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“It’s gone,” Joan confirmed. “Wiped from existence. Along with the other videos, which were videos of the guys on the swim team being stupid. Underage drinking and theft and the like. Stuff that would worry a college kid on scholarship.”
“Thanks, Joan,” I said. “The team owes you one.”
“Are we done here?” Zoey huffed.
“Yes,” Joan said.
Standing, Zoey collected the phone and the laptop. Her eyes pinned me down. “I’d like to leave now. Walk me out?”
We walked out alone. Zoey’s posture was stiff. I alerted Davies through a text to drive Zoey back to her dorm at UCLA.
What I didn’t expect from Zoey was an apology as we waited in the driveway outside the main house.
“I’m sorry for what Coach did to you and to your team,” Zoey said in a low voice. It was dark out and her face was washed in shadows. “I didn’t realize how many people he’d threatened with blackmail.”
For a moment, I was stunned.
“It means a lot that you acknowledged it.” I paused. “There’s a Greta Gerwig premiere in two weeks. Be my professional date?”
Zoey smiled. “I figured you’d try to get out of our deal.”
“You held up your end of the bargain, I’ll hold up mine.”
“What about Ciaran?”
I looked back at the guesthouse. He was inside with Joan, Filipe, and Franky. I imagined them fighting over the last few brownie squares. The kitchen would be warm, welcoming, like home.
For the first time in a long time, where I wanted to be and where I belonged were one and the same.
Zoey wasn’t my friend, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t eventually become a real friend instead of a professional acquaintance.
“He’s good with the arrangement, Zoey.”
“Your boyfriend is nothing like you, Matty.”
My boyfriend. I’d never get over hearing that.
“True,” I said. “He’s infinitely better than me and I’ll work hard every day to be good enough for him.”
The glow of headlights beamed out of the ramp.
“You’ve changed, Matty. I wish things started out differently for us, but I see now that I had a different view of you. I now know you better.” Davies opened the rear passenger door for Zoey. “I hope things work out for you two. I’ll see you in two weeks. Text me the details, including what to wear.”
“Will do.”
I closed her door before jogging back to the guesthouse and back to people responsible for the growing smile on my face.
69
CIARAN
By the time everyone had left, including Franky, Joan, and Filipe, Matty and I collapsed against each other on the oversized sofa in the living room in the guesthouse.
Joan insisted on staying until our parents arrived, saying she’d happily take every ounce of blame, but Matty and I both nixed that. She’d make it worse. Infinitely worse. In the end, Filipe practically had to carry Joan out of the guesthouse.
A few moments ago, one of Davies’ transportation specialists texted Matty that he was posted at LAX and would alert us when our parents’ private jet arrived.
The way I saw it, Matty and I had about an hour until our world imploded.
