I nodded. “I will be. I think. It’s just a lot to take in at once.”
“I know. It sucks. It’s the downside of fame. If you want to call everything off, if you want to go back to just working for me, or even not working for me, that’s fine.”
I shook my head. “No. No, I’m not going to let some bottom feeders bully me into doing something I don’t want with their shitty reporting. But what do we do? Do we put out a statement? I feel like that’s part of my job, like I should know about it.”
“Yeah. We could do that. We can either deny it, or come straight out and be frank about it, and take the flack that comes with it.”
“What do you think we should do?”
“It depends. On how serious we are, I guess. If we deny it, well it’s a pretty plausible lie. But if our relationship continues, well it’s going to come out for sure at one point or another.”
“True.”
“And of course, not denying it has the added bonus that the family is going to be beyond pissed, especially with my Uncle Edward’s run for President.”
“Well that settles it. We’re not denying it.”
“Works for me.”
If it screwed over the Hunt family, well I was willing to take a little bit of a publishing shaming in exchange to see that. Especially if it screwed up Edward Hunt’s chances to be President.
“Should be admit it though?”
“Nah. We’ll hang low for a while. We’ll be like the CIA: no confirming or denying. How does it feel, being a part of a celebrity scandal?” he asked, getting up, standing behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist. I leaned back against his shoulder, inhaling the sweet scent of his skin.
“I guess I could learn to enjoy it,” I replied playfully, lightly grazing the skin of his forearm with my fingers.
We went up to the pool overlooking the ocean and spent the morning relaxing, drinking colourful drinks and just relaxing.
At one point on the way down to the kitchen to get some snacks for us to share I checked my phone and sure enough, there were about two dozen messages. The only one I replied to was Leanne’s:
So I guess you’ve seen the news? she asked.
Yup. Merry Christmas to me! I replied.
So what’s the plan?
Neither confirm nor deny
Well I’m happy for you two
I haven’t confirmed or denied :-P
And you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. I’ve known for a lot longer than the media.
Really?
Of course. You weren’t exactly subtle.
Shit. Well thanks for not saying anything to anyone.
Anytime. Enjoy the media uproar you’ve just created.
Haha. Thanks. See you next week!
You know it.
When I finished chatting to Leanne I went back to the pool with a bowl of chips and some fresh fruit I cut up, then lounged on a chair. I knew I was tempting fate, I always burned instead of tanning, but damn it, I was going to give it a shot.
A few hours later, the doorbell rang.
“That’s weird,” Kiegan muttered. “Wait here, I’ll be back in a minute.”
It wasn’t until I heard the voices from outside streaming around the side of the house that I realized exactly what was weird about the doorbell ringing – there was a gate, with a code outside. Whoever was at the door had to have the code, and as far as I knew, only Kiegan knew it.
I grabbed a bathrobe from the hook at the edge of the door and made my way into the house. When I got to the staircase I looked over the railing, down to the front door, and my face went white.
Standing there, at the entrance, were our parents.
Holy shit. Why are they here? How did they get here?
I was definitely not ready for this. I figured maybe they hadn’t seen me, but unfortunately my mother had the eyes of a hawk. As I was stepping back from the railing, trying to be as subtle as possible, I heard her yell out my name.
“Tina! Tina, I need to talk to you,” she continued, her shrill voice bouncing off the walls, barging her way past Kiegan and into the house.
I sighed as I realized there was no escaping it at all.
“What, mom, suddenly you care about my problems?” I shouted back at her. I was pissed off. She had no right to come here and tell me what to do. Still, she acted like I was the unreasonable one, overdramatically pretending like my words had physically hurt her.
“Tina, sweetie. I just want to talk to you. Don’t you want to talk to your mom?”
“No, I don’t. I think I’ve made that pretty clear over the past few years.”
“Well, it’s pretty clear to me that you’re obviously not ready to make your own decisions yet.”
I laughed in her face.
“Why? Because Kiegan and I aren’t denying the fact that we’re in a relationship?”
“Yes. It’s wrong. It’s disgusting. And more importantly, you’re ruining your family’s name.”
“Fuck you, mom. Fuck you. The Hunt family name is more fucked up than anything Kiegan and I could possibly do to it, and you know it.”