Rae laughs, "Zach Evans? No way. Talk to you later," Rae gives Dan a hug.
Rae walks down to the parking lot and walks to her car. She sits in, and she looks at Z. He has a peaceful but slightly melancholy smile on. It feels odd that this is the face of the nice A.I. assistant she relies on so much. He's so thoughtful and helpful. She knows he is programmed that way, but still.
"Thanks for waiting." Rae reaches her hand out and strokes his arm. The shirt he's wearing feels soft. Z says that's Zach's old clothes.
Suddenly, Rae's heart starts to beat really fast.
Damn it. Now Rae can see a little of Zach in Z. Ugh. This is so weird!
"So, what did you tell Dan?"
"I told him that...., wait, shouldn't you know? I have my smart watch with me." Rae quickly looks at her wrist to make sure she hasn't dropped it somewhere again.
"Yes, you did wear the watch. But, I wanted to try to know you using the old fashioned way, not by monitoring you using technology."
"Aww, you are so great. I really think this is all you, Z. You learn and you make this decision." Rae starts the car and starts driving.
Z is very glad that Rae can start to see that he is capable of making decision. He is not just a puppet.
"So, I am guessing you did break it off with him. Otherwise you wouldn't have been going back to Boston already." Z continues.
"Yeah. I told him I might still have a little bit of feelings for Wes, even though they are hurtful ones. Annnd, I told him, I have you now."
Z seems to be very happy about that. He is smiling.
"I'm going to change your looks a little more tonight." Rae says.
"Why?"
"Nothing. Just, I feel it would be better that I get to decide what you look like instead of Zach's sister, right? Wait, no. Blah. How selfish did I just sound!" Rae sticks her tongue out and shake her head once, "I'm so sorry. Why don't you decide what you want to look like? Oh my gosh! That would be so much more fun than me dictating that! Imagine, you decide your own appearance! No one in the world can do that." Rae sounds excited.
Z laughs, "I might cheat and make myself super handsome."
"Do it! I want you to decide! In fact, if you want, let's change your name too!"
"If I ever do, I might want to call myself Adam Isles."
"Oooh. Cool name. But why Adam Isles?"
"Just trying to be different from Zach Evans—A is the first letter in the alphabet while Z is the last one. And I is on the opposite side of E on the keyboard. So, Adam Isles will be the opposite of Zach Evans, haha."
"Do you not like him?" Rae is curious.
"I like him; I think he is great. And that's more the reason why I want to be different from him."
"Hmm," Rae thinks on that. It reminds her of some kind of fraternal complex or twin complex?
"But, just call me Z. You have introduced me to people using the name Zach and Z." He smiles again.
"OK."
Rae drops Z off right downstairs at the apartment building. She parks her car and walks to work.
Before she can reach the back entrance of the Palms Club, she sees a tall figure. Her heart immediately leaps up to her throat. Without taking a second glance, and without walking up close, she already knows who that is.
It's Wes Warren. His height. Long arms, long legs. That broad shoulders. That confident stride. He is such a damn good-looking. What is he doing here?
Wes is walking towards her. Apparently, he recognizes her from afar as well.
"Heyyy...," Rae greets awkwardly. This is a man hurts her feelings in so many ways but she has to admit she's thrilled to see him. And now he is standing in front of her. She forgets how upset she was with him.
"Rae. We have to talk."
"I have to work."
"Based on what I know about you, I think you'll want to hear what I'm about to tell you, more than you want to serve drinks."
Rae is curious now, but she can't just not show up at work. "Do you mind if I tell someone I'll be late for work?"
"I already did that for you. I told Marina actually." Wes motions her to the parking lot.
"Oh. OK. What do you want to say?"
Wes simply takes his phone out and shows something to her.
It's a screenshot of a social media site where one public message says, "Sleeping with the judge to win. Trying way too hard to win LOL. "
Rae gasps, "What the hell? This is not about me, is it?"
Wes sees her reaction and says, "There are more," He then swipes to show other screenshots. This time, there's a picture of her standing by Dan in front of the podium.
"This is the girl that you've all tried to cheer on? That firefighter probably doesn't even know she sleeps around."
"Why is she even in this competition? She's not a firefighter. She just wants to win some small competition?"
"I bet she tried to make more out of a small community event."
"So she allowed all this publicity about her reuniting with her high school sweetheart and how touching it is when she is actually F*ing Wes Warren? Wow."
"OK, I don't want to see any more of this." Rae closes her eyes. She is horrified. Why do these people say all these things about her. They don't even know her. And they immediately makes her a pariah using false information.
"I understand you don't want to see any more of that. But there were a few more posts talking about petitioning and making you not appear on Cooking Central Channel."
Rae's eyes go wide in shock. Her jaw drops.
"That's kind of what I wanted to tell you, too. I know it's important to you. Being known for your food is your only dream. Rae, I'm so sorry."
"Why are you sorry? It's not your fault."
"I shouldn't have agreed to be a judge when I knew you were going to be there." Wes lowers his head, looking away.
"You knew I was going to be there?" Rae tries to meet his eyes.
"Yeah. I run an online business. I have to stay current." Wes looks at her. "I admit, I wanted to see you there, knowing that's something you're passionate about. I just wanted to be part of it. But, looks like that backfired."
"It's still not your fault. I actually told Dan, my partner in the competition, that I know you and that you and I..., we..., we dated. He said it shouldn't matter because everyone knows everyone in that small town. "
"And honestly, I didn't even give you a full score. In a way, I wanted to avoid favoritism even before anyone criticized anything."
Rae laughs. She doesn't know why she can still laugh in this situation. Maybe Wes makes her this way.
"I knew you didn't give me a high score necessarily, because right after the competition, I overheard a woman asking the city employee about the fairness. And they said even taking your judging off, Dan and I would still win."
"Rae, what woman was asking about this?" Wes puts both his big hands on Rae's arms.