Page 45 of The Summer You Were Mine

“Last chance to change your mind.” Leo grinned at Cris, who was balancing his iPad on the pasta-and-coffee tower in the kitchen again.

“Not this time. In fact, the next call I make after this one is to the admissions office at City College,” said Cris.

He pushed his chair back a bit so that all three brothers could be seen on screen.

The time had come to talk to Teena about his plans, and Cris didn’t want to waste another day letting her think he was still trying to come to a decision.

“I have to accept the spot before I start loitering outside the Croce Rossa ambulance bay.”

“You’re obsessed.” Leo laughed.

“I am fired up.”

“Oh, speaking of fire, you know who asked about you last night?” Ale asked, turning to Cris. He didn’t wait for a guess. “Lindsey Vonn.”

“Great,” said Cris.

“Man, she is incredible. She had this Mugler dress on that was like, half see-through.”

“Oh, now you know it was a Mugler?” Leo asked his brother. He turned to Cris. “This is all because of that model in Miami last year, you know. Other than that, he wouldn’t know Louis Vuitton from L.L.Bean.”

“Whatever. She’s hot. And she was wondering if you were going to be there,” said Ale.

“That’s great, thanks. Say hello next time you see her.” Cris clicked the blue button on the screen, connecting to the Zoom call with Teena.

“You could do it yourself,” Ale said, laughing, but Cris just stared at him. “Kidding, kidding. Just trying to let you know what you missed last night.”

“I don’t think he missed anything last night,” said Leo with a smirk. Cris turned to shoot him a look, but the video connected. Teena was already standing up with her hands on her hips.

“I’ll tell you what we’re not going to talk about today,” Teena said, launching the conversation into orbit.

This could be bad. At least she wasn’t pacing—yet.

“We are not going to talk about Cristiano getting into any more trouble. Would you agree?” She didn’t specify who she was talking to, only that she needed an answer.

“Hey, T, looking pretty gorgeous today,” Ale said, showing off the result of a lifetime of excellent dental care. Teena did not seem wowed.

“Thank you, Alessandro. Red is my power color. Also, don’t flatter me while I am trying to set big brother straight over here. Now, do you agree?”

“Yes, Teena. We all agree,” said Cris. “I obviously do not want to make any missteps. In fact, that’s why we’re here all together, so we are all on the same page for the future.”

“Or lack of it,” said Leo, miming an exaggerated pout.

“I’m guessing you’re officially turning down the offer to be on Double Shot ,” said Teena.

“I am. I’m prepared to talk it over, but my mind is made up. See? No more trouble from this guy,” Cris said, pointing his thumb back at himself.

“We’re totally fine with it, by the way.” Leo ducked his head toward the camera.

“Even though he’ll be missing out on his last chance to be even close to cool, ever,” added Ale.

“We tried.” Leo shook his head and looked down.

“But alas,” Ale sighed, clapping his hand on Cris’s shoulder. “Dork forever.”

Teena broke through the twins’ lament. “I am sure you have your reasons, Cris. And I would love to have the chance to roll through them with you, but unfortunately, we have a problem that needs to be dealt with right now. You’re not doing Games Over.

I don’t know what kind of relationship you have with Eleonora Beltrami, but she’s no friend to you. I think she’s setting you up.”

“What?” Cris felt the blood drain from his head. He didn’t know what was coming, but it felt wrong—all wrong. He could feel Ale and Leo looking at him, but couldn’t acknowledge their stares.

“She’s not on your side, Cris. Why would someone who needs to boost ratings want to have someone they think could be a liar and a doper come on their show?

To expose the shit out of them live, get all the press coverage that comes with it, and bring herself back from the dead.

We have evidence,” Teena said, holding her hands up as if to stop him from even questioning her.

“You can’t argue with someone’s own words, can you? ”

“I don’t have any idea what you are talking about,” said Cris, trying to remain calm despite the storm in his head. “What do you have?”

“I called a few friends that I knew would give me any intel, and look—I’m not going to have a discussion about how we got this, but I’ve got a record here of some emails from a while back that she exchanged with April Nelson, the executive assistant to the CEO of Magniv Media.

You know who they are, right?” Cris nodded, his mouth too dry to speak.

