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She dials and then we wait in silence. She with her arms crossed and pouting a mere ten steps away from me. My body is on edge and I’m just taking in deep breaths to not say anything more to Melinda.
It felt like the longest ten minutes of my life, and I play baseball, the best sport to watch as a spectator live, but the longest game sometimes to watch on Television.
SIX
SAWYER
EARLIER TODAY, I was called into my bosses’ office again. It’s my third week at my new job and even though my boss now understands that my relationship with Gunnar is not affecting my work quality, it is still affecting the office and the random phone calls with photographers who camp out on our steps. I get side-glances from all the staff, and I hear whispers. So far, work sucks.
My phone has not stopped blowing up either, since the latest news story came out. This time a photo from a past relationship surfaced with the article, and some not so nice words about me are spewed across the page. My parents and a few of my friends are worried, hell, so was I.
There was another small story that surfaced in regards to my family life, and identifying my parents as poor and my using Gunnar for money. While my parents and I know the truth regarding that specific story, it’s getting personal and I’m not sure if I can handle it.
I know it wasn’t fair of me to send text messages to Gunnar when I knew that it was a game day. I knew now that he wouldn’t reply to me until much later, and I took that opportunity to just end things with him and then ignore his attempts to get me to listen to him.
He was a sweet talker. His gorgeous smile and his bright blue eyes would talk me into streaking through a crowded area if it came down to it. He made it clear that he didn’t pay attention to the media, and while I give him props for giving no fucks, I can’t do the same.
I give all the fucks.
I didn’t torture myself by watching the game. I binge watched Outlander and then promptly fell asleep as Jamie and Claire were riding horses along the beautiful landscape of a country that I can only dream about.
I wake up to pounding on my door, my television stuck on the menu screen and popcorn sticking to my cheek. I slowly pull myself to a sitting position, thinking that I dreamt the pounding on my door, until it happens again. With a groan, I stand and right my clothes, pluck off the popcorn on my face and shuffle my feet to the front door. I release the lock and open the door to Gunnar breathing heavily on the other side.
“We need to talk,” he huffs, his hands on the doorway.
“No, no we don’t Gunnar. I need to go back to sleep, forget about you and go on with my life full of dating other men, or whatever.” I begin to close the door, but am met with Gunnar adding pressure to the door.
“It was Mel. She planted ideas in the press,” he says quickly.
“What? Why?” I open the door further and look to him for answers.
“She had stupid reasons that I couldn’t give a crap about. I ordered her to take it back and to not say any more lies.”
“You ordered her?”
“I may have threatened her with slander, but yeah. Can I please come in? I’m sorry, I just need to be around something good right now.”
I look at him quizzingly and after a moment, I shrug and open the door more as I step aside. He takes a seat on my couch and runs his hands nervously against the tops of his thick muscular thighs. He looks to me expectantly, and I cross my arms waiting for him to speak first. I don’t need to start this conversation, this is his show.
I lean against the corner of the wall separating the living space from the hallway to the bedroom as I patiently wait for him to begin speaking. We look at each other and he soon shifts his posture and begins to speak.
“I asked Melinda to do something about the media stuff that has been posted about us, she flat out told me that she told the press lies.”
“And then what?”
“I asked her to make retractions.”
“And?”
“I told her that if she didn’t, it wouldn’t be good for her.”
“Do you think that she is going to do this?”
“We’ll see. I told her that I would talk to the media myself and let the whole truth out, including the lies that our media team came up with to sensationalize the headlines.”
My arms are crossed, I’m trying to stay firm to my decision of not dating Gunnar anymore, despite my attraction to him and then he comes to the defense and makes me want to melt and run into his arms.
“What do you want me to say, Gun? That I take back what I texted you earlier?” I pull up my big girl panties and ask, despite the need to run into his arms.
