I know you're still thinking things through and don't want me asking about your personal life, but I think you'll want to talk about this.

It had been a quiet morning until Emily's world came crashing down around her when she received the text from Wally. Other than a few brief replies and a couple of emails after he had asked for edits to her column, Emily had been sidestepping communication with him since their conversation at his house. To Wally's credit, he'd stopped asking her to comment about Cory and Jesse's song, even though it was now a radio single—something Emily discovered when her phone had lit up with texts from well-meaning friends who'd expressed their disgust over it. If there were any recent posts on Wally's site about Cory, Jesse, or her, Emily was blissfully unaware. She'd been on a full-out media and social network blackout since reading Wally's story about Cory and Jesse's song, and Shelby had been warned not to tell her if her name popped up in a headline.

Life was just easier when Emily turned a blind eye to the tabloid drama and focused on the good in her life with Raine. That meant continuing to sneak smiles and stolen touches with him when she could during their yoga class, and hiding away with him at his house and her apartment. She had scrambled to get research and writing done for Zeeked during the day, and had spent almost every night at his place with him over the last week. They'd binge-watched an entire season of Homeland and she'd left him in the dust three of the four nights they'd had an ongoing pinball battle on his vintage arcade pinball machine. Raine still hadn't said anything about going public with their relationship, and Emily had seen no reason to think about it again. Keeping things quiet meant no one was intruding into their lives.

Until she received Wally's message, that was, when the very thing Emily had been dreading since the day Raine had asked her to stick around after class and have coffee showed up on her phone. Emily's mouth felt as though it was stuffed with cotton as she stared at the photo accompanying Wally's text. In it, she was sitting on her yoga mat, next to Raine. His head was turned to her, and the moment that had been captured by someone's camera appeared to be mid-conversation. She analyzed her expression. Did she look like she was talking to the guy she was dating, or could they pass as only acquaintances? Was she leaning in toward him at all? And Raine—what did his facial expression say? She zoomed in on the photo until the pixels blurred, then zoomed out again.

Don't freak out, she thought. There's nothing incriminating here. And there wasn't, really, the longer she looked at the photo. They were just two people in a yoga class having a conversation. That's exactly what she would tell Wally if his message meant he thought she was involved with Raine.

She inhaled sharply and held her breath, then typed a reply to his text. Confused. What would I want to talk about? It's a photo of me in my yoga class.

Wally wasted no time texting back. Look closely at the guy beside you.

What about him? she wrote.

His reply came almost immediately. He's Raine Kingston, and he's right beside you.

Yes he is. And? He's in my yoga class.

Her phone rang a moment later and she saw Wally's number pop up on the screen. A curse tumbled from her mouth. She had to answer his call, and he knew it. If she didn't, he would know she was avoiding talking about this, which would make the photo of nothing look like something. Once he had her on the line, though, she'd have no choice but to comment.

"Damn you, Wally," she growled. She answered his call on the fourth ring.

"Yes?" She didn't even bother with a hello.

"So?" Wally asked.

"So?" she repeated.

"What's the scoop with Raine? Is this who you're seeing?"

"We've been over this already. I'm not seeing anyone." Her cotton-mouth was back, and her words seemed to stick to her tongue. She headed out of her bedroom and down the hallway to the kitchen to get a drink of water.

Wally chortled. "You did say that, but you aren't the world's greatest liar. If this is your new guy, then you want me to be the first to run with this. Trust me."

Emily opened the fridge and took out a bottle of water. "Last I checked, sitting beside someone in a yoga class didn't mean anything other than that's where you happened to roll out your mat."

"One of your classmates seems to think otherwise," Wally fired back. Emily could tell he wanted there to be something more to this. Trust him, he'd said. Yeah right.

She gulped a mouthful of water before answering. "Good for them. Who sent that to you, anyway?"

"Hey, I protect my sources."

"And I'm trying to protect you from being sued by Raine Kingston for running something that isn't true." Emily hoped that without being able to look her in the eye, Wally wouldn't see through her fib. "If you tell me who sent it, then I can probably tell you what motivated that person to make this up."

"Fine." Wally sounded annoyed, but Emily knew he couldn't argue with her. He had enough lawsuits lobbed at him for publishing stories that were true without adding one he could avoid. "It came from someone named Kami Schultz. Know her?"

Emily said a silent prayer of thanks. Kami, at least, she could reasonably explain away.

"I do, actually. I'm curious what she told you."

"She sent the photo to my tips email address this morning," Wally said. "It came with a note claiming if I ran it, she would also give me an exclusive first-hand account of all she's witnessed going on between you and Raine in class. She made it sound as though sparks have been flying between the two of you for weeks and that it was obvious to everyone who saw you together."

How closely had Kami been watching them? Stay calm, Emily told herself. She raised the bottle of water back to her lips, a slight tremor in her hands.

"Why'd she send all that to you?" she asked, after swallowing another sip of water. "Tinseltown Buzz is the one paying for stuff like this."

"That was in the note, too," Wally answered. "She has a beef with someone over there who she used to date, or something. She said she likes my site and wanted me to have the story first."

