Page 150 of Hate Me Like You Mean It

“Morning, Alice. Coffee?” It was posed as a question, but she shoved it into my hands before I could decline, eyes wide. “You’ll thank me later.”

An agitated, foot-tapping Adrien chimed in next. “You want to tell her? Or should I?” he asked Dominic pointedly.

“Tell me what?”

“What is going on?” Mom asked breathlessly while my dad graciously accepted two fresh mugs from Ria.

Dominic sighed, rubbing at the back of his neck. “An article was posted on Gorilla about… Actually, here. Probably easier if you just see for yourself.”

I was passed a phone. Mom was provided with another. Frowning, I scrolled… and scrolled… and… “Wait, what is this?”

Adrien, while pacing, bit out an explanation that was so nonsensical, I had to ask him to repeat it three times.

“What do you mean he won’t kill it? What does that mean?”

My brother threw a hand up as if to exclaimexactly!

“Dom?”

“Did you read the comments?” he asked. “They were all on his side when I checked earlier. Some of them were even talking about his philanthropic work.”

This irritated Adrien to no end. “Dude, I swear to god I’ll punch you again.”

“Wait, hold on.” I gestured between the two of them, “I really want to make sure I’m understanding what’s going on. Adrien is pissed… because Dominic won’t kill a so-called story that essentially clears his name from all the bullshit rumors that were spread about him.”

“That about covers it,” Ria said.

I was so fucking confused.

“But… why?”

My question prompted Adrien to look at me like the biggest insult to his intelligence was the fact that he and I shared half our DNA. “The fuck do you mean ‘why?’ Did you read the article?”

I glanced down at the screen again. Then back up at my brother, his frothing mouth, and the three veins jutting out of his thick forehead. “You’re worried about Dominic? You called a family emergency… because you’re worried this will go viral and he’ll get a bunch of hate?” Was I getting that right?

“To put it fucking mildly, yeah, Lice, I am.”

My jaw dropped.

Two people in this roomwerelying. But it sure as shit wasn’t these boneheads.

I quirked an eyebrow at Ria while my dumbass brother and sleepyhead boyfriend persisted through their adorable little standoff.

Ria drew a heart in the air with her index fingers, mouthing “they love each other” at me. Meanwhile, Gampy had very inconspicuously seated himself as far away from her as humanly possible, using the opportunity to snag a smoked salmon and caviar blini from the small breakfast spread while no one was watching. I suppressed a smile.

“You’resmiling?”

I sucked in my cheeks. Shook my head. “Mm-mm.”

One of my brother’s protruding veins was threatening to burst. “Alice,” he warned.

“No, I know. Not funny. It’s just…” I held up his phone, trying to be sensitive and hold back the laughter bubbling in my chest. “While it’s very sweet that you care this much about what happens to Dominic… this isn’t real. Like the article itself is fake.”

Adrien blinked. Mom and Dad frowned up at me, then down at the screen they were sharing, and after a short, early-morning-induced processing delay, Dominic fished out his own phone and started tapping.

“What?” Adrien huffed skeptically, shifting his weight to his other foot. “How do you know?”

Dominic chucked his phone aside before I could answer my brother, threw his head back, and covered his face with an exasperated “fuck me.”