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I keep Ava on FaceTime as we head downstairs into the living room. Mom and Dad are seated on our red couch, staring at the flatscreen mounted to the wall in front of them.
I furrow my brows. It isn’t like them to be so engrossed in the TV like this.
“What’s going on?” Ava asks.
When I look at the TV, I nearly drop my phone. Carter is on Entertainment Live, a celebrity gossip show. He’s still wearing the same clothes he had when he dropped me off, a dark blue blazer jacket with a black T-shirt underneath and jeans. He’s seated at a table with a few of the hosts of the show, a giant screen behind them with the show’s title.
“What is it?” Ava shouts through the phone. “I want to see.”
I direct the camera toward the TV so Ava can watch along with me and the rest of my family.
“We’re here with Carter Cogswell, the executive producer that has everyone talking today, but not about his upcoming romantic comedy series,Runaway with Me. In hindsight, that’s exactly what this is about,” one of the hosts says in an effort to sound witty and clever. “The reality is, Carter’s upcoming series mirrors real life events that happened to him just a few short months ago.”He turns to Carter.“Carter, tell us all about the day you met Mia Barnett, the Nation's Runaway Bride.”
“Well,” Carter starts and faces the host. “The first time I met Mia was on her wedding day.”
“Scandalous,” the host says.
Carter tilts his head to the side. “Not really. I was heading to my car, and I happened to bump into her as she was literally fleeing from her own wedding ceremony. I’m not entirely sure what took over me, but I felt a desperate need to help her out. So, I drove her around the city for a few hours until her maid of honor came to pick her up.”
Has Carter decided to go with the truth?
The screen changes, and photos from my wedding day start to pop up, creating a collage. The first ones are from the article about me. The rest though…They are from all those people snapping pictures of me while I was running away. It’s surreal looking at myself in that state, all my pain and determination clear in my face and every movement of my body.
I can’t believe Carter managed to get hold of them.
The host furrows his salt-and-pepper brows, seemingly disappointed by how lackluster the story is unfolding. “Is that all?”
“No,” Carter says. “While we were driving, Mia and I got to talking. She told me why she didn’t want to get married, mostly because she had just found out that the scumbag cheated on her with one of her bridesmaids, but also because she wasn’t as in love with him as she thought. Mia told me about her dreams and what she really thought love was. Burning passion.” He smiles to himself as he recalls our conversation. “That’s when I pitched the show idea to her.”
My jaw drops. I suppose he isn’t going the truthful route after all.
“Mia started working for me a couple of weeks later. As we got to know one another, we went from strictly partners to lovers.”
“What is your current relationship status?” the host asks.
“She’s my girlfriend.”
Mom, Dad, Fred, and even Ava all collectively gasp at this information.
“You didn’t tell us that,” Dad says, offended that I’ve been keeping my executive producer boyfriend a secret from him.
“He’s not exactly being truthful,” I correct.
“He is handsome, though,” Mom says, practically swooning over Carter through the screen. God, she’s such a sucker for good looks.
“Yeah, he’s certainly a step up from Michael,” Fred quips.
I nudge Fred even though I completely agree.
“My relationship with Mia didn’t start until a few weeks ago. Mia never cheated on Michael. It was the other way around. He’s only playing the victim to erase all the terrible decisions he’s made up until this point.”
The host turns back to the camera. “Well, there you have it ladies and gentlemen. It seems the case of the runaway bride has been solved. Looking forward to the series, by the way.”
I shut off the TV.
“Hey,” Ava says. “What if he still has more to say?”
“It’s over,” I say, still blown away by what I just witnessed. How could Carter do that? He hates this kind of attention. If he did all this for me, I really wish he hadn’t.
