The segment was over when Kendra sat beside him. “That was Casey. Her mother said she can’t do a report on supermarket tabloids because they print lies, so I told her to buy the entertainment magazines instead.”
Lamar smiled and placed an around her shoulders. “What did she say?”
Kendra returned his smile. She’d been recently fitted for braces, and it taken time for her to get used to them. She always carried a small cosmetic case with a toothbrush and paste to brush her teeth after every meal to prevent food from sticking to the brackets.
“She said her mother was okay with the magazines.”
Lowering his head, he pressed a kiss to her neatly braided hair. Not having his daughter for the summer had changed both of them. It appeared as if she’d grown several inches and appeared less childish, and the older she’d become, the more she resembled her mother.
“How many segments ofTMZdo you have to see before you’re familiar enough with their format to make a comparison betweenAccess Hollywood,Extra,Inside Edition, andEntertainment Tonight?” he asked.
“No more than three each. Remember there are four of us in each group, so we’re going to pool our research and decide on what we want to present to the class.”
Originally Lamar had thought the subject too mature for sixth graders, but when the English teacher sent home a permission slip with explicit details of the project, he gave his approval for Kendra to participate. She had a choice between radio, print, and television with topics covering music, sports, entertainment, and news programming.
Picking up her pen and pad, Kendra listened intently to what the different journalists were reporting and their delivery. “Maybe I should DVR the shows and then play them back on a night when I don’t have school. Now that I’m in the sixth grade I have so much more homework.”
Lamar turned his head so his daughter wouldn’t see his smirk. It was the same thing he’d said to her when she’d begun the project. “That sounds like a good idea.”
Kendra kissed his cheek. “I’m going to my room to finish my math and science.”
“I’ll set the DVR to record your shows.”
She came to her feet. “Thanks, Daddy.”
“Don’t stay up too late.”
“I won’t.”
Kendra had promised him she would turn off her phone when doing homework and would leave it off until the next day. Lamar knew he had to trust her not to go back on her pledge.
* * *
Lamar waited until Kendra had retreated to her bedroom before he called Nydia. “Are you all right?” he asked when she picked up. He’d promised Kendra to DVR the shows, but he planned to delete the footage with Nydia. He didn’t want his daughter to connect the woman whose life was flashed across the screen with a scandal not of her choosing.
“Yes.”
“I saw theTMZsegment.”
“You and probably millions of other people.”
He ignored her acerbic tone. “Are you all right?” he asked for the second time.
“I will be once all of the nonsense dies down.”
“Are you certain it will?”
There was a pregnant pause. “I don’t know, Lamar.”
Extending his legs, he slumped lower on the love seat. “Talk to me, Nydia.”
He heard the pain and frustration in Nydia’s voice when she told him she was being hounded by the press and slandered in social media because she didn’t want to marry Danny Ocasio. She also admitted to being a prisoner in her own home since there was always someone lurking outside her apartment building hoping she would give them an interview.
“I know his publicist is behind the scheme because he wants to market Danny as this up-and-coming heartthrob who is a tortured soul because his muse and the love of his life has broken his heart. I may have been his girlfriend, but never his muse.”
“It sounds good because it sells copy. Give me your address?”
“Why?”
