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“Who the fuck is he?” Derrick yelled, not hiding his jealousy.
“A friend, from before, when I was fake. He took me out dancing. He told me I was pretty, said I had beautiful eyes. Too bad they were fake!” Taylor explained and exploded into laughter. She smiled and looked at Derrick. “Are you mad?” she sounded totally unconcerned, almost eager and joking.
“Yes!”
A slight frown covered Taylor’s face, but then her smile returned. “Don’t be mad!”
“What were you thinking?” Derrick asked again softly, not expecting an answer, just kind of needing to say it, hoping something would come to him.
Taylor yawned, turned to Derrick, and said, “I was making you a hero.”
Derrick flipped his eyes to her and found Taylor looking back all wide-eyed and serious. There was no more laughing.
“You were making me a hero?” he questioned, glancing at her again.
Taylor nodded. “Mhm.”
“Why?”
“Because you need a good reputation,” she said, flipping her hands up for emphasis, like it was the most obvious things in the world, “and everyone thinks you’re a bad boy.”
She held up a finger for emphasis. “But if you save the good girl, if you go to the club and take the good girl from the club, now you are a good boy! Now you’re a hero,” she explained, slurring every now and then, completely factual in her statements. Then Taylor held up both hands and shook them—jazz hands. “Ta da!” she said and fell back into a fit of giggles.
Derrick shook his head. “So you got drunk and went to a club so that I could go there and take you out and be photographed doing so?”
“Yup!” she nodded, looking over the moon that Derrick had finally pieced it all together. “And I got to dance—that was a bonus. I didn’t know it was salsa night! And it was so much fun. I’ve never been drunk before. This is fun too—you feel so free!”
“Yeah, we’ll see what you think of it all tomorrow when you have a hangover and there are photos of you all over the free world,” Derrick muttered. “That was really dumb, Taylor. You could have been hurt, and I don’t want you doing that for me.” He was totally befuddled. She had really put herself out there for him, risked herself. Geez.
“Oh, you can’t be mad at me. I’m still mad at you. And we can’t both be mad at each other about two different things,” Taylor informed Derrick. “That’s just silly.”
“Oh really? And why are you mad? Because I made you stop dancing?” Derrick guessed.
“No, stupid, because you stood me up and broke my heart,” she replied, looking at him seriously, wide-eyed again.
“When did I…” Then it hit him. She was going there. She was talking about back then, and she’s talking about it because she was drunk and didn’t realize and wouldn’t remember it in the morning. “Taylor, we should—”
“You said you wanted to see me and take me out, and then you didn’t show, and I waited and waited. And then I cried all night.” Her voice wasn’t sad, it was more full of wonder, reminiscent wonder. “And then there were the pictures of you out, at the club. They were on the news.”
He remembered. He had really gotten out of control that night, was thrown out of two clubs, passed out at a party. There were pictures of him for days. There were all kinds of theories about him getting over his mom’s death, or him with a drug and drinking problem so bad he couldn’t even mourn his mother.
“Why did you ask me if you didn’t want to go, Derrick?” Taylor asked, she was yawning and looking really sleepy.
“Taylor, I—”
“I was so in love with you, and you just broke my heart.”
Derrick felt his jaw slack open and slid a glance to Taylor. She was just staring at him, telling him in an oh-hey-there-is-a-sale-on-meat voice that she loved him.
“What?” It was the best he could do. He just couldn’t believe his ears.
Taylor started giggling again at his obvious disbelief. “You idiot, I was in love with you probably in the womb,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Mom was right—boys are clueless.”
“Tay—” but Derrick was cut off as he glanced in the rearview and caught sight of a car behind them, following much too close. He knew the car was a photog; he could just feel it. He needed to get Taylor home.
A quick glance over confirmed that Taylor was buckled in. Derrick used his Bluetooth to call into his father’s mansion.
“Smith.”