Page 41 of Marry Me…Maybe?
‘Emily! Marnie White from theDaily Courier. So, a little birdy – in the shape of your executive producer – tells me that congratulations are in order?’
Emily gave the woman a blank stare, wondering why Ben had told a journalist about his decision to keep her on atTreasure Trailbefore he’d talked to her about it. Surely that couldn’t be right?
‘You mean about the show moving to a new channel?’ she asked with a stiff smile, hating the idea of being caught out like this in full public view. Even though it sounded as if it was going to be good news about the show, she would have preferred to hear it from Ben first, so she could have had more time to formulate an upbeat soundbite for the press.
The journalist nodded towards Theo. ‘No, I’m talking about the two of you, tying the knot.’
She felt Theo freeze beside her.
Something hot and heavy dropped into her stomach, sending a wave of nausea up into her throat.
Oh, no…
‘So who’s invited to the wedding?’ the journalist continued, seemingly unaware of the chaos she’d just caused, loading hervoice with implication and batting her eyelashes to make sure Emily got the message.
Oh, she’d got the message all right. She was totally and utterly screwed.
‘Uh…’
She needed to pull herself together. Fast.
‘You know me, Marnie, I’m a very private person. I don’t like to comment on my personal life,’ she managed to mumble through frozen lips.
Her heart was beating so hard against her ribs she thought it might explode out of her body at any moment. She almost hoped it would – at least then they’d lead with a story about that instead of her supposed engagement to Theo.
All the journalists listening in, as well as Marnie, burst out laughing at that totally ridiculous statement. And quite fairly so. Never in her life had she shied away from courting the press in order to get publicity.
Deciding the best possible move was to run like the wind, she shot Marnie a cool smile and walked away quickly, hoping not to look too conspicuous in her hurry, pulling a very tense Theo along with her.
Her false grin was actually making her jaw ache by the time they escaped from the press line and into the cool, comparatively calm lobby of the large cinema.
People were milling about, drinking complimentary wine while they waited to be seated, so she dragged Theo into a quiet corridor leading to the other smaller cinemas, which weren’t being used in order to keep the rest of the venue exclusively for the premiere.
‘What the hell was that?’ Theo hissed, as soon as they were out of earshot of any of the other patrons.
His eyes flashed with anger as she gave him a horrified smile.
‘I’m so sorry. I had no idea that was going to happen.’
He threw up his hands in disgust. ‘Don’t you have any integrity? You really think it’s okay to lie about the status of our relationship to the press to get more exposure for your career?’
She held out both hands to him, begging for his understanding. ‘They’re talking about taking my show away from me, Theo. I can’t let them do that. I thought if they saw me supposedly settling down, they’d think I was a better fit for the tone they want to project with the show now.’
‘So you thought you’d lie about being engaged to an earl?’
His voice was so icy it made a shiver run down her spine.
‘It wasn’t—’ She took a deep steadying breath. ‘I never meant it to come out publicly. My exec producer misheard something I said and just assumed we were engaged. I didn’t correct him. I didn’t think it would cause this much trouble.’
He folded his arms across his chest. ‘Perhaps you were hoping that once the news got out, I’d have trouble backing out of it in case my mother found out?’
Her jaw dropped in outrage. ‘What are you saying? That you think I want to be engaged to you?’
‘Do you?’
‘No! I told you – I’m not interested in getting married. I like being single.’
He frowned, his expression flicking between confusion and anger, clearly having trouble believing her.
