Page 26 of Breaking the Ice

“Excuse me?”

“Yolanda and I hire the same PR firm.”

My eyes narrow as I ask, “What do you need a PR firm for?”

“I don’t need them often,” he says, “but I keep them on retainer in case something comes up.”

I cross one arm over the other like a genie preparing to grant wishes. “It’s almost like you know you’re going to get in trouble.”

Zach rolls his eyes. “You don’t get to be as successful as I am without people causing mischief. It would be stupid not to be prepared.”

“And yet here you are,” I say. “In trouble and no one is defending you. Like you’re guilty of the charges.”

Zach stands up and starts pacing back and forth across the room. Given its small dimensions, he can’t gain much steam, and winds up resembling a caged tiger.

“I hope no one puts you on a jury anytime soon. You seem to have forgotten that a person is innocent until proven guilty.”

He’s correct. Yet if he really is innocent, you’d think he’d be shouting his virtue to the rafters. “So, you’re saying that you and Yolanda only went out because your PR firm set it up.”

“Yes.”

“What did you both get out of it?” I want to know.

Zach inhales deeply before releasing his ragged breath. “Yolanda was going to do a flattering interview with me …”

I interrupt, “Because The Tattler called you a cheapskate.”

He hesitates before agreeing. “Correct.”

“What does she get?”

“Great publicity.”

“How’s that?”

Zach bends down and rests his elbows on his knees. “If I answer that question, you can’t hold it against me.”

I shrug, neither confirming nor denying my impending reaction.

“Yolanda wants her own national talk show. The network said they would consider it if she could prove she could bring in the kind of big interviews that would promise huge ratings.”

His answer confuses me. “Aren’t all celebrities media whores?” I elaborate by asking, “I mean, don’t they go on any program that will have them?”

“Not the big names,” he says. “They stay selective so that when they’re interviewed, it guarantees the eyes of the world are on them.”

“If that’s true, then why would Yolanda go out of her way to alienate you?”

“It’s impossible for me to answer that question.”

Standing up from my chair, I walk to the door. With my hand on the knob, I smile brightly. “Why don’t we go and ask her?”

I find Zach’s look of alarm confusing. If he has nothing to hide, why not confront Yolanda and be done with it?

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Zach

Ellie and I walk out of the office to find Yolanda standing only a few yards away. A camera operator is next to her with his lens trained directly on us. I feel Ellie’s body tense next to mine, so I instinctively reach an arm out to pull her closer to my side.

---