Page 33 of One Pucking Chance

“There you are. Lost you for a second. Where’d you zone out to?” He shakes his head. “Never mind, I don’t think I want to know.”

“You don’t,” I quip.

Miranda slides into the empty chair beside me and leans back with a sigh. “You’re finally free.” She pins me with a stare, and I know exactly what she’s thinking.

As my publicist, she’s been fielding calls all morning about the kissing stunt last night, yet she doesn’t know any more than anyone else who has seen the photos. It’s been such a crazy morning. I was in makeup by the time she found me this morning, and there hasn’t been a second to catch her up.

I shoot her a coy smile. “I’m sorry.”

“You should be. I’ve had to avoid nineteen calls from your father, Anna. Nineteen.” She threads her fingers through her thick auburn hair. “That man is persistent.”

Simon grunts, a grin on his face. I suppose no one at this table is immune from my father.

“I’ll catch you up on everything. Just not now,” I tell her.

“Anna!” she whisper-shrieks. Leaning forward, she splays her palms against the table. “That is not good enough. I have to make a statement and at the very least call your father back or he’s going to fly back from LA and storm the set.”

Looking around, I take in the cast and crew sitting at the tables around us. They’re all pretending as if they’re not hanging on every word being said, but most of them aren’t very good actors.

I steal a glance at the time and push my salad away. Truthfully, I’m not very hungry anyway. “Fine.” I lean toward her and whisper, “We have ten minutes. Let’s go somewhere more private.”

Miranda pushes up from the table and scurries out of the room as I follow. We hide away in the costume closet.

“Spill it,” Miranda says, hands on her hips.

It doesn’t take long for me to give her all the important details, and as I finish telling her everything, I feel bad for making her wait all morning for an explanation. “I’m sorry. It felt bigger than it is, I guess.”

“No, Anna… it’s big.” She chews on the inside of her cheek in thought. “So…” She taps her lip with her index finger. “We’re just spinning this as a real relationship. One built out of love, respect, and trust.”

“Sure.” I shrug.

She shakes her head and forces a laugh. “I don’t know what I’m going to do about you. You’re so serious all the time, and now that you’re on camera making out with your fake boyfriend, you’re just all… ‘sure.’” She imitates my voice with a scrunched-up face.

I chuckle. “What am I supposed to do? It’s done. That genie is not going back in the bottle. I’m ‘dating’ Jaden.” I move my fingers in air quotes. “Now, I don’t have to fake it with Simon. There’s nothing my dad can do about his Simon proposal, but maybe he’ll be a little happy that now that I’m ‘serious’”—I use the air quotes again—“with someone else, I won’t be perceived as a whore. Right?”

Her eyebrows furrow. “Your dad can go fuck himself.”

“And that, too.” I laugh.

“Seriously, you’re not the one who has to talk to him,” she grumbles.

I shrug. “I can call him back tonight if you want me to.”

“No. It’s my job. And honestly, it’ll be fun to hear him all riled up. So I’ll release a statement to… TMZ?”

I nod. “Yeah, they always get the word out.”

“That’s what I was thinking. Thirty seconds after I inform them, everyone else will know the scoop and move on.”

“Right.”

“Okay,” she sighs. “So not so bad.”

“Not so bad.” I grin.

“We still need to discuss how this whole fake dating thing will work. You two will have to be seen in public at least a few times, you know?” she says.

“Yeah, I figured at the very least we can go to all his home games while we’re here filming.”

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