45. Lola

Lola

I jump, reaching out to pause the TV, which is still playing The Proposal. Ryan Reynolds pauses on the screen, staring up at the ceiling from the floor, and I glance at the door.

Another knock comes, this time with a familiar voice coming through the wood.

"Lola!" Levi yells. "We're coming in!"

We?

Of course, I'd assumed Levi would make his way out here. Over the years, the Burke siblings have had to take many emergency flights to help deal with each other's crises, but this time is so much worse.

The door opens, and Levi pushes his way in, his nose wrinkling immediately.

I don't blame him. I'm cocooned in my bed, my hair twisted up into a top knot in lieu of washing it. Wrappers and fast-food containers are spread out around me, and empty boxes and greasy foils are wadded up in little balls.

Right after Levi comes Ellie, and after her, all the women I've been socializing with for the past several months.

"The press is a fucking monster," Ellie says, apparently unbothered by my current state. She simply takes in the room, then crosses her arms over her chest and says, "Lola Burke, it is time for you to get in the shower."

To my surprise, my body complies with her order, and she hands me a bag of luxury products they must have picked up on the way over. I head into the bathroom, still feeling numb, but I open the shower steamer and place it on the floor, breathing deeply as the bathroom fills with the scent of lilacs.

I take my hair down and brush through it. In the shower, I shave and exfoliate, shampoo my hair, and put in a hair masque that smells amazing. By the time I'm out of the shower, I feel a thousand times better. I lotion my legs and throw on a robe, and when I step back into the main area of my apartment, it's transformed.

The trash is gone, and there are fresh sheets on my bed. The curtains are also open, and flowers are in vases at the end tables and in the center of the dining table. One woman opens the window to let in a breeze, and another vacuums the rug.

Immediately, I start to sob.

Levi is in front of me immediately, wrapping his arms around me, and I don't realize how touch-starved I've been until his hug unlocks something in me. I cry harder than I ever have in my life, and when I pull away from him, Ellie is there, too, giving me another hug, her hand running over my back.

"Hey," she says soothingly, pulling back. "I know those hormones are insane, aren't they?"

"I guess." I hiccup, then, looking around the room, I add, "You guys didn't have to do all this. It's too much."

"You are a light, Lola," Ellie says, reaching up and wiping a tear from my face. "And we are your friends. This is what friends do."

After throwing on a pair of sweats and a soft cotton shirt, I exit my room to find a spread of my favorite foods on the breakfast bar. I grab some sushi and sit down, taking a deep breath.

"So, do you want to talk about it?" Ellie asks, taking a bao bun for herself.

"Yeah," I say, letting out a sigh. I glance around at the group of women here—and Levi—and wonder if this is what it's like to have a found family. "Well, I guess Devon and I started this whole thing at the start of the season. That picture of us was a coincidence, but people were eating it up. Devon really wanted to do this youth camp, and I—well, I went through some stuff with my last release. I had this really great idea for a series—a romance anthology about pirates—and just before I finished writing it, this book came out. You may have heard of it; it even had a very similar title to what I'd planned for mine."

"Plunder?" Janice gasps, her eyes going wide. When I focus on her, I remember her telling me she also works in the publishing industry.

"Yeah," I say, my heart sinking. "The rest of the series followed my plan, too. I had to pivot fast to get something to my publisher in time. That's how the Regina series came to be. I just panicked and wrote a book about romance in a small town, and it was just so boring. My fans hated it."

Janice pulls her phone out and taps away on it, but the rest of the group looks sympathetic. Levi, of course, already knows all this.

"After Regina came out, my name took a hit. I was known for these addicting romance books, but the latest release wasn't on par with my other stuff. Then, I had to keep releasing stuff around that small-town romance because I promised the publisher an anthology, and the books just got worse and worse. I didn't care about them. I was hurting over how another author had the same idea as me and got it out first."

Ellie reaches out, putting her hand on mine comfortingly.

"All that is what drove me to do the whole fake dating thing with Devon. When people started to show interest in me and my writing again, I felt—well, it felt like I could resurrect my career. People loved the hockey thing. But it didn't turn out to be fake. I should have known better, really, because I fell in love with him. And also, well, you know about the pregnancy part."

"Jesus," Ellie mutters, putting a hand on her forehead. "So what's got you in such a tizzy? Do the two of you not agree about what to do?"

"We haven't even talked," I admit sheepishly, clearing my throat. "I just—I don't think I'll be able to stand it if he doesn't want to be with me. Or if he doesn't want to be a dad."

"Oh, Lola," Ellie laughs, shaking her head. "Are you serious? Devon is so head-over-heels for you. You know Grey had to come here and practically peel him away from your door, right?"

"I just—I thought that—"

"Y'all need to talk this through," Ellie says, tugging my hand forward and holding it between hers. "I know it's scary, but Devon loves kids. I know he'd make a great dad."

"I think so, too," I whisper, a tear running down my cheek.

"Lola," Janice pipes up, staring down at her phone with her mouth slightly open. "There's something you need to know about Plunder. And Millie Melgrove."

Even just hearing the name makes me cringe. I can't stop thinking about all the awards she won, all without ever showing her face for "privacy reasons."

"Millie Melgrove is a pen name…" Janice says. "I'm looking at the file right now. All the royalties for Plunder are paid to one Ms. Maisie May."

At those words, my entire world stops spinning. Right away, I feel like it's not true—it can't be—but also like it makes the most sense in the entire world. I think about how she was one of the only people I shared my ideas with. I think about what she said at the doctor's office about me being successful enough.

"Oh, my god," I breathe, still shocked. "She stole my idea."

"Well," Janice says, shaking her head, "I mean, there's no proof of that, but—"

"Don't worry," I say, my voice hard. "I won't go after her or implicate you. But we are so done as friends."

"That's alright," Ellie says, putting her arm around my shoulders. "You have plenty of new friends now who won't steal your ideas. Why don't you get dressed? We don't want to be late to the Stanley Cup."