Page 37 of And They Had a Great Fall

EXIT25TEA

Good authority says that Jake Laurent has been seen on the set of Zero Code kissing a mystery woman. Is he finally off the market?

He rested his free hand on Kat’s thigh. He knew, no matter how little this was, it would upset her. He heard her take a sharp breath.

“This seems harmless,” Jake said, giving Kat a reassuring look. He had seen more salacious tweets connecting him to women he wasn’t actually sleeping with, which made this speculation seem innocuous.

Cindy continued, “This is a Danish gossip blogger. The tweet has limited retweets, but once a US fan retweets it—which will happen—it will get a lot more visibility.”

“How much visibility? Like thousands or millions?” Kat asked Jake.

Cindy chimed in. “Oh, Kat is there with you? Good,” she said. “It’s tough to tell. The last dating rumor was retweeted sixty-two thousand times. Views were probably in the single millions, but he has a much bigger fan base now.”

Jake felt Kat push his hand off her as she pulled her knees up to her chest. He threw his arm around her and pulled her closer. He wasn’t going to let her retreat. Not because of one hundred and forty characters of gossip. This was nothing, and he doubted it would go further than the normal rumor cycle of the internet, which had a shelf life of a few days, max. Once she’d arrived, he’d expected this to happen. He was surprised it took this long.

“This seems pretty normal. Is there anything we should do, Cindy?” Jake asked, turning his attention back to the phone.

“No, we’ll monitor it and let you know if it escalates or if anything comes out that starts to confirm your relationship or identify Kat. Honestly, I don’t foresee it lasting long—a flurry of retweets, some speculation, and in thirty-six hours everyone has moved on. Exposure is never bad for you Jake, so this should be just fine.” Cindy continued, “Jake, what I want to talk about … we discussed this … if you’re together, which it sounds like you are, it’s only a matter of time before something does come out. I wish you would let us get ahead of this, control it.”

Kat’s eyes widened, and Jake went to protest, but Kat jumped in first. “What does that mean?” she asked Cindy.

“Well, Kat, everything Jake does is of interest to his fans, whether it’s friends, relationships … you name it, they want to know. I guarantee you, therewillbe a point where something gets out, and we’ll need to navigate the fan interest in your relationship. I suggested to Jake that we just do a well-timed social post or leak to an entertainment site—control the narrative so it doesn’t get twisted. You two have a really intriguing storybetween his emerging stardom, your past … it reads like a goddamn novel. It would be great for Jake. It’d make him seem a little more serious,” she said. “For you, the connection to Jake would make you semi-famous, and who doesn’t want that?”

“Me,” Kat said. “I don’t want that. And I can’t have that, especially right now.” Jake could hear the edge in her voice. “And I want some control, some say in this,” she looked at Jake. “Jake and I don’t even know if we’re—”

Cindy interrupted. “Yes, and I wish we all had a say in what’s picked up by the press and social media,” Cindy said with her usual brashness, “but it doesn’t matterwhatyou are. We live in a society where perception trumps reality. Kat, you shouldn’t even be there if you’re so worried.”

Jake knew he needed to end the call before Cindy tried to push Kat any further. Cindy could be a lot to take, and although Jake was used to her brashness, Kat was visibly bristling.

“It’s only a matter of time, Kat. You seem smart. Surely you know this,” Cindy said.

“Yes. I’m not an idiot. But now is not the time,” Kat stated with a firm voice.

“Cindy, we talked about this, and we’re not doing anything that will identify Kat. This will blow over, as you said, so we’ll just lay low until it does.” With that, Jake hit end, and he threw his phone to the end of the bed.

He put both arms around her and let out his breath when she leaned into him. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I should have been more careful on set yesterday.” He tightened his hold on her, waiting for her to pull away.

“We knew this could happen,” she said without emotion. “I thought it was a closed set, NDAs and all. I’m surprised this happened so fast.”

“True, this shouldn’t happen, but it does. And it does happen this fast,” he said. He needed her to understand how he lived. Hedidn’t disagree with Cindy’s idea to get ahead of the narrative. He would talk to Kat about it in time. It was inevitable, and the worst thing they could do was let others speculate—it made the swirl last even longer.

“This is my fault. There were almost one hundred crew members on set.” He let that hang in the air for a second. He should’ve known that at least one of them would text a friend, wanting the immediate glory of a celebrity scoop, and in this age of technology, information traveled at light speed.

She was so quiet it unnerved him. He couldn’t read her face or emotions. “Kat, talk to me, what’s going on in your head?”

She didn’t reply right away. “Well,” she started and then hesitated, “I certainly shouldn’t come to set again.”

Jake didn’t agree, but he wasn’t going to argue with her. He felt her shrug off his embrace and lift her head off his shoulder. She turned so they were face-to-face.

“I think I should go back to New York or at least stay in a hotel,” she said.

It was like she dropped a bomb right into his brain. He reached out and grabbed her hand. He needed to quell his own panic by physically connecting himself to her so she wouldn’t just evaporate before his eyes.

“No Kat, come on, don’t do this,” he said, his voice nearly pleading. “This is nothing, it’ll be over in a day, and no one will figure out who you are.” He was frustrated that something this small would make her retreat.

“And what do we do when itissomething?” she challenged. “Cindy is right about one thing: I shouldn’t be here right now, with everything at stake.” She paused and took a deep breath. “I’m not going to be here much longer anyway. You seem fine now, and this is just a distraction.”

Jake clenched his jaw and breathed through the hurt and frustration he felt bubbling up to the surface. He blew out a breath,reached over, and pushed her chin up and made her look in his eyes. “Do you honestly believe this is just a distraction?” he said, and he could feel the tightness in his throat. “Because if you do, youshouldleave,” he said.

---