Chapter 154

Serena’s POV After our beach stroll the night before, I'd barely had time to catch my breath. The competition organizers weren't about to let their newly viral judge lounge around—they'd scheduled back-to-back activities and interviews for the next two days before the finals. Online buzz about the design competition was exploding, and apparently I was dominating at least half the trending topics. So much for any hope of downtime. Ryan had come to San Francisco specifically to accompany me, which meant he was backstage for every single one of these exhausting events. We weren't exactly hiding our closeness, either. His hand would rest casually on the small of my back, or he'd brush hair from my face without a second thought about who might be watching. I could hear the whispers from the production staff whenever we passed by. "I heard she's his ex-wife. They supposedly divorced because of relationship problems, but look at them now..." "You know how these wealthy families operate—it's l