Page 86 of Doc Showmance
I sat next to him, across from the others, and kicked his foot. “Stop grinning. You look like a game show host.”
He kicked me back. “Did you not get enough sleep last night or something?”
I elbowed him. “Or something.”
“Soooo…” The producer hit about three notes on that word, effectively ending our sniping. “We got some interesting footage from the weekend. I don’t like the long segments when you two ditched the camera.” Marianna opened her laptop. “We need to talk how we’re going to orchestrate your breakup. As in doing so in the next few days.”
“What?” Ian and I said at the same time.
“Ian is out of here after Christmas, which is weeks away. We must end this. Then we can have some awkwardness afterward and maybe this can be a reason Ian leaves.”
I crossed my arms when chills skittered through my shoulders. A quick glance at him confirmed his smile had disappeared.
“You’re leaving?” I whispered to him.
“That was always the plan,” he said low. Louder he said, “I thought my contract was to be here several months, maybe five or six.”
“It was variable and I’m getting bored,” Marianna said.
“Would’ve been nice to know it was so soon,” I mumbled. He was already leaving? I thought we’d have more time. And that was the organ in my chest dying in misery and disappointment.Thiswas why I hated relationships. Something always screwed it up for me. To have my breakup scripted when it probably would’ve happened naturally, though? The urge to rant, break something, and cry hit me at the same time. My head pounded.
“You two think I’m going to foster some sort of long-distance bullshit with you two?” Marianna asked. “Uh, no.” She glared at us in silence. “Please tell me this didn’t go from fake to something real. I can’t deal with real emotions screwing up my plans.”
“We’re good,” I said, but it came out hoarse.
Ian remained silent.
“Great.” Marianna resumed absorption into her computer.
“Are we good?” Ian whispered to me.
“Let me be clear on one thing,” I said loudly. “As soon as he leaves, I’m back to only thirty percent on camera, and I’ll never do another fake romance for the show. This has been humiliating and distracting.”
“That’s too far in the future for me to think about,” Marianna said. “In the short term, I have both of you booked for three talk shows this week to PR the show. One is coming to you to do at lunch today. The second will be on Wednesday morning at the Humane Society, and the third is on Friday afternoon.
“I’m off this Friday,” I said. “I refuse to spend my day off doing work crap.”
“I can’t do Friday, either. I have a thing at the zoo. Prior commitment,” Ian said.
“We’ll see what we can do to move Friday. But you’re doing these things. Today you’ll do theToday Showlive. They’ll ask you some silly stuff. Just don’t be too much yourselves. And act as if like you like each other. None of this stupid hitting each other business.”
“Are they buying us lunch today?” I asked. “I’m not giving up my one hour of time if there isn’t food involved.”
“Sure, we’ll make sure you get free lunch out of it.” She rolled her eyes. “Back to the breakup. I need ideas.” Marianna clicked and unclicked her pen. People around her started tossing out options. She said, “We can bring in an ex or even a current girlfriend or boyfriend.”
“No,” I said.
Ian shook his head.
“Cheating is the easiest way out,” Marianna said. “Great drama.” Most of her team of five were bobbing their heads like perfect suck-ups.
“It makes whoever is the cheater look like a jerk,” I pointed out.
Marianna shrugged. “We’ve got that ex of Ian’s already on camera. She’s pretty. I gave her a call earlier this morning. She’s flying in tomorrow.”
“What? I won’t go back to her,” Ian said. “That’s a no way. If you want her humiliated, then sure, put her on camera, but warn her it’s a no from me.”
“She looks phenomenal on camera, even better than Amber. She’s not as interesting or unpredictable as Amber, but she’s pretty.”
