Blayne moaned slightly as Stephen McNeil’s face flashed back on the screen. “As you can see, if Ethan Bond hadn’t ditched the band to fly to Houston this week, the entire band would have been on Peregrine Airlines Flight 923, and we’d be telling our viewers a very different story. Many of you may wonder why Ethan escaped to Houston. RNN has an exclusive photo of Ethan Bond and a mystery person looking very couply in Houston.”
Ethan worried for a second, fearing there would be an image of him and Blayne together. The image that McNeil displayed was one of Kira touching Ethan’s hand earlier that day at The Dream Bean.
Blayne busted out laughing. “Oh, my God,” he squeaked out between breaths.
Ethan looked at Blayne, not seeing nearly the same humor in the situation as Blayne did. “It’s not funny.”
“Really?” Blayne countered. “They accused you of having an illicit affair with the biggest lesbian in Houston. That’s fucking funny.”
Ethan thought about it for a second and realized Blayne had a point. “On the positive, it will be fun to watch RNN try to explain how they got this story so wrong.”
Ethan’s phone vibrated on the coffee table. He picked it up to see a stream of texts coming in.
Dude, you have a new girlfriend? You could have told us, a text from Orr read.
It’s about time you got some, Ric’s text read.
Who the hell is that woman?Stephanie’s text read.
What the fuck?was all the text from Zach said.
We need to talk, read the text from Rawlins.
Ethan, what is going on?asked Hightower.
Ethan looked at the stream of texts as a few more came in. He turned off the notifications and set the phone back on the table. “I can’t deal with this mess right now.”
Blayne’s phone started vibrating, so he grabbed it off the table. Kira’s face showed as the caller, so he hit the accept button.
“Hey, Kira—”
“What the hell is going on?” she groused. “I got a text from my mother asking me if I was turning straight. I’ve had an unbroken stream of texts from people wondering how I know Ethan Bond, international man of mystery.”
“I’m putting you on speaker.” Blayne hit the button. “I take it you haven’t seen RNN?”
“Nope, been having an emergency call with some of the partners about our Jamie strategy.”
Blayne quickly filled Kira in on the RNN package and her starring role. Blayne did his best to suppress his laughter a few times while telling the story. Blayne’s entire body shook with silent laughter as he got out the last parts.
“I’m so sorry for this,” Ethan said. “I’ll have my publicist release a statement in the morning.”
“Your publicist?” Kira said, letting out an exasperated laugh.
“Welcome to my world,” Ethan said. “Once we’re done, I’ll shoot her off a text and deny everything. I’ll say you’re a friend and not a romantic partner.”
“Kira, would you mind if Ethan waits a day or so?”
“Why?” Kira asked. Ethan could practically hear the skepticism dripping from her voice over the phone.
“Let’s see if this thing blows over,” Blayne said.
“It won’t,” Ethan said. “In my experience, these stories snowball if you don’t get out ahead of them. I wouldn’t be surprised if the paparazzi case Dream Bean by morning.” Ethan heard an exasperated sigh from Kira. “I should also warn you, Kira. You may experience paparazzi following you or showing up at your workplace tomorrow.”
“What?” Kira said. Ethan could hear the sense of alarm in her voice.
“My recommendation would be, use it to your advantage,” Ethan started. “Think about it. You’re going to have a ton of reporters pointing cameras in your direction. Use it. Talk about Jamie and the case every chance you get. It’s a great way to get public opinion on your side.”
“Wow,” Blayne said, “I wouldn’t have thought about doing that in a million years.”
