And a few months later, when I’d almost completely forgotten about the tape, a hacker somehow cracked Rhys’s files and data, including the private content intended for his eyes only, and leaked it out to the media. I fell apart, trying like hell to keep my head held high in spite of the shame and embarrassment I felt. My friends probably saw it. My family knew of it. And everyone in the country, if not the world, was a voyeur to a special moment that had been meant only for him. It took months for me to shake the feeling that everywhere I went, people were picturing me naked.
The irony, though, was that while the sex tape made me infamous, it made Rhys even more famous. He started to get bit parts in shows and movies while I became even more of a joke, a punch line, a cautionary tale. And even though it wasn’t his fault, I couldn’t help but start to resent the double standard. His star rose as mine began to flicker and fade. We drifted further and further apart until there was no reason to try to hold on any longer, and we broke up.
Standing up from his chair to kiss me on the cheek, he slipped his hand behind my neck and into the roots of my hair, sending sparks of electricity right down to my toes. If just looking at him took my breath away, then his touch completely robbed me of every oxygen molecule in my body.
“Hey, babe, you look fantastic.” He pulled out my chair, escorted me to it, and slid it firmly beneath me.
“Do I? I feel like I was just ambushed by a firing squad.”
I watched him circle the table to his seat, the crisp whiteness of his shirt sharp against the bright colors of the flowers and vibrant greenery around him.
“What do you mean? Brazen Brick? He’s harmless,” Rhys said as he unfurled a linen napkin onto his lap.
“Jesus, it’s been over a year now. How is our sex tape still front-page news?”
He held up his phone and showed me the same GIF I’d shown Nancy, me frantically trying to essentially tear off my Regency gown on live TV. “I have a feeling this might have a little something to do with it,” he answered with a shrug.
“Uggghhhh . . .” I hung my head in my hands.
He turned the phone back to himself and watched the GIF play through its loop a few more times, his face set in a look of approval. “It’s really not that bad. You actually looked incredible. Then again, you always do,” he offered as consolation, but the comment didn’t make me feel any better. “But, if you ask me, you were robbed. It’s not your fault the costume didn’t come off in time.”
“Unfortunately, you know that’s not how it works on live TV. You don’t get second chances. You get one shot, and I blew mine.”
He reached across the table and covered my hand with his. “I still say you were robbed. You were the best damn dancer they had this season. Any season, for that matter.”
And this was the side of Rhys I loved. He was firmly in my corner. Always.
“So what’s next? What do you have lined up?”
Just as I was about to tell him about the show in France, our server came by to take our orders. I didn’t even bother opening the menu; Rhys was already ordering for us both.
“Two Cobb salads and two iced teas. For her salad, no eggs or avocado, and if you could put the dressing on the side. Oh, and we’ll take extra ice and lemon in both of the drinks.” He looked up at me to confirm. I nodded. It was exactly right.
He handed the server back the menus and leaned in to the table. “So, tell me, what big and exciting project is Plum Everly headed off to next?”
“I met with Nancy this morning. To be honest with you, the well’s starting to run a little dry.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve been on ten different reality series. I’ve done Karaoke Combat, where I sang off-key renditions of pop classics while dodging foam projectiles being shot from the audience. I survived a competitive baking show where the microwave ovens spontaneously burst into flames. I even managed to come in second place on Celebrity Zookeepers.”
“Wait, I don’t remember that one.”
My eyes grew wide. “It’s because we don’t talk about it. I don’t think I will ever go back to a zoo so long as I live.”
“I’m sure PETA will be glad to hear it,” he joked.
“And you want to know the worst part?”
“Worse than being target practice while belting out ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’?” He laughed. “Sure, lay it on me.”
“In not a single one of those shows was I actually able to be myself. I mean, not really. I’m always playing a character, a role, whatever version of Plum Everly best fit their narrative. Foam projectiles and flaming ovens aside, nothing about reality TV is real, least of all me.”
“What are you even talking about?” He reached for my hands and gave them a squeeze. “You are Plum Everly—the same girl who walked into my freshman chemistry lab and took my breath away. You were real then, and you’re real now. And it breaks my heart to think you don’t see that.”
“No, I’m not. I couldn’t be that girl even if I tried. I’ve been too many other versions of her to even remember what she liked, what she wanted, who she was.”
The server came by to deliver our teas. Rhys took a long sip and said, “Look at where you are. Why would you want to go backward? Life is about moving forward and embracing new and exciting opportunities.”
“That’s what I’m trying to say, Rhys. I’m not being offered new and exciting opportunities. Not anymore. I mean, there is this one thing filming in France that could maybe be—”
He cut me off. “Look, there are always ways to get yourself back into the spotlight, just ask Brazen Brick.” His eyebrows bounced suggestively as he thumbed his attention to the entrance where Brick had been staked out earlier.
I blinked hard. “What? What did you just say?”
He rolled his eyes playfully. “What I’m saying is that maybe it’s time for us to work on a sequel? You can even direct this one? We can spend a bit more time in editing . . .” His voice trailed off at the end of the sentence in consideration.
My heart plunged like a Marvel superhero in free fall. “So it wasn’t a hacker at all? You put it out there, didn’t you? You were the one who leaked the tape?” I could barely put the words together to form an actual question.
Rhys pushed his hand through his hair and sat up a little straighter. “I’m . . . I’m sorry, Plum. But really, I did it for you. For us. And let’s be honest, whether it was a hacker or it was me, it doesn’t change anything.”
His words hurt, but his cavalier attitude was a knife in the gut. “Doesn’t change anything? Rhys, it changes everything. You sold me out.” I tried to keep my voice even and low, always aware of the watchful eyes.
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting a little bit here? How do you not realize I was doing it as a way to break both of us out of the box we’d been put in? You’ve got to see now how it was the right move for both of our careers.”
Tears welled in the corners of my eyes, but I swiped at them before they could fall. “What career? I’m a joke.”
He pulled his hands down off the table and tucked them in his lap. “Look, we can still flip the script here. The wardrobe malfunction you had on Celebrity Ballroom, well that . . . that can serve as the coming attraction for our little movie. C’mon, you can be Daphne again. I’ll play the Duke. It’ll be perfect.”
