Page 37
“Hey,” I say, putting it back to my ear again. “My agent’s calling.”
“I’m surprised it’s taken this long.”
“Well, I left my phone downstairs last night, so …”
“All right. You better go handle this. Call me if you need anything, and I’ll tell my wife that there’s no wedding in the near future.”
A thought crosses my mind.
I know Poppy won’t believe this. We’ve been together long enough to have seen a number of asinine headlines. But the timing of this—when I’m trying to show Poppy that a life with me could be great—really blows.
“Hey, do you know if Poppy has seen this?” I ask.
“Don’t know. I haven’t heard anything about whether she has.”
Maybe she’s oblivious, and I can tell her about it. At least that way I can make it seem like it won’t be a bother to us.
Fuck.
Chuck buzzes in again. “Gotta go, Branch.”
“Talk to you later.”
I give myself a second to recenter, then answer my agent’s call. I’m sure he’s thrilled to deal with this on a Sunday.
“Hello?” I say, bracing myself.
“There you are. I’ve been trying to get ahold of you all day.”
“Well, here I am. What’s up?” I ask like I don’t know.
“I’m assuming that you’ve seen the headlines today.”
I’m not caffeinated enough for this. I lift my mug and down half of it, grimacing as it burns my throat. “Yeah.” Sort of. I’ve heard about them.
“I’m also assuming it’s not true.”
“You’re two for two.” I gaze out the window, watching the trees blow in the breeze. “I’ll get with Nova in your office about getting a statement put together.”
“Not so fast.”
Huh? That makes no sense. We usually want to get on these stupid things as quickly as we can. “What? Why not?”
He takes a long breath and blows it out slowly. It’s the sound he makes when he’s about to introduce something that he knows I’m going to fight him on.
This doesn’t bode well for the rest of the afternoon.
“It seems that your engagement,” he says, pausing long enough for the sounds of his fingers against a keyboard to break through the phone, “is potentially lucrative.”
“Except there is no engagement.”
“Maybe not. But my phone has been going nonstop this morning, and emails are starting to pile up from companies who want a piece of this.”
I roll my eyes. Of course, they do. Vultures. “I get offers all the time, Chuck. What’s your point?”
“My point is that right now you’re looking at … I don’t know. Siggy’s jewelry, Ruma luxury hotel chain, Landry Vineyard—that’s the level of endorsements we’re already seeing. I’m thinking you could easily cash in three to four million dollars, and that’s just from what’s being floated today. And it’s Sunday. Once tomorrow rolls around, it’s going to be a shit show.”
I swallow, giving my befuddled brain a chance to wrap around this information.
