Page 81 of All Yours
She stared at the envelop in her hand and a laugh bordering on the maniacal escaped. “They thought that I’d want to return to Greenwich with them and make a reality show about it.”
“What?”
“This is a contract for me to make my own reality show about ‘getting my life back together’,” she said, using air quotes.
“Are you serious? And after Sebastian wanted you do a documentary?”
“Completely. And they’d alerted all the paparazzi at the front windows snapping photos.”
Were her parents responsible for all the photographers following us? And for what? To drum up interest in a reality show. Were they working with Sinclair again? Words escaped me.
“So that’s all they see me as. A paycheck. And now that I know that for sure, I can quit worrying about how I let them down. It doesn’t matter anymore.” She tossed the envelope onto the fire. Then, Sloane let out a sound that could only be described as a caged, injured wild animal. She whirled around toward the water, bent over, and let out another gut-wrenching scream. She collapsed onto the ground.
I crouched beside her as she rolled from side to side, wiggling out of her jacket.
“Don’t do that,” I said, trying to keep her from removing it. “It’s too cold.” Flurries fell around us.
“I’m so hot,” she panted. “I’m on fire from the inside. Get this coat off me. It’s the rage.”
“It’s the hypothermia setting in. We’ve got to get you inside,” I said, grabbing Sloane’s arm.
“You’re being ridiculous,” she cried, as I pulled her to sitting. “I’m burning.” She continued to remove her jacket.
“Don’t take that off.” Once I let go of her arm, she fell back onto the ground.
“Why, Jonah? Why do they have to be that way?” she cried. She rolled to her side.
“I’m so sorry, babe. I don’t know. But it’s their loss.” I sat on the ground and tried to pull her into my lap instead of the cold ground. “I got you.”
“Why?” she cried again.
“It’ll be okay.”
“No. Why are you still here doing this after I was awful to you and sent you away? How are you still here?”
“Let’s not worry about that right now,” I said, wrapping my arms around her. “You have enough to deal with.”
“Were you here to tell me off?” she sniffed. Snowflakes glistened, dusting the edges of her hair.
“No,” I replied, trying to keep snow from falling onto Sloane. “Let’s get inside and warm up.”
“Why not?” she yelled, pushing away from me, and scrambling backward. “How are you not angry with me for what I did to you?” Sloane pushed to her feet.
At least she wasn’t on the ground anymore. “You’re obviously going through something worse.”
“So, you just put aside your feelings cause I’m the bigger mess?”
“Not at all. I came here to tell you how I feel but piling on to what happened today isn’t fair of me.”
“Who gives a shit about fair?” she yelled, throwing her hands in the air and pacing. “I dropped a fake relationship on you in front of a stranger. My decision has turned your life upside down. You have done nothing but help me out at every turn and when it all got hard, I was so mean to you. Give me hell, Jonah. Tell me off. I’ve been horribly selfish to you.”
“Just… let’s go inside.” This isn’t right. I didn’t want to confess my feelings for her with her screaming and crying, burning her past memorabilia with tears and snot streaming.
“Come on,” she yelled, charging up to me and grabbing the labels of my jacket. “Give it to me. I can take it. Hit me with your best shot.”
“Sloane, I’m in love with you,” I said, a calmness washing over me. “I’ve been in love with you for a couple of years. But I want to see you happy more than anything. So, if you don’t love me, I’ll live with it. I’d rather be your friend than nothing at all.”
She stared at me, hands gripping my jacket lapels.