Right, she thought. If Kami had ever spent any amount of time poking around Wally Hood Goes Hollywood, she would have figured out Emily had a fashion column running there and that she knew Wally well. Not that she could hold Kami's lack of observation against her. It was about to be Emily's saving grace.

"Let me ask you something," she said. "Have you done any background research on Kami?"

"No. Why?"

Maybe she could get away with this after all. She took a deep breath, then released it.

"If you had, you'd know she's an aspiring actress who's big on latching on to celebrities." Emily fought to keep the triumph from her voice. "Of course she'd want to give you an exclusive interview," she continued. "You're a big entertainment site she can use to try and get noticed."

Wally took his time responding. Emily could tell he was thinking about what she'd said.

"If I don't talk to her, Tinseltown Buzz will," he finally replied.

Wally sounded uncertain. Emily saw her chance to build on that.

"I doubt it," she told him. "Not if her ex works there. He'd know her game already and would have her discredited the second she opened her mouth. I guarantee that nothing she'll tell you is real, since there's absolutely nothing going on between Raine and me. All you have is a photo of two yoga classmates sitting next to one another, and the only reason you're trying to make it news is because Raine's a celebrity."

"So you're not seeing Raine?"

She crossed her fingers, thankful Wally couldn't see her face while she spoke. "Nope. And for what it's worth, I barely even notice he's there during class, since most Kundalini yoga exercises are done with your eyes closed." At least the part about how they did their yoga set was true. Wally could easily verify that if he wanted to.

"I hope you're being honest with me," he warned her. "You know what happens if someone scoops me on this and it's for real."

"And I hope I don't see a story about this on your site," she said. "Anything Kami would tell you is a lie."

"Have you looked at my site this weekend?" he asked.

"No, and I don't plan to." Wally could try, but she wasn't going to take the bait.

Wally kept talking. "So you haven't heard about Cory joining Jesse onstage at the Viper Room last night?"

Great. Here she'd gone out of her way to avoid any tabloid news, and now Wally was feeding it to her.

"I didn't know they were playing there." The disinterest in her voice wasn't fake. Cory and Jesse were her past, no matter what they were doing or what news was published to prevent that. Leave it alone, she mentally pleaded with Wally.

He didn't pick up on her silent wish. "They weren't on the marquee," he continued, "but they'd definitely rehearsed before getting up there. It was the live debut of the song they wrote together. One of Cory's friends was headlining and he invited them on stage in the middle of his set. A few people sent me videos. It's on my site and all over YouTube if you want to see it."

Fantastic. She didn't want to know what her Twitter notifications looked like right now, if the song really did sound like it was about her. She still hadn't listened to it and in spite of Wally's offer, videos of Cory and Jesse performing together were the last thing she wanted to watch.

Emily bit back a sigh. "Really, I don't want to hear about it. I don't care if they were on stage together, or if they form their own band together, or if Jesse's joining Blistering Twilight on tour. Neither of them are part of my life anymore, and that's not a time I want to go back to. Okay?"

"Okay. I just thought that—"

She cut Wally off. "No more about this. I'm begging you."

Emily's plea was met with silence. She waited for a few seconds, then heard Wally clear his throat.

"You win. I have to go, anyway—a source just sent me something good."

"Bye, Wally." She tapped a button on her phone to end the call.

That had been close—too close. Emily threw herself face-first onto her bed, burying her head in her pillow. She stayed that way for a few minutes, playing back the exchange she'd just had with Wally in her mind. Not the part about Cory and Jesse, but about the photo Kami had sent him of her and Raine. Wally had seemed to believe her story, but she couldn't tell if he'd been convinced enough to just let it drop, or if he was going to keep digging around until he found something she couldn't deny.

Emily rolled onto her back, but stayed sprawled out on her bed. She was certain she was right about Kami trying to get some exposure, and she didn't feel bad for telling Wally that, even if she couldn't prove it. Still, Kami had immediately pounced on her and Raine sitting together as something she could sell to Wally, and Emily had to wonder if there was something she and Raine had said or done that had clued her in to what was really going on between them. Had she seen the brush of their hands, or overheard something that made it sound as though they were involved? And if she had, were there other classmates who had seen or heard something and who thought the same thing?

Emily could do damage control when tips were sent to Wally, as long as he told her about them first. If a photo or an alleged account of Raine flirting with her in their yoga class was sent to Tinseltown Buzz or another entertainment site, though, there would be no running interference before the story hit the Internet. That was what worried her. As careful as she and Raine had already been, Emily knew they would have to be extra vigilant in class and anywhere else there was the possibility they could be seen. It might even be a good idea for them to mix it up and sit next to other people.

Raine was coming over tonight to cook dinner with her and watch a movie. That gave her a few hours to figure out how to bring up what Kami had done and the conversation she'd had with Wally, and to come up with a reason for why not revealing their relationship to the world was a better idea than going public with it. Whatever she said had to be compelling. If Raine's reaction to her wanting to keep their relationship under wraps that afternoon in Malibu was anything to go by, he would probably see things differently. Emily frowned and braced herself for the conversation she'd been putting off, knowing that the time she had asked Raine for weeks ago was up.