Well, I guess that’s not strictly wrong.
I’m coming over.
Sure.
Two minutes later there was a knock on my door, and I broke my staying-in-bed-all-day rule to let Leanne in, and took advantage of the break to go pee as well.
“So tell me everything,” Leanne ordered, and I walked her through the whole scene. The way her eyes bulged, it was obvious that she had no idea.
“Wow. So you were right, he did actually save a girl.”
“Yeah. Well I guess so. I mean maybe the guy wouldn’t have shot her, but he sure looked serious about it to me.”
“For sure. Shit, I knew Kiegan was reckless, but that’s pretty up there, even for him.”
“So now what do we do? He can’t film, so what’s the plan?”
“We can do whatever, really. The studio pays for the hotels, so he can go anywhere.”
“Thank God. I have about a million interview requests on my phone, so can we do a New York/LA split over the next week?”
“Sure, but let’s start with New York. They’ve got the bigger news places, the ones that care now, but won’t give a shit about Kiegan in three days.”
“Done. I wonder if I could meet Ellen,” I mused, and Leanne laughed. “Probably. You have the fun job. Mine’s all just conferences and spreadsheets.” She turned serious all of a sudden. “But how are you doing, Tina? After all, it’s not every day that you see your brother get shot.”
I shrugged. “I’m fine. Honestly. I was pretty far away, I didn’t really see anything except the aftermath, you know? And it’s not like he’s dead, he just has a bandage around his arm.”
“Well, if you ever need to talk, you know where to find me. I gotta go, I’ve got some more work to do. I’ll leave you to work out the schedule until the 14th, then we’re on Christmas break.”
“Thanks, Leanne. You’re a good friend,” I told her as she left, giving me a hug before she went back to work. I hadn’t even thought about Christmas. I didn’t have anywhere to stay, didn’t have anywhere to go. I leaned back in my bed, making the pillows poof below me. I could go anywhere. Paris, the Bahamas. I had money now! Not a ton of it, sure, but enough that I could go on vacation for a couple of weeks if I wanted to.
Until then, of course, I still had to figure out what we were doing. I got onto the phone with Josh, who agreed with me that sending all the show staff on holidays early was the best thing; after all, there was nothing for them to do while Kiegan healed from his bullet wound.
I booked hotels for the next week and sent the pilots word of our plans so they could submit a flight plan, then called the people with the biggest audience and booked Kiegan’s spot on their shows. Then I decided I wanted to get up after all. I walked down to the beach, slowly letting my feet sink into the moist sand, letting the cool water of the ocean wash over me. I looked up into the sky and let the rays of the sun wash over my face as I thought about the events from the night before.
Was I wrong about Kiegan? He had gone in and saved a complete stranger. Maybe he wasn’t a total asshole. Except to me.
After about an hour I stopped at an ice cream place, got myself a cone, and headed back to the hotel. We were flying back to New York the next day, and I had to let Kiegan know what shows he was doing.
The Daily Show, Good Morning America, Letterman and Fallon. He was going to be everywhere!
*
We flew out the next morning. Kiegan started off by going to his company’s headquarters, taking up six floors of an office building in downtown Manhattan. I decided to come; I was curious about the other side of Kiegan’s business, the part that he admitted to me made a ton of money.
“I just like being a reality TV star because it pisses off the family,” he told me with a grin when we were on the plane. “I mean sure, I make some money off it, and the value of my brand can’t be discounted, but I know my father hates it, and that’s what drives me to keep doing it. The entire Hunt family thinks it soils the name. Plus, with my Uncle Ed running for President, now the last thing he wants is for his cousin to end up on the news for his dumb TV show. I had like eight phone calls from Washington the morning the news about the club broke.”
“Wait, your Uncle Edward is running for President?” I asked, my face blanching.
“Yeah, why?”
“No, no reason. I just didn’t realize.” Bringing up the memories of Kiegan’s family made me feel sick to my stomach.
“He announced it yesterday. I never thought the day would come when I was more up to date on current events than my little sis,” he joked, and I stuck my tongue out at him.