Page 84 of How to Get Even

‘When you stopped caring about the reputation of yourself and this gallery,’ she whisper-hissed back.

‘What?’ he demanded, fully outraged now. ‘I care!’ he yelled, leaning into the argument now. ‘But what Idon’tcare for, is using children to try and redeem it.’

‘The children are safe, the school is anonymous, and the picture is so far away that you can’t identify anyone other than you,’ Bella mutinously yelled back.

‘I had no warning, Bella. None. I woke up this morning to this.’

He slapped the newspaper down on the countertop, the article face-up and centred around a photograph of the little boy holding his hand and staring at his picture, framed and up on the wall.

Bella shrugged and gave him a look that basically wondered what the hell his problem was.

‘It’s a balanced article on the importance of local galleries working with local, underfunded and overstretched schools, to help breach the barriers to art.’

‘But you didn’ttellme about it,’ he growled, unable to confess why the fact that he’d been kept in the dark about it felt like a betrayal.

‘Because you wouldn’t have agreed to it,’ she pointed out.

‘Precisely.’

‘And you would have been wrong.’

His hands flew to his temples.

Give me strength.

‘I’m mad at you for doing this,’ he said, stating the obvious.

‘For doing my job?’ she threw back at him. ‘Because that’s what this is, Chase. My job. Our job, in fact. To make sure that this gallery opens with the greatest success for Tej and for the artists that we show here. And part ofthat,’ she stressed, entirely for his benefit, he was sure, ‘is making sure thatyourreputation is damn near squeaky-clean.’

He clenched his jaw, his teeth aching under the pressure. ‘Fine.’

‘Fine,’ she shot back.

‘But no more PR stunts.’

Bella narrowed her eyes and he wanted to throttle her.

‘What is it this time?’ he demanded, anchoring his hands on his hips so that he didn’t accidentally actually do just that.

She inhaled and held her breath.

And the longer she held it, the more he worried.

‘We’re attending the Harrison’s gala at the Pulham Hotel, this coming weekend.’

‘No,we’renot,’ he said, cutting a hand through the air, not even having to think about it for a second. ‘You can go without me.’

‘No, I can’t. Magenta came through and got ustwotickets. So, we’re going.’

‘We are absolutely fuckingnot, Bella.’

‘You don’t need to swear.’

‘You did,’ he pointed out.

‘I did not,’ she denied hotly.

‘Yes, you did,’ he needled.

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