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“I don’t have time for this, Ness,” I say. I’m about ready to hang up when her next words stop me.

“What happened between you two? Is he really so bad?”

“I’m not going over this again,” I say with frustration.

“But I could tell the other night, Tor. I could tell . There’s still something between you two. You can’t just throw three years down the drain because you met somebody new.”

“Why are you pushing so hard for this? It’s over. He turned into someone I didn’t even like anymore, and I’m happy with Travis. We have fun together. He’s a good guy.”

“That’s not what I’ve heard about him.” She says it in that bratty tone of hers that makes me want to go off on her.

I rein it in. My lunch break just started, and I should be heading to Mandy’s room so she can help me prepare over lunch for my interview after school today, but instead Vanessa is putting shit in my head about Travis that just isn’t true.

“Well you can believe what you read. I know the real guy,” I say.

“It’s not something I read,” she says softly.

My brows draw together. Do I want to hear this? Do I want to listen to this?

Likely not.

Still, I can’t seem to stop myself from asking, “What?”

“I heard he’s a member of a sex club.” She whispers it like that’ll lessen the impact. “Has he taken you there?”

“He is not!” I practically yell at her, but I catch myself in time to lower my voice since I’m at work.

“Yes, he is,” she argues. “I was telling my friend that you’re seeing Travis, and she said she has a cousin who hooked up with him at some sex club.”

“Vanessa, I don’t know what you heard or who you heard it from, but…well, I’m moving in with him. I think I’d know if he was a member of a place like that.”

I avoid telling her why we’re moving in together and let her draw her own conclusion there.

“What?” she shrieks. “Isn’t it a little…soon?”

“Not for us. Now stay the hell out of my personal life or we’ll just skip the Bahamas altogether, okay?” I realize I’m being a brat, but I don’t care. I’m tired of defending myself to my sister…to the person who should be one of my biggest supporters.

I hang up and fume as I grab my lunch and head toward Mandy’s classroom for lunch, and I shut the door behind me.

“What’s wrong?” she asks.

I shake my head as I plop down into one of the student desks. “My sister is just irritating the hell out of me with her dumb accusations. I don’t get it. Does she even know Owen? Why is she pushing so hard for us to be together? Can’t she see I’m happy with Travis?”

“Are you happy with Travis?” she asks.

“Yes! I mean, it’s new and early and confusing but it’s also incredible. And now she’s over here telling me he’s a member of a sex club. Wouldn’t I know if he’s a member of a sex club? What the hell?”

Her eyes widen as she quickly looks away from me and down at her own lunch.

I stand up and walk over toward her, and her eyes don’t move from her lunch even when I’m standing directly in front of her.

“Mandy.”

She doesn’t look up.

“Amanda Lynette, what do you know?”

She sighs as she finally looks up at me, and she looks a little guilty. “Yes. I mean, maybe. It’s not like a sex club , exactly. It sort of is. Like sex happens there, but it’s also a nightclub where dancing happens and other stuff.”

I gasp. “What?”

“It’s called Coax, and it’s this members-only private club for celebrities. Jaxon’s a member.”

“You…you’ve been there?” I stutter. But of course she has. I remember Jaxon saying something to her the other night.

She nods.

“Have you had sex there?” I ask, whispering the word sex even though we’re in here alone.

She sucks her top lip in between her teeth and nods.

“Oh my God!” I yell. “Why am I just hearing about this now? Have you seen Travis there?”

She shrugs. “Once.”

“He’s a member?”

She nods. “Jaxon said a bunch of his teammates are.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I feel all clammy and sweaty as I think about this new development. How could I not know this about him?

“I had to sign a nondisclosure the first time I went.”

“What?” I gasp.

“I’m not allowed to talk about it with anyone who hasn’t signed the nondisclosure,” she says. “It could get Jaxon kicked out, and I don’t want to stop going, so…don’t say anything, okay?”

“Don’t say anything?” I ask, and then I repeat much louder, “Don’t say anything? I’m just supposed to pretend I don’t know this about a man I’m about to move in with?”

“It’s not a big deal. It’s just, like, an exclusive club where the guys can go hang out without getting a bunch of attention,” she says.

“Where people can do it,” I say flatly.

She nods. “Yes. It does happen there.”

“Aren’t you afraid people are going to find out that you’ve been going there?” I ask.

She shakes her head and makes a face. “Not really. Fifth grade teachers can’t have sex?”

“At exclusive clubs with celebrities?” I finish for her.

She shrugs. “It’s a fancy nightclub. That’s all.”

“Keep telling yourself that,” I say. I don’t want to fight with her, but I’m stressed about this interview today, stressed about moving, stressed with my sister, and now stressed with this new nugget of information.

Do I even know him at all? Is this something he was planning to tell me at some point?

And what’s more…would I go with him if he invited me there?

Part of me wants to. The other part of me is appalled. I don’t know which part is currently winning. I can’t exactly get angry that he didn’t tell me this since what we have is so new, but am I cut out to be with someone who is a member of a place like that?

I’m not quite sure. It just makes me feel like I don’t really know him.

How many other women has he asked to sit on his face?

How many other women has he told watching them swallow his…stuff…was the hottest thing he’d ever seen?

Have other people watched him have sex?

What have I gotten myself into with him?

Maybe my first instinct about him was right after all.

I feel a little sick, and in a few hours I have to go to a job interview with all this weighing on my mind.