The idea of letting down her guard appealed to her. It took so much effort to maintain those barriers, to wall everyone out. A certain amount of lost freedom and privacy went along with fame. That was to be expected. But she had the negative side to fame without the hope of future success to offset it. She wouldn’t be famous—she’d be infamous.

She couldn’t leave off the bandages. She had a hard enough time looking at herself, let alone allowing someone as attractive as Seth to look at her. “It’s only for another month or so. Then Maxi will be back, and we will both be moving on.”

“A month is a long time. That’s thirty days. Thirty applications of those bandages.”

“It’s not your problem.”

“I guess I don’t understand why it has to be a problem at all.”

He was even more stubborn than she’d thought. “I’m going to text Maxi right now and tell him he’d better not give you a key,” she said.

“Seriously? Hiding is a waste of time and effort. I don’t give a damn what you look like.”

“I’m not saying you do. It’s just...you don’t understand how bad it is to...to lose what I’ve lost.”

“I understand that you’re only making it worse.”

She hesitated, oddly tempted to give in and get it over with—much like ripping off a Band-Aid. But she ultimately couldn’t bring herself to go through with it. “I can’t.”

“Fine, have it your way,” he said but as he lifted his hands in a “whatever” gesture, he bobbled his cell phone, and she instinctively darted out to help him catch it.

She managed to grab it before it cracked on the cement. She almost couldn’t believe she’d made such a great save, and, for a second, she was excited and relieved. But when he nonchalantly took it back from her, she realized he’d dropped it on purpose.

“The scars aren’t that bad,” he said as he slid his phone into his pocket. “You need to get over it.”

She gaped at his back, which was all she could see, since he’d started toward the main house.

“I—I can’t believe you just did that,” she stuttered, angry enough to follow him in spite of her reluctance to leave the house. “That you would...would make me believe I had to save your phone!”

“I didn’t make you believe you had to save anything. I just dropped my phone,” he said without turning back.

She took a few more steps. “What if I hadn’t caught it? It would’ve shattered on the ground, and that...that’s an expensive fix!”

“I wouldn’t have bothered to fix it. I would’ve just bought a new one.”