Arabella rinses and spits, then puts one hand on my arm. “It’s fine, Will. I’m fine. Let’s just get this over with.”
I look down at her, my heart lurching at the sight of her pale skin. “Are you sure?”
She nods. “I signed up for this, right?”
I sigh heavily as I follow her onto the stage.
* * *
“How exactly were those softball questions?” Arabella asks as soon as we settle ourselves into the backseat of her limo. “I meanreally? How?”
“Yeah, I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever felt so… wiped out,” I say, blinking slowly. “The first question was okay—the one about our favourite moment in the jungle, but then everything… just turned.”
It turned all right. Instead of answering easy questions about the upcoming show, we were repeatedly peppered about our relationship until the time ran out.
Now we’re safely tucked in behind tinted windows while her driver, Norm, pulls out of the ABN parking lot and onto the street. My phone is buzzing away in my suit jacket pocket with Google alerts, which means the show has made quite a splash. Great for my career. Horrible for my relationship. “And did you notice who was in the audience?” she asks, throwing her hands up in the air and continuing before I can answer. “It was clearly packed with women in their child-bearing years, who, let’s face it, do not want to see us work. Did Dylan do that on purpose?”
“I don’t—”
“I bet she did. That would be such a Dylan thing to do. Bringing on that nasty Will’s Wild Girls blogger.” Arabella pulls a sour face and imitates the woman who claims to be my biggest fan.“‘It’s a well-known fact that media attention creates tension in even the best of couples. With the two of you clearly coming from two different worlds and barely knowing each other, do you really expect your relationship to survive?’Umm, yes, bitch. Actually, I do.”
“Yeah, I’m really sorry about her.”
“It’s notyourfault,” Arabella says. “I mean, other than being stupidly handsome and daring—which you probably can’t help anyway—you’ve done nothing wrong.”
“Thanks.” I think.
Arabella groans loudly. “And I was a disaster. I basically proved to the world that I’m not up for the challenge of so much as a simple interview.”
“You were not a disaster. You were incredible,” I say, leaning over and giving her a kiss on the temple.
She rests her head against the seatback. “Liar. I was a sweating, snotting, vomiting, insulting disaster.”
“Oh, come on, it wasn’tthatbad.”
She looks at me from under her eyebrows. “You needn’t coddle me. Especially not after how I insulted you out there.”
The sting of her answers comes flooding back, but I dam it off, wanting to concentrate on how I can use this situation to bring us together instead of tear us apart. “Listen, that was a highly pressurized environment—one in which we won’t find ourselves again, so there’s no use in overanalyzing it. I say we move on to bigger and better things.”
I lift her hand and kiss her knuckles, hoping to show it’s all right.
But it doesn’t work. Arabella shakes her head and purses her lips, clearly on the verge of tears. “I called you a know-it-all and led the world to believe I think my brother to be smarter than you.” She sighs. “Not to mention the stupid yacht/shell thing. That can’t feel very good. Why did I write that down?”
“Because you wanted to win. I wrote it down too, in case you forgot,” I say.
“And we both made you look like… I don’t know what.”
“A cheapskate?”
“I was going to say poor, but yes, I suppose it does both.”
Ouch. She must be able to see through my smile because tears are pooling in her eyes now.
“So what? I’m on the edge of having my career bust wide open, Belle,” I say, shifting in my seat so I’m facing her. “This is it for me. I can feel it. Besides, when people see the show, they’ll realize why you bought me the yacht. I can hold out until then knowing the world thinks you’re my sugar momma.”
Arabella lets a tiny grin escape her lips, then she shuts it down and goes back to grimacing. “I can’t. I want them all to know how amazing you are and how luckyIam to haveyou.”
“Isn’t it more important that the two of us know how lucky you are to have me?”
