“Liv?” I hear between knocks, as I rush to the front door. It sounds like Bre. “Liv!”
I whip the door open and yes, sure enough, there’s Bre, her fiery-red hair dripping. I’ve always told her she bears a striking resemblance to a certain little mermaid, and now it’s especially true in her soaking-wet teal-and-purple workout clothes.
“What are you doing?” I say, pulling her inside. “How long have you been here? I’m so sorry!”
“Probably fifteen minutes or so?” she says, teeth chattering. It’s high sixties out there right now at best, and my air conditioner isn’t helping. “I tried calling first, because I wasn’t sure you’d actually go through with locking your phone away, but it looks like you did it—aghhhhhh, I’m so sorry about your rug!” I follow her gaze and see she’s trailed spots all over it from the front door to my living room.
I wave her off. “No worries aboutthat. Are you okay? I was doing yoga on the beach.”
We hadn’t made plans for her to come back, and in fact, she specifically mentioned a Peloton ride she’d been looking forward to all week, a special live event featuring Halo’s music.
Her eyebrows raise at the mention of yoga—she never knew me during my extremely dedicated yoga phase, but I had quite the intense streak going for a couple of years until I went on location for a project and it threw off my entire routine.
“So, okay, I did some digging,” she says. “First of all, it definitely looks like one of the baristas was involved. I talked to a girl named Mattea, and she said her coworker Dex opened the café on his own yesterday morning. She also said he’s had money trouble lately, and when she tried texting and calling to ask about the photo, he ignored her entirely. So. That’s a promising lead. As for the website, no one would talk.” She follows me to the guest bathroom down the hall, where I toss her a towel. “Thanks. So, yeah, they’re keeping their sources locked down tight—but I still got some useful info out of the call. The girl I talked to made this comment about how this was her ‘best day on the jobever!’?” Bre puts the phrase in air quotes and does her best super-green intern voice to match. “She just happened to mention she’d talked to ‘Sasha-Kate Kilpatrick,like,rightbefore this!’?” She gives me a look, and the pieces fall together.
“Which means,” I say slowly, “that if she’s committed to keeping their source anonymous but willing to spill that Sasha-Kate called only a few minutes before—”
“And that the Sasha-Kate call happenedtoday,” Bre adds, “not yesterday before the article ran—”
“That means it had to be someone else who spilled,” I finish. “Ransom’s dad feels like the most logical answer.”
It’s the answer that would sting less, anyway.
“Or Ransom himself,” Bre says, ever thorough.
“Or Ransom himself,” I echo, but am quick to add, “but I’m, like, ninety-five percent positive he wouldn’t have told.”
“Ninety-five percent,” she says flatly, with alook.
“Okay, ninety-five might be a little high,” I admit. “Ninety percent. Eighty-five.” I shake the ideas out of my head before I go any lower. “The point is, with our history, and especially after last night in his pool—”
Her eyes go wide. “Wait, last nightin his pool?”
“I only meant that we talked about keeping our relationship a secret for now,” I say, though I can’t keep the heat from flooding my cheeks, or the ghost of a smile that pulls at the corners of my mouth. “But yeah, um. Last night was good in other ways, too.”
“Okay,thatis a conversation for later!” she says, but then the sparkle falls out of her eyes. “If you still want to have it after what I’m about to show you, that is.” She takes a deep breath, exhales loudly. “I’m not saying Ransom’s the one who told, okay? But some more stuff popped up today that made me wonder.”
All the calm I worked so hard to cultivate is gone, replaced by what feels like an avocado pit in my stomach. A roll of thunder swells outside, the rain really picking up. A few taps later, and her phone is unlocked, open to a new headline.
She hands it over, and I begin to read.
Ones to Watch: Ransom Joel Team Neck-Deep as Offers Pour In
By Gregor Ives // Senior Editor, Books & Film,West Coast Daily
On the heels of today’s breaking news regarding former teen heartthrob Ransom Joel—he’s finally taken his on-screen romance withGirl on the Vergecostar Liv Latimer off-screen—we hear his agent’s phone has been ringing off the hook all afternoon.
Joel has stayed firmly in the public eye ever since the show that put him there went off the air nearly fourteen years ago. While his acting skills are undeniably solid, ask any teen with hearts in their eyes—or their parents, for the record—what comes to mind when they hear the name Ransom Joel, and the answer is almost always:It doesn’t matter what he’s in, I’ll watch it.
This current era of Ransom Joel has been one long string of blockbusters after another. We’ve watched him transform from lovable boy next door (surrounded by literal kittens/photo credit: ASPCA) to one of the hottest tickets in Hollywood. From his first foray into action, playing alongside Lara Starling as her reluctant boy-next-door hero, to his most recent stretch of record-breaking espionage thrillers (in which he stars as titular character Hunter Drew), to a wide variety of one-off hits in which he’s faced off against—and subsequently defeated—threats such as zombies, velociraptors, and a hacker who single-handedly wreaked havoc on the world economy via an intricately codedcyberplague, it’s safe to say Ransom Joel has his pick of films.
Rumor has it, though, that Joel isn’t entirely content: he’s looking to diversify his already robust résumé and break out in a more serious way—with some potentially Oscar-worthy roles, if we had to guess. Linking himself publicly to indie sweetheart Liv Latimer is a strategic step in the right direction, if so, and it sounds like today’s news has had the intended effect: we hear it’s caught the attention of none other than Jonathan Cast, who’s currently on set in Iceland filming his latest, which will no doubt be a serious contender for awards across the board once it eventually debuts.
In the meantime, catch both Joel and Latimer in the upcomingGirl on the Vergereunion special, which will be released exclusively on the Fanline platform at the end of next month. More to come on Ransom Joel’s next project as the situation develops.
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I stare at the phone.
