I stare at Jessica's phone. She's thrust it forward, trying to get both my and Tiana's attention. It works.

@MalleableAmy
I ship #Kiana!

@WindingWhispers43
Wowowowow gay #Tika #WhatAreWeShippingThemAs?

@CertifiedChristianHousewife
The things I'd let Kam do with that tail...

My eyes rest on that final comment, and I try to not get annoyed that the tourists have already made their voices known. I must not be doing a good job hiding it because Tiana's hand grazes my own. She doesn't hold it.

I think she knows we're not there yet, no matter what almost happened just now.

And what the hell did almost just happen between us? And why? I know I still care for her, and I know my body still wants her, but I've never felt as out of control as I have around her just moments ago. It felt beyond just attraction.

It was something else. Maybe something deeper.

"So, what do we do?" Tiana asks me.

I look at her, and I shrug. "You tell me! I've never trended before. I'm..." And then I remember it's not just me that I have to worry about. "Oh, shit."

I pull out my phone.

K: Ring the bell
Lis: Kam. I rang the bell the moment you got on stage
K: Sorry
Lis: For???
K: I dunno.
Lis: Exactly. Hush, and enjoy the moment.

I look up, and both Jessica and Tiana are looking at me expectantly. I wave my hands. "Sorry, just... Warning a friend."

"The bell." Jessica says, nodding.

"Yeah, th— wait, how do you know about the bell?"

"What's the bell?" Tiana asks.

"It's..." I start, but I don't know exactly how to finish it. I remember the fight we had; the word I used for her.

"There's this bar, Lisette's. It has a bell." Jessica says.

"Oh yeah!" Tiana brightens.

Jessica's eyes go wide. And just like that... she knows.

"Hey, Tiana? Where's your greenroom?" Jessica asks.

"Just down the hall. Why?"

"We're all going to go there. Right now." Jessica's voice has that same, steely undertone to it. The one she uses when things aren't copacetic.

Tiana narrows her eyes. "No."

"You'd rather we do this here?"

I step between the two. "Tiana, let's just get it out of the way, okay?"

Tiana sighs, and mutters a curse that only I hear. "Fine. Let's go."

Her greenroom's filled to the brim with vases of daffodils and ixoras and pink peonies. It's beautiful.

Jessica gingerly shuts the door behind us. "So..."

Her eyes bounce from me to Tiana to me again, brows raised expectantly. "Which one of you's gonna own up to it first?"

I sigh. "Look, it—" I look to Tiana. "It just kind've happened. And then, uh... kept happening."

Jessica nods, processing, then regards Tiana. "And Alicia doesn't know."

"No."

"Okay. You both get that I'm still an assistant, right?" Jessica says. "And you've just read me in on something that could detonate everything if you're not careful?"

"Yeah..." Tiana says, a mournful tone creeping into her voice.

"Yeah. I'm sorry." I add, unsure of what exactly to say.

"Just let me think," Jessica says.

She paces for a minute, and I'm reminded of a lioness circling around to protect her cubs: no anger, just fierce protectiveness.

Eventually she stops, and nods her head. "I'm going to ask you some questions now. I need answers so that I can plan for this."

"This?" I ask. "You want to... help?"

Jessica throws up her hands. "Want to? No. Have accepted that you two are recklessly horny for each other and will absolutely need help navigating this? Yes." The upbraiding chastens me and Tiana, and Jessica sighs. "I'm sorry. This is just... a lot."

And I gotta admit that she's right. So I do the only thing I can do. "What's your first question?"

"Does Rory know?" I flinch at it.

"No," we both answer.

It goes on like this for twenty-five minutes as we walk through everything. How we met. The date night. Our breakup.

All of it.

It feels like there's a whole chessboard she's visualizing as we tell her every sordid detail. We spend another few minutes talking about the reality of the situation, and Jessica creates a group chat for us. She names the group chat "Team #Kiana", so I guess that settles that, too.

Jessica seems entirely unmoved by everything we have to say. Instead, it's like she's making considerations for what will happen. Planning for eventualities of what we're about to embark on.

"You need cybersecurity training," Jessica says.

"What? Why?"

"Someone's gonna hack you," Tiana supplies.

She says it as if it's the most casual thing in the world — like she's just told me that a Metro pass is $10. I look to Jessica, and Jessica shrugs. "Cost of doing business."

"That's fucked," I say.

"That's fame." Tiana's jaw tenses, and I see the anger she's hiding. Not at me. Just at all of it.

This has been Tiana's life since she was a kid. I knew it in abstract, but seeing the way even acknowledging it wears on her has me wanting to pull her into a deep hug.

It makes me want to pretend like we've had a conversation, and worked out everything.

And I can't let that be the case.

"I'm booking you both for a commercial shoot," Jessica says. "I'll work with Alicia to square it, but..." It's incredible to see her mind whir. I can't be anything less than utterly impressed with her. "But this needs to be something you play into. You have to fake it."

"Fake it." I say flatly.

"For a little bit, just until people get bored, you're just gonna have to fake that you're not just horny for each other," Jessica says, and I don't like where this is going. "You're gonna have to sell the world on your pure, unalloyed love for each other."

Fuck.

"And then you'll break up."

FUCK.