“But alas,” Ale sighed, clapping his hand on Cris’s shoulder. “Dork forever.”
Teena broke through the twins’ lament. “I am sure you have your reasons, Cris. And I would love to have the chance to roll through them with you, but unfortunately, we have a problem that needs to be dealt with right now. You’re not doingGames Over.I don’t know what kind of relationship you have with Eleonora Beltrami, but she’s no friend to you. I think she’s setting you up.”
“What?” Cris felt the blood drain from his head. He didn’t know what was coming, but it felt wrong—all wrong. He could feel Ale and Leo looking at him, but couldn’t acknowledge their stares.
“She’s not on your side, Cris. Why would someone who needs to boost ratings want to have someone they think could be a liar and a doper come on their show? To expose the shit out of them live, get all the press coverage that comes with it, and bring herself back from the dead. We have evidence,” Teena said, holding her hands up as if to stop him from even questioning her. “You can’t argue with someone’s own words, can you?”
“I don’t have any idea what you are talking about,” said Cris, trying to remain calm despite the storm in his head. “What do you have?”
“I called a few friends that I knew would give me any intel, and look—I’m not going to have a discussion about how we got this, but I’ve got a record here of some emails from a while back that she exchanged with April Nelson, the executive assistant to the CEO of Magniv Media. You know who they are, right?” Cris nodded, his mouth too dry to speak. “Dr. Beltrami was presented with a list of possible guests and she gave the thumbs-up to all but one. You. When April pressed her on it, this is what she wrote: ‘Unfortunately, there is no world in which I am able to remain unbiased in my judgment or opinion of Mr. Conte. I will not change my feelings on this, ever.’ Does this seem like the kind of person who is going to be on your side?”
He closed his eyes for a second, wishing the room was empty. He needed to think. Who knew how old those emails were? Things were different now, weren’t they? There was no way she could fake what had just happened between them. Was it possible that she started this idea with a plan to expose him and had changed her mind along the way? He thought of the photo of them jumping in the water together while holding hands when they were kids. It seemed impossible.
“That’s only one part of it. I know she used to be everyone’s favorite, but she’s officially up for cancellation,” she said, starting that awful pacing.
Teena explained that in the short time since Ellie’s show had been on break, the media vultures had descended. Dougie Baylor’s team had put an intern on digging up every nasty thing they could find on Ellie, and although there wasn’t much, it was disgustingly effective. There was an engagement announcement inThe New York Timesbut no record ofa marriage. There was a story on a New York gossip site about a hush-hush wedding involving the same architect that was supposed to be marrying Ellie. There was a condo board that had rejected her application because of her “lifestyle” of being in the public eye, and, of course, there was plenty of evidence that Dr. Ellie Beltrami was not at all a licensed clinician.
“We’ve come this far together, Cris. I don’t agree with you not doingDouble Shot,but I can step aside from that. What I can’t do is sit here and watch you lose everything because the media is about to turn their back on you after you defend yourself on her show.”
“But she’s not treating people. It’s a show. For entertainment. And besides, she never hid the fact that she’s not licensed.”
Ale and Leo looked at each other, clearly fighting every urge to interrupt.
“Oh, you think you are going to change their minds now? Hold up, let me write another press release for you to convince people of the truth about yet another mess on top of your own,” Teena said, not bothering to stop moving.
Leo broke first. “We’ve seen Ellie—er, Dr. Beltrami—the last few days, and that email seems pretty—”
“Like, totally out of character,” Ale finished for his brother. “Are you sure that came from her?”
“Are you questioning my research or my source?” Teena paused to look at them and folded her arms.
“It’s her,” said Cris, his face stone.
“Man, that’s harsh,” Ale said, clapping Cris on the shoulder. “‘There isnoworld’—ouch.”
“Later you can tell us what you did to deserve that,” Leo muttered under his breath.
“There’s no way out of this, is there?” Cris scrubbed a hand over his face. He knew what the answer would be.
“Let me be clear about this. You are not in a great spot, which means you need an unimpeachable interviewer. If you go onGames Over, you might make an incredibly strong case for yourself on a show that no one respects anymore because it’s hosted by a person that no one trusts—andwho may not even respect you. In the best-case scenario, any interview you do with her will be buried or won’t even get broadcast. In the worst-case scenario, people will find out that you have something going on together and it will be considered both unethical and biased beyond reason. Then, people will think you’re trying to weasel your way out of this alleged doping thing. Which of those scenarios sounds like fun to you?”
“Teena, Ellie and I are not—”
“I knew it,” whispered Leo. “You so are.”
“Stop, Cris, I’m not stupid,” Teena said, facing the camera.
“I don’t think that. I don’t know what Ellie and I are,” he said, flinching at the new reality in his words. “Whatever she wrote then, I know one thing now: I don’t want to hurt her.”
“Look.” Teena softened her voice and sighed. “From what I heard, as long as she stays off the air, this will go away for her. Somebody got in the ear of the guy who runs programming for Magniv Media, and they want her spot. Bad. If you are her reason for starting the show up again,you’llbe the reason she gets hurt. If that’s what gets you to rethink this, I want you to know the truth. You have one chance to do this right, then you can go do whatever you want with your life.Games Overis not the way to do it. For either of you.”
Cris sat back in the chair, unsure of how to reply. This was not the conversation he’d expected. He thought that he would calmly explainhis decision to go on Ellie’s show and they’d be halfway to crafting a press release and scheduling a photo shoot by now. What he got instead was an excruciatingly painful course-correction from his agent, who had gone beyond the call of duty to get the facts straight.
He tried to ignore the ache in his chest and focus on what Teena was saying. In less than a week, she had gotten him a twenty-minute sit-down with Kelly Jones onGood Morning Americaand a potentialPeoplemagazine cover. At this point, he would be insane to not take her advice.
“Kelly is smart and tough but not afraid to dive into emotional stuff. She’s going to push you, but we want that. We can’t let it look too easy. You will answer every one of her questions honestly and talk about advocacy for anti-doping and clean sport, which we know you care about for real. Then keep apologizing until they go to commercial. Later that week, we will get you on the cover ofPeoplewith one of those sexy Paul Rudd poses and, trust me, you’re America’s sweetheart again.”
“Even if he’s not just American?” asked Ale. Leo whacked his arm.
