Ben came forward.“Yancy,” he said.“Been expecting you.”
The other man’s eyes lit.“Most excellent.Our readers are positively dying for word of Super Sarah’s current life.”He rubbed his hands together.
Ben regarded him calmly.“Here’s how the day will go.You and one other will be allowed past these ropes.”He indicated the closed-off area.“Your cameraman can stand on the other side.Any others can wait outside the area.Or they can go get a corn dog.Or watch a pie-eating contest.I don’t care.But they’re not getting in.Clear?”
No fool, Yancy considered the offer.“Are you saying we’ll have an exclusive?”
“She’ll give you ten minutes.She won’t be taking any personal questions, just about her career—”
“Now wait one moment,” the other man pushed back.“Word has come to me that someone may be threatening her.Our sources confirm that it’s true.That’s news and I’d be remiss if I ignored that.”
Ben didn’t budge an inch.“Agree to my terms or you won’t get near her.”
Yancy screwed up his features and peered into Ben’s face.“Are you her manager?”
“That’s correct,” Ben replied without hesitation.“Right now, I’m managing every aspect of her life.At the end of the ten minutes, you’ll also agree to pack up your crew and hightail it out of town.Do we have a deal?”
Yancy sputtered, straightened his hat, glanced around.At last, he studied Sarah sitting in her sundress and big hat.She could see the hamster spinning on its wheel as he considered the narrow parameters of Ben’s deal against having no access to her at all.He had magazine issues to sell and a voracious audience for all things to do with celebrity.There was no way he’d allow this opportunity to pass.
She knew exactly when the hamster fell off.
“Deal,” Yancy said.
Pointedly, Ben raised his wrist and looked at his watch.He lifted the rope for Yancy and his assistant.“Ten minutes,” he said.
The assistant, the man whom Ben had roughed up, edged by him in wary side steps.When Ben sent him a warning glare, Sarah didn’t blame the other when he flinched.
It was a brilliant move by Ben to stipulate no personal questions.She should have thought of that.
Two more folding chairs were placed in front of hers and Yancy and his assistant lost no time settling in.
Milly folded her hands and remained silent.
At first, he asked vanilla questions about her favorite designers, and soon he segued to questions about the festival.To eat up time, she tried to make her answers long, descriptive, and thoroughly vague.The writer held a recorder and also scribbled on his clipboard.From outside the prescribed area, the cameraman caught it all.
Within minutes, as expected, he finally broke the rules.His elbows on his knees, he leaned in.“You must know that your adoring public is ravenous for word about you.They want to know why you’ve abandoned the catwalks and runways.Won’t you tell us?”he wheedled.
“Time’s up.”Ben tapped Yancy on his shoulder.
The assistant said, “It’s only been seven minutes.”
“With that last question your boss blew it.Take it up with him, preferably in your van headed out of town.Goodbye.”
He looked at his men.“Simmons, Jones, assist Yancy and his people back to their vehicles and make sure they’re headed onto the highway.”
His men nodded.Protesting, Yancy and his men made a grudging exit.Within a few minutes, Ben’s team reported that they’d left the vicinity.
Sarah was glad to get that out of the way.“Thank you, Ben.You handled that well.”
He stared off toward the highway.“Hope they don’t come back.”
“They won’t.”She was confident in that.“They’re scared of you.”
“Ah, that’s a shame.”He didn’t look in the least sorry.
Milly looked toward the highway, too, distaste crossing her features.“I still say they’re like insects.Locusts—or fleas.Yeah, like fleas that want to keep taking little bites out of you until there’s nothing left.”
Sarah smiled.Because the parade had ended, she said to Milly.“It’s time.Let’s go to the diner.”
