AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It could still do wonders now. Because I wasn’t going to be stubborn about it anymore. I wasn’t going to deny it to myself, and to the world, that I was in love with Erica Hudson.
“What are we going to do?” Susan asked, looking panicked when I finally made it into the office.
“We’re going to hold another press conference,” I said, walking to my office. Susan fluttered around me like a bird, fussing. Usually it would have irritated me. The last time everything had blown up, I hadn’t known how to handle it. This time, everything was different. I didn’t care that Susan was freaking out and making a nuisance of herself. I didn’t mind that the press was outside. Everything was as it should be, and I was invincible because I had Erica.
“The press conference didn’t really work last time,” Susan said when we reached my office. “They didn’t buy a thing you said. It’s hard when you keep doing the same thing again and again.”
I turned around and looked at Susan, and she cowered a little. Before, I would have gotten pissed off at her impertinence. But she was right. So instead of getting angry, I nodded.
“This time, it will be different. Make it happen.”
Susan frowned after I hadn’t reacted the way she’d thought I would. I grinned at her confusion. It only took a little bit of love to soften even the toughest businessmen.
The podium was set up outside, and the reporters were eager for another statement. There were more of them than there had been before, but when I stepped up to the plate this time, I wasn’t nervous.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” I started. Cameras flashed in my face. “I’m here to dispel any rumors about me having an affair with my executive assistant. We’re not sleeping with each other in secret. We are in fact romantically involved, and there is nothing secret about it. We are in love.”
The reporters erupted in a burst of questions, but I lifted my hand. I wasn’t done.
“It’s hard to love someone in the business climate of the modern world. There are pressures of all kinds that aren’t unlike peer pressure when we were at school. It’s crazy to think that we’re still so worried about what everyone else thinks of us that we will change who we are to accommodate society. I have been fighting my true feelings for Erica because I was sure the world would disapprove. I was worried that it would affect my business, and so I gave up a love that was more important than anything I had before. And that was wrong.
“Erica Hudson is the woman of my dreams, the love of my life. You can’t help who you love, but you can help how you handle the situation, and after I handled it wrong the first time, I’m doing the right thing now. Erica Hudson and I are officially together. We’re in love, and we aren’t willing to deny our life for the sake of impressing society.”
When I stopped talking, the media exploded. Everyone had something to say or ask about what I had just confessed. But I had said everything there was to say on the matter. I lifted my hand in a wave, turned away from the press, and walked back into my building. For the first time, I felt like I had done exactly the right thing.
I rode the elevator up to my office. When I reached the top, the world had already blown up with the news and my phone was ringing nonstop in my office, as was the office line in front of Susan. She looked panicked. I nodded encouragingly at her.
This time, it was all going to be different. They had loved my speech outside, I just knew it. They had recorded it all, hanging on my every word. I was sure the world would respond positively now that I had admitted what we had done, how I felt about her, and that I had been worried about my image.
It had been a nice touch, even if I had to say so myself.
I walked into my office and sat down behind my desk, ready to ride this wave that I had created rather than spinning in the mud to do damage control.
As I watched the tabloids and the newspapers, stories were released. This time, instead of painting it as a scandal, they were talking about star-crossed lovers. They took my analogy of peer pressure in high school and used it as headlines, and it looked great.
My phone rang, and I picked it up.
“What the fuck is going on?” Harper asked on the other end of the line. He didn’t sound happy. “We thought you had this under control, and now it looks like the lines are blowing up again. Can’t you stop fucking this woman?”
