She’d get past this. She would. She’d been through hell before and come out the other side. She could do it again.
* * *
Chelsea and Drew picked seats in the stands that would give them a great view of the track. The stadium here was very different than the one Chelsea was used to skating in. It had more of an eclectic warehouse sort of vibe, and the crowd was rowdier than up in NYC. On the track, two girls mock-pillow-fought on skates, and loud music blared overhead. It was fun, but it wasn’t home, and she was hit with a pang of regret for having to leave New York. She wondered how the Rag Queens were faring at practice, and who’d be skating in her spot in the next bout. With a small, unhappy sigh, she sipped her soda.
“You want a beer?” Drew asked. “I’m going to go grab one.”
“No, thank you.” She held her takeout cup up. “I’m good.”
“Be right back,” he said, and headed down to concessions. As he did, her phone vibrated with an incoming call. She saw Sebastian’s name and sent it straight to voice mail, her heart doing an unhappy little flip.
He’d been calling her constantly over the last ten days, and she’d refused to answer. It was too hard. Hearing his voice would destroy her. So she was a coward and avoided him. So what? She was trying to close that part out of her mind and move forward. She couldn’t move forward if she was constantly weeping over Sebastian and the ruin her life had become, and how she’d lost the man she loved.
So she ignored, because it hurt less.
She suspected he was texting her, too. That’s what she would have done. Of course, she’d anticipated this and adjusted the settings on her phone to where it wouldn’t show her incoming texts. She ignored all of them until she was ready to look.
She might never be ready. The feelings of loss and the ache of being without Sebastian hadn’t subsided one bit in the last ten days.
A stranger sat down nearby and gave her an appraising look. Ugh. She gave him a polite smile and then pretended to look something up on her phone, wishing Drew were back already. The weather app could only be stared at for so long, so she switched over to a news website.
And sucked in a breath.
Cabrals Under Siege: The Video That Rocked a Family.
Her skin prickled with dread. Oh, no. No, no no. Her stomach churned sickeningly, and she stared at the headline. Please, no. Wasn’t this why she’d left? To protect Sebastian from her awful past? She didn’t want to look, but she had to. She clicked on the article and skimmed it, wanting to puke.
In a statement exclusively to Media Weekly , Lisa Pinder-Schloss, of the reality television show The Cabral Empire , has revealed that an ex-boyfriend of hers has a sex tape of the two of them and is threatening to auction it to the highest bidder. The video was allegedly made several years ago when Pinder-Schloss was in a relationship with freestyle motocross star Dirk Zayven.
Pinder-Schloss made a statement via her lawyer. “This tape was made for a private moment between a man and a woman in a relationship. Now that the relationship is over, it does not mean that what was once private should now be put on display, and it is utterly sickening that someone would try to turn around and make it public. My lawyers intend to pursue this to the fullest extent possible. We will fight the release of this. It will not be allowed.”
Pinder-Schloss is currently dating Dolph Cabral, and will be featured heavily in this upcoming season of The Cabral Empire .
The article went on about female celebrities and their lack of privacy online, but Chelsea’s vision blurred. She exhaled slowly.
There was . . . another video? Of Lisa? And it was coming out now? This made no sense. Her heart ached for Lisa. To go through the same hell as Chelsea, but to be a more public figure, had to be rough. She wished she could reach out to her, to let her know that someone else understood what she was going through. But would a call from her even be welcomed? She doubted it.
A male body scooted next to her on the bench, and Chelsea stiffened. Right now was not the time to hit on her. “Seat’s taken,” she said, deliberately not looking up from her phone.
“That’s a shame,” a familiar voice said, barely audible as the crowd started to roar. Chelsea looked up into Sebastian’s face just as the announcer came on, his voice blasting over the speakers as he welcomed everyone to the bout that night. Stunned, she gazed up at him. He was . . . here?
Next to her?
Sebastian smiled, the edges of his beautiful mouth curling up, eyes crinkling, and she was lost in the masculine beauty of his face. He said something else, but it was lost in the noise of the crowd. And oh, she suddenly hated them. Why couldn’t the world be silent when she needed it to be?
The roar grew louder, and she shook her head and touched her ear, indicating she’d missed what he’d said.
Sebastian leaned in and yelled, “Want to go talk somewhere?”
She wanted to fling herself in his arms and bury her face against his neck. But the music changed, and Pisa’s new team skated out, just as Drew sat down on the other side of her. Oh, should she stay or should she go? Would Pisa understand? Or would she even know that Sebastian was next to Chelsea? She hesitated, torn, and then lifted a finger to Sebastian, indicating they should wait, and then pointed at the track. “I have to stay to cheer her on,” she yelled back.
“I’ll wait for you,” he shouted just as the announcer began the roll call of names.
She nodded and forced herself to stare at the track. She knew Pisa would be looking for her and Drew in the audience. And even though the lighting would probably make it impossible for Pisa to see them, it didn’t matter. She couldn’t bail on her friend, the person who always picked her up when she was down. So she waited, and clapped and whistled for each player that was introduced, and all the while her thoughts were in a jumble. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Sebastian texting someone on his phone, and a stab of jealousy shot through her.