Page 80 of 7 Days and 7 Nights

"I’m sorry, Liv. If you want to deny everything, I’ll back you up.”

“I don’t need you to back me up. And I don’t need you to lie for me. In fact, I don’t want anything from you.”

Olivia turned away from him and picked up her pace. Matt followed closely behind.

He had less than a second to register the beauty of the day before Charles stopped them all in their tracks.

“Um - I hope you don’t mind but I invited the AJC to come and cover the end of the promo and the reporter is just pulling up now.”

The AJC reporter walked towards them with his hand outstretched to Charles and they did the handshake-pull-in-half-hug-back-slap thing that Matt did with his best buddies, but did not do with someone he just met.

Matt felt Olivia tense beside him, and he couldn’t blame her; this was a set-up. He could feel it.

The reporter introduced himself as Rodney Ho and immediately began firing his questions at them.

“So what was going on in there in the rooms we couldn’t see? Are the two of you involved?”

T.J. stepped forward and interrupted with the details about the unprecedented amount raised for the Third Harvest Food Bank and how the audience participation was at an all-time high. Clearly, Rodney was not interested in that story angle, but at least Matt had a second to think before the reporter focused his attention back on them.

Only derailed for a moment, Rodney, holding up his iPhone to record their responses asked, “So… are you two involved? And which one of you pulled the plug on the cameras?”

Beside him, he could feel Olivia shaking. Instinctively, he stepped closer to lend his body as support. He wanted to put an arm around her shoulder and drag her away from the reporter, or at least speak up in their defense, but every glib response that sprang to his mind died on his lips because he couldn’t come up with one that wouldn’t damage Olivia in some way. His concern for her overrode his normal instincts for self-preservation so completely that he hardly recognized himself.

Olivia took a slight step forward, and Matt watched her square her shoulders and clear her throat. He braced himself for whatever was to come.

“Listen…there’s no way to satisfactorily explain what went on in that apartment, and I’m not going to try. I’ll just say that I’m glad the week produced such great results for the food bank, I’m thrilled our listeners responded in such a generous way.” She flashed a wry smile. “And being locked up for a week with Matt Ransom is enough to drive any woman to desperation.”

She turned to him, the tenseness of her body belying the smile on her face and the casual tone of her words. Then she waited, without a word, for him to cut her off at the knees.

Matt felt a swift burst of pride at her bravery. Because he wanted to, and because he knew she wouldn’t flinch away from him in front of an audience, he stepped up and slung an arm across her shoulders. Then he gave her an exaggerated wink. She tensed but managed to stay put, her smile firmly in place as he said, “Well, if you can cop an insanity plea, I guess I can, too.” He turned his gaze to the reporter, taking in his sharp-faced curiosity. “All I have to say is... ditto.”

“Is it true you two had a relationship eight years ago in Chicago?” Rodney asked.

Olivia whirled around to face Matt.

Without waiting for a response, and knowing he had them off balance, the reporter flung out another question. “And did you really bet your staff you’d have Dr. Moore flat on her back before the week was out?”

Matt watched the outrage suffuse Olivia’s face. He lowered his voice and said, “It’s not the way it sounds, Olivia.”

The outrage turned to disgust. For a long moment she stared at him as if he were a form of plankton, and then she shook off his arm and plunged forward toward the limo. Matt followed with T.J. in his wake. Charles conferred with the reporter quickly and followed along.

Moments later, Matt slid onto the bench seat after Olivia, while Crankower and T.J. slid in to sit across from them. As the car pulled away from the curb, for the life of him, Matt couldn’t think of a thing to say. Unable to argue his innocence and unwilling to dissect his original intentions in front of Charles and T.J., he remained silent as the driver worked his way through morning traffic. Olivia kept her back to him, staring intently out her window at the rapidly disappearing park across the way. Turning to look out his own window, Matt watched the apartment building grow small and fall out of sight and wondered who’d been feeding the AJC reporter inside information.

Charles broke the silence. “Did you see the latest stats on Twitter? I think this might warrant a mention on some of the national morning TV shows. They love these kinds of social media things. I know a guy atGood Morning America,I’ll text him.”

Matt and Olivia continued to stare out their respective windows. Olivia held her body away from his, and when they rounded a curve she was careful not to allow herself to touch him. He could feel the hurt and anger rolling off her in waves.

“All right. National TV would be good for the station, and they don’t usually press too hard in these kinds of situations” T.J. said.

Olivia continued to stare out her window, ignoring all of them.

“Er, not that there’s a situation,” T.J. amended.

T.J. and Charles waited expectantly, but Matt and Olivia remained silent. “Okay, then,” T.J. continued. “If you don’t feel like sharing yet, I guess we need to formulate a strategy to deal with the fallout. We won’t doLiv LiveorGuy Talktoday. We’ll let the audience simmer down first. They’ll tune in in droves tomorrow.”

He turned to the promotions man beside him. “Charles, get Diane and Ben on the phone and tell them to pull ‘best of’ shows to air today. We’ll drop Olivia and Matt off at their homes, let them get some rest, and we’ll all meet back at the station this afternoon.”

The limo turned into Olivia’s neighborhood and took a left onto her street. They sat, with the engine idling outside of Olivia’s house. Only T.J. had anything to say. “In light of the, um, rather spectacular ending of the promotion, I’ve asked the consultant to conduct a final focus group and an additional survey to gauge audience reaction. I’ll have his report and Detroit’s reaction by the time we meet.”

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