AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Impossible. Megan was upset about this. Right? She didn’t want to be photographed. To be associated with scandal and movie stars and charities she’d never heard of before yesterday.
That wasn’t true. She’d loved helping the Studio last night. She’dlovedstaying up late, only the blue light of the screen and Miles Davis keeping her company. She’d had to stop every few minutes to scribble down more ideas for how the charity could keep raising its visibility in the future. As the list grew, it chided her for her enthusiasm. She was only there to help for one event.
And the event would only raise more money if she raised its visibility. And how could she raise its visibility hiding in a corridor behind a coffee shop?
Megan stood up straight, brushed down her outfit, and smoothed her braid. She walked back into the shop and let herself through the counter flap. The line was just as long as before. Her audience even included a couple of people at tables.
“Let’s make a deal,” she said to the first young woman who’d taken her photograph. She might have been college age, or just above it. “You can share that picture of me if you tag the Community Center in Allston. You know it?” The woman shook her head. Megan didn’t expect her to know, but she wanted the excuse to give them all the link. “Well, look it up. The tag is at CCAllstonMA.” There were maybe ten people in line—not quite the crowd she’d thought when she’d arrived. Now she wasn’t nearly as afraid of them.
“They’re having a fundraiser for their actor’s studio,” she went on, making sure she was standing in a flattering pose: one hand on her hip, casually revealing her outfit under her coat. “And Alessandro Rosselli is going to be there. That’s why I saw him last night. I’m helping out. So you can tag him, too. And maybe he’ll share your post.Thispost.” She pointed down at the coffee shop floor. “There’s the tag for Oh Beans!, too.” She waved the same finger at the chalkboard wall and the links for the shop. “Next thing you know, you’ll be an influencer.”
The woman’s eyes grew as large as the coffee cups around them. “You got all that?” Megan asked. Someone else was obviously videoing her. “You got all that?” she repeated, and the man dumbly nodded. “Good. The fundraiser. Don’t forget. Alessandro Rosselli learned everything he knows from them. Worth a donation, don’t you think?”
Everyone nodded this time. Megan didn’t expect them to follow through, but she’d been looking right at that video camera when she said it. If she was going to be a trend on social media, dammit, she was going to make sure she got to say whatshewanted to say.
“What’s your handle?” the video recorder asked.
Megan smiled at him. “I’ll find you. Don’t forget. Hashtag, Boston Arts. Hashtag, donate.” The other tags that had come to her last night were right at the front of her brain, and she reeled them off easily. “Oh, and my outfit is from Soodee in Beacon Hill. In case you’re wondering.” She lifted her chin and swept a leg to the side, as though she were at the end of a catwalk. As she’d hoped, they all raised their phones and took a shot—even the ones who were still frowning as though they didn’t know who she was. They might not know her, but they sure the hell knew who Alessandro was, and she’d just given the Studio a boost they could ride for the rest of the day.
“I got your coffee, Gisele,” Grace said behind her. Megan broke her pose and became herself again. But the buzz she felt remained. She’d looked good, she’d gotten her point across, and she’d controlled the situation. Okay, these were regular people, not the paparazzi. But Megan gave them all her biggest Fielding smile as she went to pay for her coffee and Danish. She walked back past them and shook the bag. “Get the pecan Danish. It’s the best.”
And she left the store, her heart racing, her cheeks warm with exhilaration. That feeling fueled her fast walk all the way to her office building, through the lobby, where a few eyes turned, and into the elevator. The five or six people who squeezed in with her kept glancing at her, but she held her eyes in front and her chin high, and no one tested her.
She turned right out of the elevator and said her usual breezy hi to the receptionist.
“Megan!” the receptionist exclaimed and half rose from her seat.
Oh no. Megan did not want to get into anything in the lobby with everyone coming and going around her. “See you later!” she called and walked into the open office that contained her cubicle—her familiar, safe, sensible cubicle.
Familiar, but not safe nor sensible. Britney skidded around the corner. “Hi!” she said in the kind of gushing tone Megan was really good at mimicking.
Not today. “Morning, Britney,” Megan replied, knowing what was coming.
Britney pulled up a chair from a nearby cubicle and sat in it, leaning her elbows on her knees and her chin on her hands. “Is it true?” she said.
“Um, which part of it?”
“I mean, I saw you with him, and I mean…” She raised her eyebrows to the heavens. “He’s even taller in real life! And hiseyes!”
She made a valid point. Those eyes.
“And this morning, those photos appeared—wow! So you really are dating him? I mean, you just got back and he just got into town and the whole Nikki Kulik thing!”
“He is no longer dating Nicola Kulik,” Megan said, in a very clear and very un-Megan-like voice.
“Oh! But when did that—did you—”
Megan stared her down, and Britney seemed to lose her nerve. Maybe Megan should use that voice more often. “No, I did not,” she said. Did not break up Alessandro and Nicola. Did not plan on getting photographed and videoed. Did not kiss the man, which was a big mistake. If she was going to get into all this trouble, she could have at least gotten a smooch for it.
But Britney looked so hurt, Megan couldn’t take it. “Welp,” she said in her normal tone. “Now I have to get back to work.” She pushed her chair back from Britney’s and closer to her desk. “See you later? We can talk about what you want to say to Leo if you’d like.”
Britney looked frustrated but resigned. Megan continued to smile at her, and the woman slid her chair back and left.
♦
Alessandro slept late—or he didn’t want to get out of bed and face the day. One of those. He turned off his phone, kept the curtains closed, and hid his head under the pillow until hunger forced him to move. Thank the Fates for room service.
When he turned his phone back on around eleven o’clock, he found himself tagged in a set of photos and a video he’d never seen before, though with a backdrop of rough wood and blackboard walls he recognized at once. And there, obviously knowing exactly what she was doing, was Megan, posing for the cameras with that 500-watt smile, looking like she’d just stepped out of her day job to do a spread forVogue. When he clicked on the video and heard her familiar voice admonish the camera to mention the Studio, he found himself grinning as well. She’d told him she didn’t like the cameras just five hours ago, but clearly the cameras liked her, and she’d decided to embrace it and do some good at the same time.
