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The picture furor was still raging, and more and more was coming out about her in the tabloid press. An old boyfriend had stepped up to give out information, and while he was very kind in his estimation of her, knowing he'd taken money to talk about her was painful. Her family was scandalized, and her mother had lost a social chair position because of it, which was low stakes in the real world, but in her parents’ social circle was a hard hit.
If Kline was upset, he played his hand close to his chest and dealt with it while she was at work. She knew he'd met with attorneys all day Thursday, but he didn't say anything about it. When she asked, he changed the subject.
“Thad said the best thing to do was to be seen out with you, so I’m legitimized and not just some random slut.”
Kline drew back from the slur like a vampire to garlic. “He said that?””
“Well, the part about being legitimized. I told him about you asking me to the Oscars.” The look on his face brought blood rushing to her head. “You forgot.”
“No,” he said quickly. “I just hadn’t thought about it again.”
“So, from a PR perspective, if you show up on the red carpet at the Grammys with Jill, and then the Oscars with me, what does that do?”
“I–I don’t know. I’d need to talk to Roland about it.”
“Did you already tell Roland you asked me?”
“It hadn’t come up.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Kline! I was joking! Does that man really control everything you do?”
“Roland serves a very specific purpose in my life, and yeah, I trust him, so I do most of the things he tells me to do. Don’t you do what your boss tells you?”
“But he’s not your boss! He works for you! You tell him how high to jump!”
“I hired him to be my manager,” Kline said seriously. “I hired him to tell me what to do. I hired him to help me set goals for my career, and then help me achieve them. He’s not my assistant–he’s my manager.”
“And what’s he telling you to do about me?” Rhiannon demanded.
“Keep you out of the spotlight! Let the frenzy die down and use Jill to shield you since you seem to mean so much to me!”
“Oh, he’s not just telling you to dump me?”
“He does actually care about me, Rhi, as a human being. He’s not going to tell me to drop someone I care about. But he is going to tell me what I need to do to keep both my personal and public life on track in a way that supports my career.”
“I cannot believe how much faith you put into him.”
“Then leave.” He said it with a finality, sweeping his hand toward the door. “If you hate my job so much and hate what I have to do to perform it, then leave. You wouldn’t be the first woman who went out with me because of who I am and what I do, then dipped the moment she saw the hard part of my job.”
Rhiannon felt a vein starting to throb in her temple. “I didn’t go out with you because of who you are.”
“No? If I’d been just one of Thad’s friends off the street, we’d have had the same first date?”
Rhiannon thought back to her own words that night, how she wanted him, but was afraid of his celebrity, even as she wanted him because of the fantasy role his celebrity had played in her mind. “Fuck,” she said, hugging her middle. “I don’t want to fight.”
“I don’t either. Look, Rhi, my job is my job. My personal life is something else entirely. I keep my personal life separated–like with Jack. If you want to make a go of things with me, you have to understand my job. I’m not going to show up at your work and tell you how to run your show. You can’t try to tell me how to run the show that is my public persona. And, if you do get dragged into that, you have to trust me to get you out of it.”
She frowned but nodded. “So, you’re going to the Grammys with Jill.”
“Probably.”
“And the Oscars?”
“I think we need to wait and see how that shakes out. The photos have kind of changed the balance of things. But you can trust me to figure it out. Okay?” He asked the question and opened his arms, and how could she resist?
Rhiannon walked into his embrace and let him stroke her back. This was totally against her better judgment, but he seemed sincere, and the truth was, she was catching feelings for the man she was going to sleep with and waking up to. Worst case scenario, she decided, she came out of this with photos she could show her grandchildren to prove Granny had been cool once.
After a few moments had passed he kissed her forehead and asked, “Feel like facing the outside world today?"
