Page 81 of Tuxedos and Tinsel

He’d heard about the article, no doubt. “You better take it.”

“He can wait until we’re done talking.”

“What more do we have to talk about? The damage is done.”

“Not necessarily. We just need to get out ahead of things. We’ll tell people it was a vindictive ex-girlfriend or someone with a grudge. If we do it right, we can spin this in our favor.”

“How, when it’s the truth? We aren’t a real couple.”

Her lower lip started to quiver. Lewis had to look away.

“We both said it that night in front of your apartment. A casual hookup that doesn’t mean anything. We aren’t some grand romance.”

Why would she want to be with him now anyway? His chance at redemption was done. If he was untouchable before, because of his reputation, surely, he was doubly so now that the papers branded him a fraud.

He couldn’t see bouncing back. Not this time. Might as well walk away from Susan too, and end everything in one cut.

“You should go talk to your brother,” he said walking away. “Fix what you can.”

“What were you thinking?” Thomas asked. With the baby sleeping in the bassinet a few feet away, he kept his voice a whisper. That didn’t hide his frustration however. “A phony romance?”

He paced back and forth in front of the ornate giant tree the decorators had installed in his living room as Susan watched his progress from the couch. “I knew something was odd from the start, but Linus convinced me that you were the real thing. I couldn’t believe when he told me last night. And now this?”

He pointed to the paper that lay on the cushion next to her.

“That,” Susan replied, “is not my fault. Gossip columnists have spies everywhere. All it takes for things to spiral out of control is for someone to overhear a single conversation.”

“If I find out one of my employees leaked the information, they’re going to be out the door.”

Susan kept quiet. As satisfying as it would be to toss Courtney and Ginger under the bus, she wouldn’t. If they were guilty, Thomas would find out easily enough and deal with the problem. Susan didn’t need to add fuel to the fire without proof.

“What did you and Lewis think you were going to gain by doing this?” The question came from Rosalind who, until she spoke, had been sitting quietly next to the bassinet watching.

“A new reputation,” Susan replied. Still pacing, Thomas let out a loud scoff. “He really is a different person,” she said. “About as far from Champagne Lewis as you can get. Only no one would believe him. Everyone was waiting for him to slip up.”

“So to prove he was reliable, he decided to lie to the press. Fabulous.” Her brother rolled his eyes.

“It’s called a contractual relationship and it’s done all the time by actors and athletes. Especially if they need a socially acceptable partner or have a project to promote. I wouldn’t be surprised if my mother’s had one.”

“Oh, by all means, let’s copy your mother’s bad example.”

“Thomas,” Rosalind admonished.

“It’s all right,” Susan told her. Belinda certainly wasn’t the best role model. “My point is, this wasn’t some nutty scheme Lewis dreamed up. There’s precedence.”

“Let us get this straight,” said Rosalind calmly. “You’re saying that Lewis needed to be seen with someone like you to look respectable?”

“Precisely. I’m the complete opposite of the women people picture him dating. The idea was that being seen with me would prove he was no longer the same man. And he’s not.” Didn’t matter if he’d broken her heart a half hour ago. She would defend Lewis’s character until the end.

“He needed an image makeover and this seemed like the best and most subtle way to do it,” she said. “It almost worked too. Graham Montclark vouched for him to the network. They were talking about giving him a broadcast job.”

Until this morning. Susan couldn’t imagine Lewis’s despair. To be so close to what you wanted only to have it taken away.

Actually she could imagine. She wanted to curl up and cry her broken heart out for a week. Only thing stopping her was maintaining a front for Thomas’s inquisition.

Thing was, she couldn’t blame her brother for being angry.

“All right.” He sat down in a chair across from her. “I get what Lewis was trying to do. Why would you agree though? What could you possibly be getting? And don’t say publicity for the company, because we both know that couldn’t have been your main driver.”