AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Now, we all know that Peyton is a fictional character, but Jake, can you tell us about the mystery woman you’ve been spotted with recently?”
I was an actor. This interview wasn’t my first rodeo, but no matter how much I could anticipate a question of this nature, it pissed me off. My life was public; you could learn practically anything about me from my net worth to my favorite color thanks to Google. But Lucy? She didn’t have this lifestyle and I wouldn’t stand for someone trying to expose her and manipulate her image.
I felt Lauren shift on the sofa next to me while Liam concealed a small cough.
It was easy enough to slip into a character, to look at Whitney and pretend that I was acting—she was the villain in the scenario, after all.
My face remained impassive as I answered her. “Well, that would be the thing now wouldn’t it, Whitney…this ‘mystery woman’ as you put it must be damn good at what she does. She’s so mysterious that even I don’t know who she is.”
Speculation was one thing, but as far as I knew, there were no photographs of us.
Before Whitney could press any further, Liam tilted his head to the side at her. He made the gesture minor enough that it wouldn’t be noticeable, but I recognized the mannerism as patronizing with a dash of condescension. But to be outwardly so was never his style, so he settled for a joke, clapping me on the shoulder. “Hell, if we all believed the tabloids then I’d be Cher’s baby-daddy or Jay-Z is a member of the Illuminati.”
A collective chuckle came from the four of us and thankfully Whitney took the hint. She moved on and wisely focused on safe topics for the remainder of the interview.
Once we wrapped up, I had never been happier to take off my mic.
Meryl flitted over to me as fast as her short legs would carry her. “What the hell?” she hissed. Though I couldn’t see her from the sofa with the set lights being so bright, I knew she was in the shadows seething during the interview.
“I handled it, ok?” I took her by the elbow until we were in a hallway by ourselves.
“You did handle it, but I specifically told that little tramp that she was not to ask anything personal like that!” Meryl was heated and she began to pace. It was a rather comical sight: a four-foot-nothing woman with steam coming out of her ears, wearing down a trench in the linoleum.
“Meryl,” I soothed, “it’s fine. There’s nothing to worry about. You did your job and I did mine.”
She stopped to look at me. “I know.”
“But?” I prompted. There was always a but with her.
“You might have handled it, but this was only one half of the battle…” she cautioned. Meryl hesitated for a beat but I told her to just spit out whatever she was withholding. “The other half will be damage control when Lucy finds out.”
I dismissed the notion to Meryl, but her words stayed with me longer than I was comfortable with.
I was going to have to speak with Lucy. I just hoped she’d understand.
Chapter 14
Lucy
Seattle
My flight toSeattle was early. Like, unnecessarily early. My coffee hadn’t given me the energy I hoped for.
As an adult, I found that life was full of lies.
The little blue tab on the side of the mac ’n cheese box that simply said ‘push tab to open’?
A lie.
Swallowing a watermelon seed and being told it’d take root and you’d grow a melon in your belly?
A lie.
Skim milk? It was water’s way of lying about being the calcium induced beverage.
And caffeine? It was supposed to jolt me into a temporary wakefulness wherein I could be productive and alert, maybe even a little chipper.
Another idiotic lie.
