Page 76 of Love: Take Two

Philippe ended up being her firm's dedicated private investigator, and he's "scary good", as Noah would say. In just two days, he found several witnesses from the night of the fight who gave sworn affidavits that they saw the owner grab Yong-rae first, and that Yong-rae and his date—they didn't know it was a movie star—left without incident. One said they saw Yong-rae and the owner talking, but that it didn't look like anything was wrong. All of it pointed to Yong-rae's account of what happened, but none of it was the proverbial smoking gun. If there was footage, we needed itdès que possible.

On day 3, the owner told the cops the footage was gone. That he must've accidentally deleted it when he pulled the pictures for the article. It was another strike against him, since anyone could see right through his lie, but it still left us with very few options.

So now, two days later, we're waiting, praying Philippe performs miracles and can pull something concrete out of thin air. The production is, of course, paused. I'm doing everything I can to keep it that way, since that's better than canceled, but none of it is enough to subdue thoughts of Noah. The disappointment he couldn't hide. His poorly feigned acceptance of our fate. It didn't sayI'm bummed to lose my fuck buddy. Itsaid—

Buzz. Buzz.

My phone vibrates on the nightstand, and I groan. I'mreallynot up to getting reamed by my bosses again. I roll over with a groan to silence the device, but it's not Conrad or Emmitt. It's Camila.

"Uh, hello?" I answer hesitantly.Why would she be calling?

"Hey, girl. Are you dressed? We're going out."

I'm so startled by her pushiness, I actually laugh.

"What? Have you not seen the news? I'm not going out."

"Yes, I've seen the news, if that's what you wanna call that trash. That's exactly why we're going out. My guess is you're home, obsessing about the case and your client. Yong-rae's calling us twice a day for updates."

"Me too," I chuckle tiredly. "I wish I had something to give him, but we just have to wait for the investigator."

"Right," she says, like that settles it. "There's nothing you can do, so it's time to come and hang with your new best friend, Camila. We'll dance, get drunk, and talk shit about lawyers we both know."

I finally let out a genuine laugh.

"Um…OK. And your husband won't mind you going out drinking? You are newlyweds after all."

She scoffs.

"Luckily for me, I don't work for him anymore. We had six weeks of uninterrupted bliss. He can handle the occasional night on his own."

When I hesitate, she hums in disapproval, and I can feel the tone of the conversation shift.

"I know it's a little awkward; we don't know each other very well, and Noah's my brother now. But we don't have to talk about him if you don't want to. It can be a guy-free zone."

I gasp, taken aback by her words.

"He's not…uh, we're not—" I clear my throat. "There's nothing going on between us."

Camila laughs heartily, and I purse my lips in irritation.

"If you didn't want people to know about you two, you should've done a better job of hiding it. Half the crew has seen you leave in the same car, and Rory told me she's caught you guys holding hands more than once. For God's sake, Noah's face lights up whenever he talks about you!"

"What?!" I squeak. I thought we'd been so careful.

"Don't feel bad," Camila offers. "Rory would've found out even if youhadtried to hide it. She's always had a sixth sense about these things. She knew what would happen with my husband way before I did. But Noah?" She snorts. "Noah's hopeless. Up until last week, he'd practically break into song at the mere mention of you."

My heart drops.

"Last week. When the story came out." I mutter bitterly.

What's the harm in telling her? She's already guessed the truth, and I want so badly to confide in someone.

"I said we should take some time apart until things settle down," I whisper.

"Yeah," she replies, unfazed. "I figured it was something like that. And then with what happened with his mom…"

She trails off, but I'm sitting up now.