. The bet, the emails, the arrangement. Everything that’s happened to me in the last two months traces back to a drunk decision he made in a bar. And I know, I know he didn’t mean for it to go this way. I’m not saying he’s a bad person.”
She paused. “But I’ve lost my biggest role. I’m selling my house. My name is attached to a story that’s going to follow me for years. And the man at the center of all of that is sitting in his penthouse with his company that’s completely fine and his reputation that’ll recover.”
“He’s not in the penthouse,” Eden said. “He’s been at the house on the ridge. I heard from Carlos. He hasn’t gone back to the penthouse.”
Jasmine looked at her and frowned. “You talk to my bodyguard?”
“Sometimes.” She shrugged. “We go to the same Krav Maga gym, remember? He knows Nate’s head of security.”
Jasmine had forgotten all of that, and that was another thing she felt terrible about. She hadn’t even seen Carlos in a couple weeks because she hadn’t gone to any events since before the beach trip.
Which was fine. She would be moving away from the nexus of celebrity anyway, and a bodyguard was another thing she couldn’t afford.
“He’s not fine, Jaz. From what I’ve heard, he’s working twenty-hour days and barely eating, and the only time he leaves the house is to run.”
Jasmine sighed and leaned back in her chair. These two were relentless. They probably felt sorry for her. No money, no career, no man, living a life of public shame.
Not that she could blame them. It did look pretty pathetic.
“I believe that he has feelings for me,” she said, and it caused her real pain to say it, even in front of the two people who loved her most. “I believe they’re genuine. But feelings aren’t enough when the damage is this significant. What am I supposed to do, forgive everything because we had a nice week by the ocean?”
“No,” her mother said. “But maybe ask yourself whether ‘hopeless’ is really what this is. Or whether it’s just very, very hard.” She looked at her daughter steadily. “Those aren’t the same thing.”
Jasmine didn’t have an answer for that. She folded a napkin in her lap, looked at it, and let the question sit.
Outside, the sky was going orange over the courtyard. Somewhere on the floor above, someone was playing music.Frank, probably, with his balcony tomatoes and his wordless generosity.
She reached for another dumpling and said nothing, and Eden refilled her soup, and her mother didn’t push.
“I’m still moving,” Jasmine murmured to no one in particular.
CHAPTER 29
NATE
Dove had prepared twelve pages of talking points.
She’d sent them to him the night before, brought him a printed copy today, and walked him through the key messages twice in the green room before the press conference began. She’d been thorough and precise and had anticipated every likely question. The answers she’d prepared were measured and strategic, and they’d been reviewed by both his lawyers and his communications team and signed off by Radha, who had the best instincts of anyone he employed.
Simply put, the plan was flawless. And simple.
Acknowledge the story. Express regret for any misrepresentation. Decline to confirm or deny specific details on legal grounds. Pivot to the company’s ongoing work. Thank the press for their time. Exit cleanly.
It was a good plan. Dove was good at her job. He’d paid for the best and gotten it.
