“What was that all about, Ethan? We shouldn’t have—” I am all out of words.

“Maya, I— Look, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you. I was hoping for a better moment, but I didn’t foresee this. Today. I guess now’s as good a time as any though.”

He takes a step toward me and without thinking, I just blabber, “Ethan, I can’t have those photos posted online. I don’t know who those people are or what they were going to do with them. They can keep them for themselves, but they can’t share them or put them on social or anywhere else. Nowhere public, OK?” I hear myself sounding hysterical. “He can’t see this, no matter what. What just happened isn’t even real. You know that; I know that. It meant nothing. But people seeing the photos will think it was real. This was a mistake and whatever you were trying to do with that fake Maya relationship setup, I shouldn’t have gone along with it.”

My phone rings and I grab it nervously.

“Not now, David,” I mutter under my breath and reject his call.

Ethan looks at me, without saying a word. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that look on someone’s face before. I don’t even know how to interpret it. Hurt? Shock? Anger? Annoyance?

“I get it,” he says. “I’m sorry. It was a mistake. My mistake. I didn’t know—”

“I’ll get a taxi back or a bus or something,” I say.

He stares, silent.

“If you want to fix this and you’re genuinely sorry, then make sure the photos won’t be posted anywhere,” I say and walk off with no sense of direction. Just away from him.

Forty-Six

How could I have been so stupid?

David calls again. I reject his call and instead call Alisa.

“What’s up? I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon. Thought you wouldn’t be back in Carmel until after three.”

I try to stop the tears from coming, but I can’t.

“Hey, hey, what’s wrong? What happened?”

I can’t speak.

“Maya, you’re scaring me. Talk to me!”

“I did something stupid. Something idiotic.”

“What?”

“I—”

“Maya, what?”

“I kissed Ethan. Or he kissed me. I don’t know. And it wasn’t even real. It was for some sort of publicity stunt or something. I’m not even sure. And then I left him and didn’t let him take me back to Carmel and I don’t know where he is and I’m taking a bus.”

“Maya, slow down. I don’t understand anything. You and Ethan kissed?”

“Yes.”

“Wow. OK. It’s OK. If that’s how you both felt, it’s fine. These things happen. I don’t see why it’s such a tragedy. I know it wasn’t in the plan, but plans change.”

“No! It’s not that. It wasn’t real. I had to pretend we were together for some snobbish woman who I think mistook me for someone else. And then they took photos and now the whole thing might be all over the internet. Who knows? Ethan is a well-known writer after all.”