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“We need to make a statement,” said Jamie. “Explain what happened.”
“What exactly did happen?” I said, a little amused by the whole situation. It was perfect, in a way. The perfect storm symbolized how our relationship had transgressed every boundary.
“You’re smiling,” she said breathlessly.
“I mean,” I said, leaning back. “It’s kind of funny.”
“It’s not funny, Eric,” said Jamie. “People think we’re getting married. This is going to ruin my career.”
“Oh, come on,” I said. “It’s not going to ruin your career. When has getting married ever hurt anyone’s career?”
“When they’re not actually getting married? Lord knows what’s gonna happen when my dad hears about all of this.”
“Tom doesn’t have Instagram,” I chuckled. “Besides, if he asks about it—”
“When he asks about it—”
“When he asks,” I corrected myself, “we’ll explain. He’ll think it’s funny, Jamie.”
“Funny?” Jamie replied. I tried to understand the way she felt and realized she had a point. And I knew that Tom was protective of his daughter. Either way, he’d probably blame me for this whole thing.
And if he did, Tom would have a point. After all, I was the one who encouraged Jamie to have a relationship with me outside of our work.
I looked at the clock. “You got a couple of hours to spare?”
Jamie nodded. “Janine’s taking Cassie tonight. They’re blowing up my house with phone calls. Eric, I’m worried the press is going to get a hold of this.”
“You deleted the photo?”
Jamie nodded.
“Okay. Here’s what we’re gonna do. I have to go to this charity thing. A bunch of people from the tech sector are going. Why don’t you come with me?”
“How’s that going to help? Are we going to tell people the truth?”
“No,” I said. “That’s exactly what we’re not going to do. If we make out like it was all a big misunderstanding, the share price could drop. People could lose faith in us.”
Jamie wringing her hands together with nervous energy. “What are we going to do, then?” she said.
“Easy. Play along. Just for a night. We can pretend we deleted the photo due to privacy concerns. Your Instagram is public, right?”
“Right.”
“So, we make out like there are security concerns. We’re engaged, but we’re keeping it under wraps for now.”
“This is crazy. What’s my dad going to say?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” I said, standing up and going to one of the bare white walls. I pressed a dark switch and it unlocked.
“What’s that?” said Jamie.
I reached inside and pulled out a tuxedo on a hanger and a crisply ironed dress shirt.
“It’s my business wardrobe,” I said. “Let me get changed. Then we can go.”
“What am I going to wear?” said Jamie.
I smiled and reached inside. I pulled open the closet door.
