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Which meant, when my phone rang again, and I saw it was Mary, I did not want to answer it.
But Mary had a job to do and me being unavailable to give her my decisions in doing it made her job impossible. So I tried not to waste her time, because that would be frustrating, but also, I was paying for it.
“Hey there, honey,” I greeted, my voice sounding strained.
“Yeah, well, that Insta shot, it was bound to happen.”
She clearly thought I knew something I didn’t.
“Sorry?” I asked.
“The Insta shot. And the Szabo connection. The media is putting together you knew Corey all the way back from when you lived in Winston, Illinois. And it’s on the River Rain website bio of Duncan Holloway that he grew up in Winston, Illinois. So some reporters hit up some folks from your hometown. And folks like to talk about famous folks. So now they know that you and Holloway were high school sweethearts who got together again when you were in your twenties, broke up, and now your hashtag is imowayreunitedanditfeelssogood.”
Damn it.
“And just so you know, I’ve been holding Mindi back,” Mary went on, referring to Mindi Leigh Russell, my publicist. “They’re all over her to make you two official. She wants to know what you want to say.”
“Well first, for you, my respected, adored and appreciated personal assistant, that is, when you’re not roped into one of my daughter’s capers…”
Mary and I had talked the morning before. And she’d admitted to being dragged into Chloe’s plan.
I didn’t reprimand her, as such.
Though I did make it clear that Chloe was not her employer, I was. And although I understood Chloe often made it difficult, if not impossible to say no, if I were anybody else, she’d be out on her ass, and if things had gone screamingly poorly with Duncan, I would have considered it.
Mary was very astute.
I said all of this in a nice way.
But she got it.
“…Duncan and I have decided to see where this goes.”
She made a truncated noise of elation.
“Which means I’m staying here for the week, as planned, so we can begin exploring that.”
“I’m really, really happy for you, Gen,” she said, sounding really, really happy.
“As for the press, Duncan and I have had this conversation, and the statement Mindi can give is that Ms. Swan and Mr. Holloway do not discuss their personal life.”
There was a moment of silence and then, “What? Genny, that never works. That’s translated to ‘we’re hot and heavy and a huge item so get ready for reports of us tearing apart hotel rooms or adopting a kid from Africa.’”
“That’s all they get.”
“Gen, I’m no publicist, but I’ve been with you for five years, which means through the divorce and—”
“Mary,” I interrupted her firmly. “That’s what we’re going to say.”
“They’re gonna go Team Tom and Team Duncan, Gen, and everyone loves Tom, especially with you. He’s going to win.”
Damn it.
“I’m far too old to tear apart hotel rooms, or, sadly, adopt children who need loving homes. Duncan is not that person either. And they’ll eventually get used to it,” I told her.
“You have to let Mindi spin the lovers reunited thing,” she urged.
I really did.
“I’ll speak to him about it.”
“Thank God,” she breathed.
“But for now, she can either remain silent or say what I said. Those are her choices.”
“Right, I’ll tell her.”
“And there’s going to be a script FedExed to me. You’ll probably get it tomorrow. Can you courier it up here?”
“A script?”
“Don’t get excited. And I can’t talk about it. Don’t open it either. Just please courier it up to the hotel.”
“Righty ho, boss. Now you need to get on email. You’ve got your usual ton of invitations. And I know the nos, but I need answers on the maybes.”
“Duncan’s working today, and Chloe and I are riding this morning. I’ll get on it this afternoon.”
“Cool. Now I’ll let you go. Have fun with Chloe and I really, really hope you enjoy exploring things with Duncan. And I really, really can’t wait to meet him.”
That made me smile. Not big, but at least it was a smile.
“Thanks, honey. Take care.”
“You too. Later.”
Then she was gone.
And I had no choice but to phone Duncan.
I would have liked our first-ever cell phone call in history, and our first-ever phone call after we were back together, to be about something like if he wanted me to make spaghetti and meatballs (his favorite from back in the day) for dinner that night.
At his house.
Because I was dying to cook in his kitchen.
He had an amazing kitchen, which wasn’t a surprise, considering he had an amazing house.
But sadly, it had to be about other.
He picked up right away with a, “Hey, honey.”
“Hi, uh, do you have a sec?”
“So you heard they made the connection with Corey.”
This surprised me.
