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“I told her that I thought it would be a good idea for me to walk her to her car so her driver could take her home. I settled up the tab while she went back to the ladies’ room. I walked her outside, but she could hardly walk and was hanging on me. She dropped her phone on the sidewalk, bent over to pick it up, but I still had my arm around her. That’s when she showed the entire world her, well, you know...”
“Ah, yes. The hoo-ha that launched a million internet jokes.”
“I’m telling you, I had no idea.”
“And from that, the world assumes you took her panties off at the bar.”
“Of course they do, but that’s not what happened. I have no idea what she did with them or why she took them off in the first place. I was trying to be a good guy.”
“The reality is that the press loves to catch famous people doing stupid things, but the bad publicity doesn’t hurt her like it hurts you. All she does is ride around in a limo all day and go shopping. If anything, this probably makes her more interesting to her fans.”
“I never should’ve bought her a drink. Or kissed her for that matter.”
She almost felt sorry for him. He hadn’t done anything wrong. It had all gone horribly awry.
“Are you going to tell me what my ex said in the paper about the scandal? I don’t think I can read it for myself.”
Melanie cringed, knowing how bad it was. If her ex had ever said anything this ugly about her, she’d probably curl into a ball and die. “I don’t think we should worry about that. Nothing good will come from it. As far as the PR campaign goes, we’re going to have to hope that today was just a slow news day.”
“No. I want to know. Tell me.” He spoke with clear determination.
“Just remember. You asked.” Melanie pulled the article up on her phone, sucking in a deep breath. “She said, and I quote, ‘I’d love to say that this surprises me, but it doesn’t. Adam has always had a huge weakness for pretty girls. I don’t know if Adam is capable of taking any woman seriously. I certainly don’t think he’s capable of love. I feel sorry for him. I hope someday he can figure out how to be with a woman and finally give of himself.’”
Adam shot up from the couch, marched over to the fireplace and began anxiously jabbing the logs.
“I know you’re mad, but setting the house on fire won’t solve anything,” she said.
“Do you have any idea how hurtful that is? I’m not capable of love? She was my fiancée. We were going to get married and have kids.”
Call it an occupational hazard, but Melanie often had to look past clients’ hurt feelings over the way they’d been treated by the media. It was far more difficult in Adam’s case, because she’d experienced the same rejection. She knew how hard it was to go on, alone, living a life that bore no resemblance to the one you’d thought you’d have. No wedding bells, no home to make together, no children to love and care for.
“You obviously loved her very much.”
“I did. Past tense.” He returned to poking at the fire. “The minute she walked out on me, I knew she never really loved me.”
Melanie had to wonder if that was true, if he’d known right away that it hadn’t really been love. It’d taken her months to figure that out when Josh left, and in many ways, that made the pain far worse. “Why did she break it off? If you don’t mind me asking.” Her curiosity was too great not to ask.
“She said I was too wrapped up in work.” He shrugged and left the fire to blaze away. “If you ask me, I think she was disappointed I didn’t want to feed off the Langford family fortune and jet around the world, going to parties. It’s ridiculous. I work hard because that’s the way I’m built. I don’t know any other way.”
“There’s no shame in working hard.”
“Of course not, but I don’t get to tell my side of the breakup in the papers. I just have to accept the awful things she said about me.”
“I’m sorry. I know it’s difficult to have your personal life on display like this.”
“I’m not the guy in those pictures. You do realize that, don’t you?”
“Unfortunately, that’s all people care about.”
Adam shook his head in disgust. “The whole thing is so ridiculous. Can’t we go back to my plan? Ignoring it?”
“Not if you want Portia Winfield’s lady parts to be the first thing people think of when they hear your name.”
He groaned and plopped down on the couch again. “Let’s keep going.”
