Page 23 of And They Had a Great Fall

Kat nodded, but she didn’t mean it. Although Becca would likely remember Jake, it wasn’t about Jake and Becca. Kat was reminded of another reason she needed to keep her relationship with Jake private.

She’d asked Ben’s parents to watch Becca so she could travel for work, which was mostly true. She couldn’t imagine their feelings if they’d known they were watching their grandchild, the daughter of their deceased son, so her mom could run off to a foreign country to see another man. She felt like she was cheating on Ben’s memory, and by default, his entire family.

“Hey, did you leave me any hot water?” Kat asked, changing the subject. “A shower sounds amazing right now.”

“It felt almost as good as that nap did,” Jake said, stretching his shoulder. “Get in there, I’ll order a late lunch.”

Jake was right. The shower felt wonderful, and she spent extra time just letting the hot water cascade over her entire body. The past few days had been fun and challenging, overwhelming and exciting, and she felt as alive as she had when Jake had first burst into her life. She felt a twinge of sadness that it couldn’t be this way all the time. It had taken his phone call and her work trip to bring them together and even then, it was fleeting.

She was resolved to keep enough of a barrier up to protectherself from falling for him, but she couldn’t deny how he made her feel: desired, not for what she could accomplish, but because of who she was as a woman. He made her feel cared for in a way that had become foreign to her. The reality of their lives not rationally fitting together was unavoidable, but she couldn’t help enjoying, even for a little while, living in an orbit that contained Jake. She was resigned to compartmentalize Jake into these ten days, even though they had already slipped into an intimacy far surpassing their months together.

She pulled on soft joggers and her favorite NYU sweatshirt. Her body and mind were sluggish after their earlier activities and minuscule nap. She hadn’t registered how hungry she was until she saw lunch on the table. He’d ordered her a turkey sandwich … and a beef sandwich … and a ham sandwich.

“Take your pick … ahh … I didn’t know what you liked,” he said with a sheepish smile. She picked up the turkey sandwich, unwrapped it, and took a bite.

Jake sat back and took a drink of his protein shake. “So, we do need to talk,” he started. Kat swallowed and raised her eyebrows. He sounded serious.

“Yes?” she asked with a hint of concern in her voice. She set her sandwich back on the table, leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms.

Jake continued, “I need to tell my publicist about you.”

Kat opened her mouth to speak, and Jake reached over and gently uncrossed her arms. “Please let me finish.” His voice was quiet, his eyes soft. She closed her mouth and squeezed his hand.

“As much as I like all the rules you put in place—you know I think they’re awesome,” he started, winking at her, sarcasm evident, “it’s naive to think that there won’t be any photographs spun into some story. I’ve learned—the hard way, I might add—that we need to get ahead of it.”

“What are you thinking?” she asked. She didn’t necessarilyagree, but his tone said this was not up for discussion. He knew his world better than she did. She’d been listening earlier when Jake confessed that fame destabilized him. She couldn’t imagine what it was like to have your every move analyzed under a microscope. What it must feel like to have strangers think they know you, deserve a piece of you, just because they saw you on a screen. If it were her, it would’ve driven her into hiding. It hit her how unfair, even offensive, it was for her to even pretend to know how to manage his public life.

“I have a call with my publicist later today and I’ll tell her you’re here. You and I are friends, and our families know each other. You have business here and are just visiting.” He paused. “I don’t know if they’ll get any calls or questions, but if we need to release something at any point, they won’t be scrambling.”

“Do you think that will happen? They might need to release something? I figured we could be insomecasual photos without it automatically linking me to you, like romantically.” Her heart beat faster.

“Yes. I do think it could happen. We were lucky yesterday, and I’m kicking myself for earlier today,” he said. “Letting people on my team know helps us. I’m sensitive to your concerns for Becca, and I understand how the wrong optics could derail your career right now.” He ceased talking and shook his head back and forth. “Things are different, Kat. I thought it was hard to manage before, but it’s escalating,” he said. “I can’t just hope it won’t happen. I want to have a strategy and a team ready if … when it does.”

She nodded to show she understood. His last movie, which was out in theaters and streaming, was a critical darling. His profile continued to rise publicly, and she had watched the size and fervor of his fandom increase. She was just beginning to see the impact on his everyday life.

“Do you think we should just stay in for the rest of the trip?I’ll be going into the office starting tomorrow, so it might be easier to only be together here, in the apartment,” she asked. She felt naive and stupid that she’d decided Tivoli would be a good idea yesterday and somewhere as touristy as Rosenborg today. He was right—they’d been lucky.

“No, Kat. I won’t live in hiding. And neither should you, just because we’re together. It’s pretty easy for me to be out during the fringes of the day: early morning and very late evening. Less people. We should stick to those times if we can,” he said. “But we have nothing to hide and, if I include the PR team to manage anything that comes out, we’ll be fine.”

“You think a PR team is better than my six rules?” she teased.

“Yes.” He winked. Jake hesitated and then continued, “Listen, after Lolla, I promised that I wouldn’t catch them off guard.”

“Ahh,” Kat said. The images of Jake drunk and high, at Lollapalooza, a multiday music festival in Chicago, flashed in her mind. She closed her eyes for a second attempting to push the pictures of Jake draped across multiple girls out of her brain. The virtual chatter had been negative and incessant for days. In the pictures that covered every news feed, she’d stared at his hollow eyes, pale skin, and forced smile and had worried he wasn’t okay. Although they hadn’t spoken for months, she’d broken their silence and called him. He hadn’t picked up or ever acknowledged her call.

“How many girls were you with that weekend?” she asked. As soon as the question slipped out of her mouth, she wished she hadn’t asked.

He raised his eyebrows. “Do you really want me to answer that?”

“Yes. No. Whatever. Answer if you want,” she said, trying to act casual. Ugh. She knew better than to ask, but her curiosity got the better of her.

He cleared his throat. “Four.”

“Four!” she said, unable to keep the surprise out of her voice. “You were only there for two days! How does that even happen?” She was louder than she meant to be, trying to get her stupid brain to stop doing the math and figuring out the logistics of four women in one weekend.

“Certainly, you don’t want me to answer that,” he said. “I was only there for thirty-six hours for a press junket. Those things are fucking boring. Lolla was just a diversion.” He looked smug, which made her irritation bubble to the surface.

“Jake!” she scowled at him. Unrest settled in her stomach as pictured him using his power as a celebrity to pick up women for his amusement. Because he wasbored. She hadn’t seen him as a womanizer, but he didn’t think twice about having sex with four different women in thirty-six hours. She was reminded that she only knew a part of him and this person, this part of him, she did not know.

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