“Who printed this article?” she asked, her stomach suddenly in knots.
Her mother made a noise of exasperation. “That’s not the point, Nicole. You’re back together with him, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” she said, simply.
“Well, isn’t that just lovely,” she muttered.
“Mom, I really hope you’ll support me. I hope you’ll support my relationship with Red because—“
“So the wedding is on again?”
“I feel like I’m being cross-examined.”
“I’d just like to know what’s going on with my own daughter. I didn’t realize that meant I’m cross-examining you. But since you refuse to tell me anything, and I have to find out from the Internet—“
“I’m sorry about that. I didn’t know someone had reported on us.”
“This relationship is unhealthy, Nicole. You’ve been up and down, up and down, dragged around by the whims of this rich person who has no regard for anyone but himself and his money.”
“That’s not true, Mom.” Nicole closed her eyes and tried to stay calm. “Listen, I’d love it if we could all get together for dinner and try to start fresh. Could we do that, Mom?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if I can get past what this man has put your through.”
“Well you need to try, for me.”
“Nicole…” her mother sighed.
“Will you give it another try, for me? Please? Red and I are going to be spending our lives together and I’d like it if you could be a part of that, too.”
“This is not a man who can make a lifetime commitment.”
Nicole was fed up. “Do you want to try or not? I’m pretty much done with this conversation.”
There was a long, long pause. “Fine,” her mother uttered after what felt like an eternity.
“Maybe you and Dad can come to the city and we’ll all have dinner together.”
“That works.”
“I love you, Mom. I’ll be in touch, okay?”
Her mother curtly replied that she loved her too, and then they got off the phone. Nicole let out a weary, tired breath.
It never ends, does it? She thought.
A moment later she was back at her desk, on the computer, staring at The Rag’s front-page headline.
RED AND NICOLE TOGETHER AGAIN!
Beneath the headline was a picture of the two of them coming out of the rental car place the day before. Nicole was shading her eyes from the sunlight, and Red’s arm was on the small of her back as they walked toward his car in the parking lot.
Nicole couldn’t believe it. The Rag was back to reporting on them—in fact, it was probably written by that same creep, Anderson, who’d hounded them until Red had gone and bought the paper.
But Red no longer owned Jameson International and so he no longer owned The Rag. In point of fact, Kane Wright would be the new man in charge over there. Nicole could imagine plenty of scenarios where Kane might like to encourage The Rag to go even further in its stalking and harassing tactics. Kane Wright and The Rag—the two entities seemed tailor made for one another.
“This isn’t good,” Nicole said aloud. “This really isn’t good at all.”
***
Red came into the city to meet her for lunch. They went to Five Napkin Burger, a great little restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen.
“I need a milkshake,” Nicole said, wiping the hair out of her eyes. She’d been paranoid the whole way over to the restaurant that someone was taking pictures, and she’d had to explain to Red all that had gone on that morning; the call from her mother, the realization that The Rag was once again publishing stories about them online, her concerns about Danielle and Kane Wright being married.
The waiter took their orders; Nicole wanted the original five-napkin burger and a black and white milkshake, Red got the burger salad and a beer.
“This will all sort itself out,” Red told her, taking her hand across the table.
Nicole glanced around the place. It was fairly crowded with typical New Yorkers and no one seemed to be paying them the slightest bit of attention. “I just feel like we’re going to be under the microscope again. The last thing I want is for my mom to be finding stuff out about us through the tabloids.”
“I can handle The Rag and that clown Anderson,” Red told her, thanking the waiter as he brought over his beer. He picked it up and took a long sip.
“What if Kane Wright uses them to harass us and release those things about you—the things he’s been threatening us with?”
Red shrugged. “I told you already, I’ve got nothing to hide. I’m not ashamed of anything I’ve done and I’ll defend it publicly if necessary.”
Nicole wasn’t so confident. The media could easily twist and distort Red’s reasons for helping those illegal workers come to the United States. For many Americans, anybody with dark skin and a Middle Eastern sounding name was practically Osama Bin Laden reincarnated. It wouldn’t be easy to make a public case that Red was doing the courageous thing in trying to help political dissidents.
“I think maybe we should try and bury the hatchet with him,” Nicole said, eventually.