Grey snuck a look at Paul, who was leaning as far back as his chair would allow, tapping his Montblanc against his ivory tie pin impatiently.No need to worry about that on their end.
Audrey shuffled her notes. “Let’s start with duration. I thought six months was a good starting place, with the opportunity to renegotiate once we get to that point and see where we are. Thoughts?”
Renata looked at Grey, who gave a little shrug. “Works for us,” said Renata.
“Isn’t six months a little long?” asked Paul, tapping the pen against the table now.
“We want to give the impression that it’s somewhat serious, don’t we? If people think it’s just a fling we might be worse off than when we started. I think six months is the absolute minimum, don’t you agree?”
“Six months is fine,” mumbled Ethan.
Paul rolled his eyes. “Six months it is, then.”
Kevin recorded it on his laptop. Audrey continued.
“Next item: frequency.” She flipped to the next page in her notes. “The two of you need to be photographed together a minimum of two times per week. One public outing and one overnight.”
Grey blushed and quickly poured herself another glass of water from the pitcher on the table. Renata sensed her discomfort and jumped in to her rescue.
“Define ‘overnight.’ ”
“One of you will be photographed entering the other’s residence, and exiting the next morning. Whatever happens in between is none of our business.” Audrey smirked. Her words conjured up images that Grey had been fighting to suppress since Ethan’s hand had wrapped around hers at their lunch last week: Ethan’s hands on her body. Ethan’s hot breath on her neck. Ethan’s limbs entangled with hers, the solid weight of his body pinning her down.
Grey flushed even redder and stared at the table. Herembarrassment only made her more embarrassed. An ouroboros of embarrassment.
“Audrey.” Ethan’s tone was soft but chastising.
“Sorry, sorry. Couldn’t help myself. Where were we?”
“These public outings,” Paul commented, scribbling furiously on his legal pad. “What qualifies as ‘public’? My client has purposely cultivated a private image. If he starts showing up at the opening of every bottle in town, it’ll attract the wrong kind of attention. People won’t buy it.”
“Naturally,” Audrey responded. “We need to ease into it. Public means grocery store, coffee shop, maybe dinner at a restaurant once in a while.” She turned to look at Grey and Renata. “Ladies? Thoughts?”
Renata scrawled a few words on her legal pad and slid it over to Grey. Grey looked at it and nodded. Renata adjusted her glasses.
“My client is also a private person. However, I think we can all agree a certain amount of networking is necessary in this business, no? This may be a change from what your client is used to, but isn’t that the point of this whole exercise?” She didn’t wait for any of them to respond before barreling ahead. “At least one of those public outings per month needs to be a formal press event. Premieres, galas, launches, anything with a step and repeat. We want it to be clear thatnobodyisanybody’sdirty little secret.”
Renata cleared her throat before casually delivering the final blow. “We would also like to propose one exclusive interview and/or profile with a major news outlet.”
At the words “formal press events,” Ethan sank down in his chair a little and ran both hands through his hair; he appeared even more perturbed with “major news outlet.” Paul glanced over at him, ready to object on his behalf, but Ethan nodded without looking at him, his hand sliding down over his eyes.
Paul sighed. This negotiation was clearly not going the way he wanted it to. “Fine.”
“Lovely. Now, how do I put this delicately?” Audrey paused. “We don’t need to spell this out in the contract, but I think we need to all be on the same page regarding…displays of affection. I’m not suggesting you show up on the red carpet with your tongues down each other’s throats, but it wouldn’t do to have the two of you out and about with enough space between you to drive a truck through, you gather my meaning? There are people out there with nothing better to do than analyze celebrity couples’ body language. We don’t want to giveanyoneanyreason to believe that you two were brought together byanything but the goddamn hand of fate. Otherwise this will all be for naught.”
Nobody spoke for a long moment. At the mention of tongues, Grey was once again plagued by intrusive images of Ethan’s taking a leisurely tour of her body. She tried not to squirm. Ethan finally broke the silence.
“Of course. We’re actors, right? I think we can convincingly pretend to like each other for a few hours a week.” He looked straight at Grey, and it was as if he could see right into the heart of her filthiest, most depraved fantasies. She didn’t trust herself to do anything but nod.
“Wonderful. Let’s move on to the don’ts. I know we didn’t give you much time to read the terms of the NDA, so I’ll give you the cheat sheet. No one outside this room is to know the details of this arrangement.” Audrey pointed at Ethan. “Not Nora.” She pointed at Grey. “Not Kamilah.Nobody.” She slammed her palm down on the desk to punctuate the last word. “If they ask, you were set up by a mutual friend. Which is the truth, in a manner of speaking. Beyond revealing the true nature of the relationship, the only incidents that would qualify as breach of contract are being linked romantically with another party, or causing materialdamage to the other person’s reputation.” Audrey ticked them off on her fingers. “Any questions on those points?”
Both Grey and Ethan shook their heads.
“I love it when you make my job easy. Now, is there anything I haven’t addressed that either of you would like to bring up?”
Paul turned to Ethan as if to confer with him privately, but Ethan spoke first, his voice gruff. “I don’t want my kids involved. I don’t want them…” He swallowed. “I don’t want to get their hopes up. It isn’t fair to them.”
Audrey nodded. “Absolutely. We can work around your schedule with the girls. I know Nora does an excellent job shielding them from what the press says about you two.” She turned to Grey. “Grey?”
