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Maybe still could?
She was in the barrel roll, and until the world stopped whipping madly around, she couldn’t get the context she needed to know what the future might look like.
But it required clean underwear.
Wrapped in a towel, she tiptoed down the hallway to his room. After she was dressed, she headed to the kitchen for food. Cole was wearing sweaty workout clothes, pacing and talking quietly into his phone, when she came into the living room.
“I’ll call you back,” he told whoever it was.
“I see the burritos arrived.” Maggie’s sobbing and shower break had been more than an hour. Way more than enough time for their food to be delivered.
Honestly, they were truly amazing burritos. She understood why he’d bought the house.
Cole watched her tear into one. Sobbing your guts out was hungry work.
Maggie wanted so badly to know what he was thinking, but she was also so tired, and this conversation—it wasn’t going to be easy or good. The future was a muddle, and Cole was going to demand certainty from her. A certainty that she didn’t have. At least she had rice and beans and really good guacamole.
When she’d finished and drained not one but two glasses of water, he said, “Your phone has been blowing up.”
She’d forgotten to take it with her into the guest room, which had probably been a blessing. She didn’t want to see what people were saying about her. “I’m sorry I couldn’t talk to you right then. I was ... overwhelmed, and I needed a minute to process it.”
“And you’ve done that?” He seemed darkly amused by the possibility.
From her previous experience having her life wrecked, she knew that it would be months before she’d understand all the things she was feeling right now. “Nope. I’m so ... mad. At myself. At whoever gave those quotes. But there’s so much more. It’s like an ocean of feelings inside me, and I’m not ready to talk to you about them. I need some time, Cole.”
The moment stretched and stretched between them. He wanted to press, she could tell. But he was trying to give her space. Maybe he was afraid if he pushed, he wouldn’t like the answer.
She knew if he pressed, neither of them would like the answer.
“Okay.” He wasn’t happy about it, but he accepted it. That had to be enough. “Let me tell you what Brett said.”
As Maggie had assumed, there wasn’t much news. His team was looking into the story and writing up a response, which would go out very soon. Cole had texted with Tasha and Ryan, who were figuring out how to comment, and he’d talked to Zoya. The showrunner was furious. She’d gotten her own people on the case, along with the production company’s team.
Because everyone Maggie knew now had “people.”
But everyone’s main focus was rehabilitating Cole, as it should be. He was the face of the upcoming season ofWaverley, and they didn’t want him to be damaged goods.
Maggie didn’t rate. She didn’t have people—not that kind of people.
“The story isn’t getting much traction outside of town, not yet,” Cole was saying. “So far, people on social media seem skeptical about it. We might be able to contain it.”
Contain it? The damage had already been done, at least as far as Maggie was concerned. She’d been fired. Her reputation had taken a crushing blow, and she wasn’t going to be able to recover.
Still, she said, “I’m glad.” And she was. For him. “I’m going to call Savannah.” Cole might have a lawyer and a publicist and an agent, but the only person Maggie wanted to talk to was her best friend. “I was going to see if she could catch a flight down. Is that okay?”Is it okay if I invite someone to crash at your house?That was what she was really asking.
“Of course.” Cole didn’t hesitate, didn’t waver. If anything, he looked more hopeful. More happy.
Maggie wished—she wished so many things. That the story hadn’t broken. That she hadn’t been fired. That she could be as certain as Cole that this relationship had a future.
She knew she loved him, and right now, that was about it. The river of tears had swept through her and ripped everything loose. The life she’d put back together was a pile of junk sitting in the gutter. She was going to have to sort through it all and see if something, anything, could be salvaged.
“Thanks.”
And with that, she offered him a sad smile before retreating back to the guest room to dig through the flotsam of her life all over again.
EXT. COLE’S HOUSE
Cole had arranged for a driver to pick up Savannah at LAX the next morning and bring her to his house. But Maggie was surprised when she climbed out of the car with one of Maggie’s pothos in hand.
