Round & Ravishing

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 2

As soon as I locked the door behind him, I was ready to run. If he’d found me, there would be others. But that wasn’t my biggest problem. There were nude pictures of me online.

I went to the back and grabbed my stuff. I had to get out of there, find out what was going on, and figure out a way to fix it. If that was even possible.

Before I left the store, my phone rang. Ready to ignore the call, I fished my phone out and checked the screen. My mom. She just left and had no reason to call. Unless…

“Is Dad okay?”

“Dad?” Mom asked, clearly confused. “Of course. I’m calling to ask you why there was a man at home asking questions about your ex-boyfriend. That Patrick guy. The reporter said something about pictures of you online. What happened, Tara?”

I sighed. “I don’t know, Mom. One of the customers that was here when you left was a reporter also. Asked me a lot of questions and said Patrick leaked nude pictures of me online.”

“Why would he do something like that? Your relationship is long over and you aren’t anyone important now.”

Leave it to my mom to put things so succinctly.

“I don’t know. That’s what I’m going to find out.”

“Okay, well, be careful. When Dad and I left there were more cars pulling up. It seems they know where you live.”

Shit.

“Thanks, Mom. I’m sorry you guys are dealing with this.”

“We’ll figure it out, Tara.”

I hung up and felt like someone was watching me. I knew that was crazy since you couldn’t see the office from the outside, but my privacy was being invaded. When I lived in California, no one cared. I was in a few movies, but so was everyone else who lived out there. I was no big deal, and certainly not someone with reporters or paparazzi following them.

But reporters in Winterville? The sleepy little town near where I grew up? At my work? At my home? Harassing my parents?

It was not cool.

I turned off all the lights and ducked out the back door. No one was in the parking lot so I rushed to my car and left, keeping an eye on my mirrors to make sure I wasn’t being followed. Not that it mattered. They already knew where I lived and worked and had apparently seen me n***d.

I needed sugar.

I parked in front of SkinnyCakes and walked across the parking lot, hoping my friend, Abby Bentley, wasn’t too busy.

“Welcome to SkinnyCakes!” she said as I entered, definitely out of habit. “Oh, hey!” she added when she looked my way and realized it was me.

“Hey Abby. Do you have coffee? And something delicious? I need sugar.”

Abby laughed. “Of course. Come sit and you can tell us what’s going on.”

“Us?” I asked, finally picking up on the fact that she was talking to someone when I walked in. Someone with wavy brown hair, as many curves as I had, and a penchant for lying.

Olivia Brooks. No, Humphrey.

“Hi Tara,” Olivia said, turning on her stool to face me. She gave me a sad smile, but I didn’t feel the need to return it. We’d been playing nice ever since Abby re-introduced us, but I’d had more than I could handle, and being nice to Olivia was not in the cards at that moment.

“Olivia,” I grumbled.

Abby put my desserts on a plate and set it in front of the stool next to Olivia. I really didn’t want to sit down. There was no way in hell I was going to spill my guts with her sitting there. She’d just take the information and use it against me.

How, I had no idea. It couldn’t get much worse. But if anyone could make my life worse, it was definitely Olivia.

“I think I’ll just take this to go instead,” I told Abby when she set a cup of coffee next to the plate. “I need a few minutes to myself.”

“Are you sure?” Abby asked, clearly not picking up on the animosity between Olivia and I. But Olivia knew exactly why I wasn’t staying. I could see it in her brown eyes and the slump of her shoulders. Why she thought we would be friends again, or wanted to, was beyond me. I wasn’t worried about her though. I needed to get my own s**t straight, not obsess over Olivia’s precious feelings.

I looked into Abby’s kind green eyes and forced a smile. “I’m sure. Do you mind if I hang out at your place for a bit though? I don’t really want to go home.”

Abby shook her head. “Of course not. When I close I’ll bring dinner.” She bagged my snacks and poured my coffee into a to-go cup and handed both over with a smile.

“Thanks, Abs. I’ll see you later.”

Abby smiled, but I knew she was worried. Her eyebrows dipped in the center when she was trying not to frown. She knew something was up. I was just glad she was willing to let it go for the time being.

I let myself into Abby’s apartment and kicked the door closed behind me. She’d become a lifeline for me since I moved. Since she and Graham, her amazing boyfriend, got together, she’d given me a key and told me to stay whenever I wanted. It was nice to have a place to go when I needed a break from my parents.

I went straight to the bedroom where Abby kept her computer. I grabbed it and headed back to the living room. I opened a bottle of wine and turned the laptop on. With a very full glass, and no intention of going home before dawn, I typed my own name into the search engine and waited.

It didn’t take long for millions of posts to be found. I clicked on the first one. It was an article about the leak, not the actual leak. I still didn’t know what pictures had been posted. Then I remembered the article from the morning with my name in it.

I searched for Patrick’s name again and found the article I’d been reading at lunch. I scrolled through until I found my name.

Patrick Williams’ ex, Tara Fisher, fell off the radar of Hollywood when Patrick became a household name. Rumors surrounded the couple for months following their break-up but neither confirmed or denied any of them. Now, more rumors are circulating as pictures of the actress were leaked online. Some rumors think it was the actress herself sharing the pictures and trying to get her career started up again with her ties to the now-famous director. Others believe it was Williams, but the motivation behind him sharing the pictures is unclear. What is clear is that Ms. Fisher no longer is afraid to show some skin.

I gasped. They thought I would do that! That I would share my own n***d pictures. Why?

“I gotta see these pictures,” I muttered aloud, searching for my name again.

The third link was the actual leak. I waited for the pictures to load and knew immediately one bottle of wine was not going to be enough.