“Dr. Beltrami was presented with a list of possible guests and she gave the thumbs-up to all but one. You. When April pressed her on it, this is what she wrote: ‘Unfortunately, there is no world in which I am able to remain unbiased in my judgment or opinion of Mr. Conte. I will not change my feelings on this, ever.’ Does this seem like the kind of person who is going to be on your side?”

He closed his eyes for a second, wishing the room was empty.

He needed to think. Who knew how old those emails were?

Things were different now, weren’t they?

There was no way she could fake what had just happened between them.

Was it possible that she started this idea with a plan to expose him and had changed her mind along the way?

He thought of the photo of them jumping in the water together while holding hands when they were kids. It seemed impossible.

“That’s only one part of it. I know she used to be everyone’s favorite, but she’s officially up for cancellation,” she said, starting that awful pacing.

Teena explained that in the short time since Ellie’s show had been on break, the media vultures had descended.

Dougie Baylor’s team had put an intern on digging up every nasty thing they could find on Ellie, and although there wasn’t much, it was disgustingly effective.

There was an engagement announcement in The New York Times but no record of a marriage.

There was a story on a New York gossip site about a hush-hush wedding involving the same architect that was supposed to be marrying Ellie.

There was a condo board that had rejected her application because of her “lifestyle” of being in the public eye, and, of course, there was plenty of evidence that Dr. Ellie Beltrami was not at all a licensed clinician.

“We’ve come this far together, Cris. I don’t agree with you not doing Double Shot, but I can step aside from that. What I can’t do is sit here and watch you lose everything because the media is about to turn their back on you after you defend yourself on her show.”

“But she’s not treating people. It’s a show. For entertainment. And besides, she never hid the fact that she’s not licensed.”

Ale and Leo looked at each other, clearly fighting every urge to interrupt.

“Oh, you think you are going to change their minds now? Hold up, let me write another press release for you to convince people of the truth about yet another mess on top of your own,” Teena said, not bothering to stop moving.

Leo broke first. “We’ve seen Ellie—er, Dr. Beltrami—the last few days, and that email seems pretty—”

“Like, totally out of character,” Ale finished for his brother. “Are you sure that came from her?”

“Are you questioning my research or my source?” Teena paused to look at them and folded her arms.

“It’s her,” said Cris, his face stone.

“Man, that’s harsh,” Ale said, clapping Cris on the shoulder. “‘There is no world’—ouch.”

“Later you can tell us what you did to deserve that,” Leo muttered under his breath.

“There’s no way out of this, is there?” Cris scrubbed a hand over his face. He knew what the answer would be.

“Let me be clear about this. You are not in a great spot, which means you need an unimpeachable interviewer. If you go on Games Over , you might make an incredibly strong case for yourself on a show that no one respects anymore because it’s hosted by a person that no one trusts— and who may not even respect you.

In the best-case scenario, any interview you do with her will be buried or won’t even get broadcast. In the worst-case scenario, people will find out that you have something going on together and it will be considered both unethical and biased beyond reason.

Then, people will think you’re trying to weasel your way out of this alleged doping thing.

Which of those scenarios sounds like fun to you? ”

“Teena, Ellie and I are not—”

“I knew it,” whispered Leo. “You so are.”

“Stop, Cris, I’m not stupid,” Teena said, facing the camera.

“I don’t think that. I don’t know what Ellie and I are,” he said, flinching at the new reality in his words. “Whatever she wrote then, I know one thing now: I don’t want to hurt her.”

“Look.” Teena softened her voice and sighed.

“From what I heard, as long as she stays off the air, this will go away for her. Somebody got in the ear of the guy who runs programming for Magniv Media, and they want her spot. Bad. If you are her reason for starting the show up again, you’ll be the reason she gets hurt.

If that’s what gets you to rethink this, I want you to know the truth.

You have one chance to do this right, then you can go do whatever you want with your life.

Games Over is not the way to do it. For either of you. ”

Cris sat back in the chair, unsure of how to reply.

This was not the conversation he’d expected.

He thought that he would calmly explain his decision to go on Ellie’s show and they’d be halfway to crafting a press release and scheduling a photo shoot by now.

What he got instead was an excruciatingly painful course-correction from his agent, who had gone beyond the call of duty to get the facts straight.