Page 98 of Extended Bridge

Someone near us clears his throat, causing us to break apart. “Hi.” A young man in his early twenties stands at the end of our table. Must be a fan.

Bennett stands and extends his hand. “Hello. I’m Bennett Hardy.”

“I know.” With his head, he gestures toward the back of the restaurant. “I’m here with my family. We couldn’t help but watch the talk show.”

Bennett spews, “Lies.”

“Well, from where we were sitting, Lissa looks like the wronged one. Here you are kissing the Black Widow while the mother of your dead child is forced to cry on national TV. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

Not a fan, then. Bennett starts to defend himself, but I toss a bunch of money on the table for food we didn’t touch and put my arm around his bicep. In mynot to be crossedvoice, as Court dubbed it during school, I say, “You have your so-called facts wrong, but we’re not going to convince you. Good day.” I yank on Bennett’s arm and, after several tries, he leaves with me.

As soon as we reach the sidewalk, I pre-empt his tirade. “Call the limo. We’ll regroup in the hotel.”

We walk around the corner and duck into an alley so as not to attract any more attention while we wait. A couple of minutes later, the limo arrives and we scramble inside.

“That guy! How could he believe her?”

“Lissa painted you in a pretty awful light.”

“She made it all up! Maybe all the plastic surgery went to her brain.”

“Luke and the PR team will sort this out.”

My phone rings.

“Don’t answer it.”

I glance at the caller. “It’s Ma.”

He crosses his arms across his chest. “Unless she’s been accused of breaking up the governor’s marriage and having his love child, I think she can wait.”

He needs my attention more than Ma. I dismiss her call. “There. I’ll make you explain this to her later.”

“Fine.” He rakes his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know what makes me madder. The fact I never touched her in highschool and no one believes me, or her saying she lost my nonexistent baby.” After a second he adds, “Or her spewing about you ruining UC.”

There’s no way around any of it. “It all sucks.”

“It does.”

We pass by Graceland, all the excitement from earlier in the day a distant memory. His phone rings this time. “It’s Luke.”

“Put the call on speakerphone.” If the allegations against me are going to be included in this conversation, I need to be made privy.

Bennett does and Luke launches directly into his speech. “What the hell were you thinking, B? By calling in, you gave her story more legs. The PR team now has to work twice as hard to make her disappear.”

“I had to defend myself. Almost everything she said was lies, except I was a stupid kid who told her I loved her.” He seethes, “I never got any from her though—not for not trying—but the frigid bitch wouldn’t let me.”

“I don’t care if she became a nun. What was the first rule I ever told you guys?”

Bennett stares at the carpet covering the limo’s floor. “Never engage,” he mumbles.

“What was that? Speak up.”

His head levels. “You said never to engage. That wasyourjob.”

“What did you do?”

Although I understand the situation, I can’t take the way he’s berating Bennett. I interject, “He didn’t mean to make things worse, Luke. He thought he could correct the record.”

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