Rosaline’s face twisted and she turned her head to the side, blinking fast. “Thank you.” She sniffed once and turned to Poppy, eyes shining with sincerity. “I should’ve said that already. That was incredibly brave of you.” She huffed out a wet laugh. “Ridiculous and reckless, but incredibly brave.”
Okay, yeah.Definitelyconcussed. “You’re not mad?”
Rosaline reared back, staring at Poppy like she’d lost her mind, which was an absolute possibility at this point. “You threw yourself in harm’s way to protect the woman who is practically my little sister. Why would I be mad?”
“I don’t know, maybe because you stomped in here looking like you were on the warpath reminding me that I’m not a security guard?”
Rosaline threw her hands up. “Because you could’ve gotten hurt, Poppy!”
“Oh.” Her shoulders slumped. “You were worried about me?”
Rosaline cupped her forehead, looking as lost as Poppy felt. “Did it seriously not occur to you that—” She broke off with ahuff and shook her head, jaw clenched. “Forget it.” Rosaline’s gaze swept down Poppy’s body and her own followed. Her dress had managed to remain mostly unscathed, some pilling on the hips from carpet burns and a small tear down at the hem. Miraculously her shoes had remained on. Probably because her feet were so swollen. “Youaren’thurt, are you?”
A little bruised and growing more confused by the minute, but otherwise... “No, I’m okay.”
Rosaline nodded tightly. “Good. I’m glad.”
She didn’tsoundglad. She sounded pissed.
Poppy didn’t know what she had done, but she wanted desperately to fix it.
“I made a scene,” Poppy said. “Everyone’s going to—”
“You didn’t make a scene. The crazy chick who thought it was a good idea to declare her undying love for my girlfriend buck-ass naked on the red carpet made the scene,” Cash said, voice hard, brokering no arguments.
Too bad because Poppy had arguments in spades. “A hundred photographers captured Cash Curran’s crazy publicist tackling said streaker and wrestling her to the ground. A picture’s worth a thousand words and—”
“You’re not crazy, though.” Cash paced in a tight circle, tugging at the roots of his hair. “Like Rosaline said, what you did was brave. It was fucking heroic.”
No, she could see the headlines now and none of them were good.
This wasn’t what they wanted people talking about. The focus was meant to be on Lyric’s upcoming album, on Cash’s new queer sports initiative in Portland, on his dedication as an athlete, on shining a positive light on their relationship. Not whatever the hell this was.
“You were there. You know what happened. But a picture without context—”
“So let’s give them context,” Rosaline said.
“How?”
“When they open the carpet back up, you,” Rosaline said, a calculating gleam in her eye, “are going to do the press line.”
Maya@cantevenparallelpark • 4h
Lyric and Cash look so in love on the red carpet????#WMAs
in my pining era@claudiaxyz92 • 4h
cash and lyric are adorable but i can’t be the only one sensing some tension between their two publicists right?? someone tell me I’m not crazy #ISeeSapphicsEverywhere #WMAs
Victoria@pdxprincess • 4h
replying to @claudiaxyz92
yeah no something fruity is definitely happening there?
liliana@evanbuckleystan98 • 4h
replying to @pdxprincess @claudiaxyz92
