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“Are you sure it’s a good idea to get…closer to him?”
“This entire thing was your idea!”
“Well, not mine personally…”
“You know what I mean.” I can feel myself scowling, too, now. “What, I can pretend something might be going on between us, but it’s a bad idea to let something actually happen?”
“I told you,” she says carefully. “We would never try to tell you who to date, Dee. I’m just thinking of you. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“You mean you don’t want the ratings to get hurt,” I mutter bitterly.
“That’s not fair,” she tuts.
I blow out a breath. “You’re right. I’m sorry. This is all just so frustrating.”
“I know.” Gia nods like she actually understands, and that makes me feel a bit better. “Listen, you know I don’t give a shit what you do in your personal life, but the guys upstairs…Well, I told you, all they care about are numbers. I won’t sit here and lie to you and say they won’t care if Ian suddenly becomes poisonous to your image.”
“I still won’t stop seeing him,” I tell her vehemently.
Her eyebrows raise. “So you are seeing him?”
“I don’t know. I just—Fuck. Whatever we’re calling it. I’m not stopping.”
“Again, I can’t tell you not to,” she says. “I just want you to be fully prepared for what that might mean.”
“Okay. I hear you. I do. I need to talk to Ian about this. I need to go make sure he’s okay.”
Gia studies me for a moment, sympathy shining in her eyes. I kind of hate it. I hate that everyone thinks Ian is the type of person who would hurt me. I want to shout it from the rooftop how great he is, but I know I can’t do that while he’s still keeping secrets to protect his sister.
So I keep my mouth shut.
“Was that all you needed?”
Gia nods. “Be careful, Dee.”
“Thanks,” I answer wearily.
I don’t say anything else as I push up out of my chair, leaving Gia behind in her office and heading straight for the back doors so I can get out of here. I don’t bother calling Ian as I go, wanting to get to him as quickly as possible. I’m honestly hoping he hasn’t seen anything yet. That way I can break it to him gently, tell him to avoid the internet for a while. The less he sees, the better.
I just have to get to him first.
I know I’ve failed the moment Ian opens the door to his and Jack’s apartment. His expression is tense—his eyes haggard-looking and his mouth pressed into a tight line as he lets me in.
“Hey,” he says, moving aside to shut the door behind me. “You’re early.”
“Is Jack already gone?”
Ian nods. “He wanted to hang around after…” He clears his throat. “I convinced him to go. Told him I wanted to be alone for a bit.”
“Do you want to be alone?”
He immediately shakes his head. “Not from you.”
“Okay,” I say with obvious relief. “So you saw, then.”
“Jack has Google alerts set up on me, did you know?”
“Jesus,” I sigh. “I love my brother, but sometimes I want to kick his ass.”
