Fair Warning: Strong language and a pretty NSFW screenshot in this chapter

“Good news, Lorelai,” Mrs. Harrison said excitedly, “your vacation vlog is doing really well. You should consider starting your own channel, people really like you.”

“Thank you.” Lorelai blushed. “To tell you the truth, it felt weird to talk to the camera like it was a person, but it was a cool experience nonetheless.”

“Well, I think you have a gift for it. I just have one concern.”

Lorelai raised her eyebrow.

“What happened on that last day?” Mrs. Harrison asked. “There’s almost no footage of it, and in what little we have something looks…off about you.”

Lorelai’s heart sank. She’s spent the last two weeks avoiding any mention of what happened after she answered Bella’s phone call at the campground.

“I slept in.” She lied. “I did so much that day with Arnav that I was just exhausted. I’m not used to being so active, you know?” She hoped she sounded convincing.

Mrs. Harrison Laughed. “Of course, I understand. Just making sure everything went okay at the campsite.” She started typing on her computer.

Lorelai stood up to leave, but Mrs. Harrison stopped her. “Just one more thing,” she said, “is there anything going on between you and Arnav? You seemed to get along in the video.” She winked over her monitor.

“No,” she answered too quickly, “he’s just a nice guy that I met at the campsite and he offered to show me some cool parts of the national park. That’s it.”

It was mostly true. When they had first met, Lorelai had definitely flirted a little with Arnav, not expecting J to show up at her campsite. Maybe if he hadn’t come, she would have pursued Arnav, but they were better as friends. Lorelai was in no mental state to date right now.

“If you say so.” Mrs. Harrison seemed to lose interest. “You’re doing a good job, Lorelai, keep it up.”

When Lorelai got home, she let Fish out to pee and turned on the TV. She almost never watched TV before her vacation, but she had picked up the habit in the past couple of weeks. Bella told her it was unhealthy but she couldn’t help it.

“Tonight on SMZ,” the TV blared at her, “exclusive footage of the Caliente wedding planning, and a steamy interview with Dina’s beau and babydaddy, J Huntington III.”

The name cut through her, but she was expecting it. Ever since Bella’s call, Lorelai had watched this spectacle like a deer trapped in the headlights of an oncoming car.

“I hate that I have to tell you this,” Bella’s voice faded in and out with the spotty reception, “but you deserve to hear it from someone who cares about you.”

“What are you talking about?” Lorelai demanded. “What’s going on?”

“Do you know the Calientes?”

Lorelai was familiar with the name, they had a popular show on TV that SimsFeed did articles on sometimes. The most recent one was about one of the daughters’ mysterious pregnancy, or something.

“From Keeping up with the Calientes, right?” she asked. “What do they have to do with J?”

Bella took a deep breath. “Last night, Dina Caliente posted an engagement picture on her Simstagram. She’s getting married to the guy who got her pregnant.”

Lorelai felt a flash of rage, “Did you really just call to gossip about B list celebrities?”

“No, listen,” Bella snapped, “It’s J. J’s the one who got her pregnant and now he’s engaged to Dina Caliente.”

Lorelai appreciated that Bella was trying to make her feel better about the whole situation. She was taking the break up a lot worse than she should be, but most break ups aren’t immediately followed by wedding coverage of her ex and a beautiful, famous woman.

Even her boss hopped on the Caliente wedding bandwagon and was trying to get an invitation to the ceremony for one of her employees. Luckily, Lorelai didn’t have to worry about turning that assignment down because what masochist would invite her fiancé’s ex to her wedding.

Dina’s engagement photo popped up on the TV. She look radiant, and happy, the perfect picture of a woman who was getting married. Lorelai wondered if she knew that her fiancé spent their first night as an engaged couple in her tent at Granite Falls. Or did she think that he was at his home, or with his friends, or a million places other than between her legs.

Lorelai stared at her phone in disbelief. Bella had sent her the link to Dina’s engagement photo, a gorgeous and cliché pose that’s probably been used a hundred times. The catch was that it was J standing in front of her. The time stamp was right before he’d shown up at her campsite, meaning that he was engaged before they slept together.

Lorelai felt dirty and guilty, she had sex with another woman’s fiancé; she was the other woman. Everything Bella had told her on the phone was true.

“I’m a fucking idiot.”

Her computer dinged from the other room. She was going to ignore it, but a notification popped up on her phone saying it was a message from Arnav.

She got off the couch, sat down at her computer and opened the message.

Lorelai, I hope everything is going well for you! I saw that your video at Granite Falls has gotten over 500,000 views, that’s awesome and I’m honored to have been a part of it. San Myshuno is great, as always. I’m trying to convince my landlord to let me turn the back terrace into a botanical garden, but he’s giving me a firm ‘no’. I even offered to give him free produce from what I grow and he still declined! I guess some people don’t know a good deal when they hear it, huh? I do miss Granite Falls, though, all the cool plants we harvested and the cloud gazing was phenomenal. You know, if you plant the herbs that you collected, we could have a friendly garden competition. We could even have a little crop showcase once they’re all grown. I miss you too. You should come into the city soon; my mom told me about this amazing food stand she ate at every day when she went to SMU. We could go find it together and see if it’s really as good as she claims. Write back soon and give Fish a kiss from me, Yours, Arnav

Lorelai smiled at the message, Arnav always cheered her up, even when she was thinking about J. She was glad that he stopped asking about her last day in Granite Falls, though, it was getting annoying to tyr to dodge his questions and assure him that she was alright. Apparently, park rangers liked to gossip, so the whole staff knew about how her vacation ended.

“You lying, selfish bastard!” Lorelai screamed at a startled J. “Did you really think I wouldn’t find out? Or was this just a last hoorah before you get married?”

J held his hands up defensively. “Hey, you never asked if there was another woman, so technically-“

“No,” she interrupted, “you know damn well that I was supposed to be the only woman. And that’s not what I’m talking about.”

“I don’t-“

“Is it your baby?” she screeched. “Did you get Dina Caliente pregnant?”

J had the decency to look ashamed. “Yes.”

“Y-You,” she stammered. “You piece of shit. I let you- Oh God.” Lorelai froze when she realized what it meant if J could get Dina pregnant.

“Look, in less than a year I’m going to be married.” He shrugged. “I just wanted one last piece of ass.”

“Get the fuck out of here before I kill you.”

Lorelai typed out her response to Arnav, then wandered back into the living room.

“Now, J,” the SMZ host said, “I understand that before the engagement you were quite the ladies’ man.”

J gave him his schmoozing grin. “I guess you could say that.”

“Tell me, man to man, were there any girls in your web before you found out about the baby?”

He laughed. “As a matter of fact there was this hot little redhead, great in bed and a little feisty.”

The host waggled his eyebrows. “Any chance you’ll give us a name?”

“Lorelai Devlin. She’s an internet personality over at SimsFeed.”

What the fuck does he think he’s doing?

“And a bit of a model.” The host winked at him.

They both started laughing as a picture of her appeared on the screen. It was from a photoshoot she did a couple months ago for a body positivity campaign. She’d ended up pulling the pictures before they got published because they were too racy for her brand.

“How did they get that?” Dread settled in her gut.

The two men on the TV continued laughing and talking about how great she looked naked. Fish lifted her head and whined, clearly feeling how upset Lorelai was.

Her stomach twisted in her abdomen and he ran into the bathroom, throwing up what was left in her stomach.