Page 44 of Entangled With You

The most common question I had been asking, “How did you find me?”

Jim stepped in between us, Magnus stepped to my side.

“I called your parents and told them I needed to speak to you.” He stepped toward me and Jim stepped between us. “Who the hell are these guys?”

Magnus said, “I am her husband, and you are?”

“I’m Braden, I was her fiancé⁠—”

I said, “Key word: was, and not that it’s any business of yours, but this is my husband Magnus Campbell. This is our security guard.”

“Oh. A security guard? For what?”

“To keep assholes like you off my property.” I looked at Magnus. “My parents told him. Great. This means our address is out.”

Magnus said, “Aye.”

I asked Braden, “What do you want?”

“To talk to you.”

“You flew to Florida and drove to Amelia Island to talk to me? You must be fucking desperate. You could have begged my phone number out of my parents and let me hang up on you and it would have saved you a lot of effort. I remember how much you hated effort. I’ve got nothing to say to you. And frankly I don’t have time, Magnus and I have to deal with something right now, that’s urgent — or wait. Are you here to apologize? Because I’ll listen to an apology but absolutely nothing else. My guess is an apology will take five seconds. Go.”

“I am sorry, but⁠—”

“Great, thanks. See ya.” I grabbed Magnus by the elbow and pulled him toward the garage asking, “From this moment they could come right?”

Braden followed us still talking. “I just need five minutes, I — you heard about the videos?” His eyes cut to Magnus. “Maybe we can talk somewhere alone?”

Magnus said, “She daena want tae talk tae ye alone.”

I nodded. “Magnus can hear anything you want to say. And yes, we know about the videos. I said it before and it’s totally true, you’re an asshole. I can’t believe you let her have them.”

“I didn’t know she had them. I didn't even know I had them still. Look hear me out, okay? She found them and I guess was holding onto them for this — I just wanted you to know, remember Ulysses Lovell? We met him at VidCon?”

“Yeah, I guess?”

“He’s doing a story about me — he’s working with YummyBabe. He’s asking a lot of questions and really being an ass⁠—”

“Whoa, that's rich coming from you, the king of assholes.”

Braden looked uncomfortable the way Magnus and Jim were glaring at him.

I said, “Just to get you out of my driveway, what is your point?”

“I was going to ask you not to file a lawsuit and to, you know, say nice things.”

“Not? That’s classic. I’m filing a lawsuit so big that it will threaten to bring down the entire porny-YouTube industry. Better hold on tight.”

“But I didn’t do anything, maybe just⁠—”

“It was your camera. Your idea. Your video that has existed in the cloud for three years. And guess what? It was your terrible choice in a girlfriend. And now because you don’t treat anyone around you with respect and dignity, your payback that the lawsuit is getting bigger the more you talk to me. How did she find the video?”

“She was looking for it...”

“So it was also your flapping jaw that told her it existed.” I gestured at Magnus. “My husband has taken this news in stride, luckily for you he isn’t that concerned about the implications, but you’re seriously delusional if you think I won’t use all the lawyers I can afford to come at you for suffering and damages.”

He said to Magnus, “Sorry man, about the trouble.”