Corset Girl pouts and glares at me, apparently not getting that I was just playing around—I’ve never felt overly threatened by random girls gushing over Blake, and I certainly can’t blame them—and I try to think of something to say to soften my joke, butTransformers girl jumps back in.
“Laserpoint! Laserpoint! Laser—” Her chants get cut off as the convention worker tugs the mic away from her. No one else joins in the chants—I don’t know who Laserpoint is, but this girl appears to be her only die-hard fan.
“Okay,” Jai says, standing up at the table and trying to re-establish order. “I know you are all excited to share your opinions—and cleavage-writing—with our stars here, but let’s stick to the rules we all know from grade school, yeah? Raise our hands, wait our turn, don’t be dicks?”
A few more laughs and lots of applause.
“How about letting this gentleman toward the front speak,” Jai says. “He’s had his hand up for awhile.” A convention worker hands a guy wearing nice jeans and nondescript polo shirt the mic.
Polo Shirt smiles. “Thank you. So I think what we all really want to hear about is Blake and Kim.”
Oh no.This guy has reporter written all over him.
“So my question is for Kim,” he says, and I have to fight not to cringe. “How could you forgive Blake for his infidelity?”
My stomach drops, and I’m pretty sure my mouth along with it, but no words come out for a moment. Blake shoots me a concerned look, but he can’t exactly cut in on this one.
We’ve never directly addressed the cheating rumors, either of us. And we’ve kept ignoring the question since getting back together, waiting for me to be ready to make more than a surface statement about the causes of our divorce.
But the truth is, I’ve been letting him take the fall too long for problems in our marriage that I’m mostly responsible for. Because it was easier for me. I feel sick with the thought.
“There was no infidelity,” I say.
Blake’s eyes widen in surprise at my sudden candor—I’m not one for PR revelations that haven’t been planned and rehearsed in advance. I hear some scoffs among the surprised murmurs in the audience.
“It’s true,” I continue, growing unreasonably mad at these people for failing to believe me now, even though by not addressing it before, we all but confirmed the rumor. “We had problems in our marriage, but our divorce wasn’t due to anyone cheating. And it was never because we didn’t love each other.”
I don’t know why I felt the need to add that last part, but Blake’s surprised look softens, and he squeezes my knee. “Definitely not,” he adds.
“So you confirm the story your previous nanny Claire just released?”The mic has been passed to a woman I assume is another reporter, though she’s at least attempted to blend into the crowd by wearing a Farpoint t-shirt and replica gold visor.
Blake and I both look at her, confused. “What story?” I ask. If it’s a big story, it really must havejustbeen released—like, within the last couple hours—or I no doubt would have heard about it already fromTara or Josh.
The woman smiles, and I see the press badge when she shifts to adjust her visor. “Claire did an interview with our team atStarsToday, in which she talks about how she never slept with Blake, and yet she’s been harassed and bullied for years, both online and off, for being the woman who broke up Watterpless. She says you both threw her under the bus by never denying the rumors.”
My stomach feels like it just took a flying leap off the Grand Canyon.
Oh god, Claire. I was going through so much pain, so much darkness in those days, I honestly didn’t even think about what that rumor would do to her. Not then and not since. She hadn’t been our nanny long, pretty much only a few months by the time the divorce was announced, but she was nice and good with the kids, and—
Andoh shit, how could we do that to her?
I look at Blake and Blake looks at me, and I can tell he’s thinking the exact same thing I am. He recovers quicker than me, though, at least enough to say, “Um. We hadn’t heard that. But clearly we owe Claire an apology.” I can tell he’s trying to figure out the most diplomatic way to go on, but another guy from the audience stands up and is handed a microphone.This guy is beefy and bald and dressed like Naked Mole Rat, shaved eyebrows and all.
“Let’s bring this back to the comics,” he says, and I don’t know whether to be relieved or cry.
Judging by the look of world-weary resignation onTroy’s face, he can’t decide either.
“The real problem here,” Naked Mole Rat fan says, “is that everyone keeps forgetting that Hemlock can’t really be with Farpoint. Not without killing him.”
Oh god, not this again.
I can’t keep myself from letting out an audible groan, even as the crowd erupts in chatter.They know where he’s going with this, and in my experience from previous Comic-Cons, they all have an impassioned opinion.
“That’s right,” he says, pleased with himself. “The poison pussy. Hemlock will kill Farpoint as soon as they—”
“That’s not canon!” Sailor Moon shouts. “Hemlock having a poison pussy is only a factor in the first Doctor Supernova arc—”
“Which everyone knows is the best Hemlock continuity,” Naked Mole Rat shoots back.
