We nodded our replies and got up very slowly heading off the set. Krystal pulled my head down onto her shoulder saying, "You were great."
I glanced up at her. "So were you."
She raised an eyebrow at me. "Are you talking about just now or last night?"
I lifted my head and wrapped an arm around her waist, "Both. Now let's get out of here. I need more sleep." Finding Mook in the green room on the phone I groaned inwardly. Had it started already?
We waited patiently and when he hung up his cell phone, he stood up and looked at us. "Well, it looks like you two are the talk of the town. The country really. Everyone wants interviews. I just got off the phone with Entertainment Tonight. They want one today to air tonight. So we're flying back to LA. Then there's People Magazine. They want an article for next week's issue. Access Hollywood will be after ET today. And they'll be a photo shoot for People this afternoon."
Krystal's eyes just widened as I yawned. "Can I sleep on the plane?" I asked.
"And that's not all," Mook continued. "The Firm has released a press statement along with the label. Everyone wants to know about you two. I've even had the editors of all those teeny magazines calling the office. It's gonna be so much fun these next couple of days."
I groaned. "That depends on how you define fun."
"Four am wake up calls for five o'clock interviews aren't fun?" Krystal asked. I glared at her. "Don't worry, Babe, we can do a lot of them from the hotel room."
"Can I do them in my PJs?" I asked.
"Sure, as long as they're not doing pictures."
"Good," I said, yawning again.
Mook clapped his hands. "Come on girls. Let's get back to the hotel. I've already got us a flight out at nine." I groaned again. I didn't mind flying, but this schedule was going to kill me.
With the five-hour plane ride, we made it to LA by eleven in the morning. I hated flying across the country and getting there a few hours after you supposedly left. It always bothered me. We went straight to the offices of KBNHA so we could do the interview for Entertainment Tonight. The questions were very similar to the ones Matt Laurer had asked us. It didn't really bother me, except for the fact that they interviewed us separately. Krystal was right there off camera to support me, but I was still terrified. Julie Moran, the reporter, was willing to help me relax and didn't mind that I had to take a of drink water or remember to breathe during the interview. When it was all over with them, it was right into Access Hollywood. They interviewed us together and I managed to remain calm. When we finished both interviews, both reporters said I was funny. I just rolled my eyes and Krystal said I was silly. We took a lunch break. It was more like a mid-afternoon food break. We had had lunch on the plane, or what they called lunch. I hadn't been able to eat much then but by the time we took the break, I was starving. Mook had to tell me to slow down or I would choke. After lunch we went to a studio in the Valley for photos for People Magazine. I was expecting a small little write up, but they wanted a big thing. I didn't care. While we were there, the teeny magazines decided to do pictures as well. As long as they were out of the way. There were seven different teeny magazine reporters that wanted to meet with us. We decided to do them all the next day. Which meant a four-thirty wake up call. Krystal and I crawled into bed around eleven and fell asleep immediately not caring that we were sharing a bed at that point. So far everything was positive, but I knew the backlash couldn't be far behind.
A few weeks later, I went into work at the radio station I was a receptionist for. I was sitting there sorting the prizes that had been given away that morning when Shelly, our Hollywood reporter came into the office. "Hey Becca," the tall auburn haired beauty said to me. "How's life?"
"Not bad Shell. What's on the agenda today?"
She looked directly at me and said, "You are."
"Huh?" I gawked.
"I thought I'd let you know that I'm about to go in and do the Hollywood Gossip and you're in it. The National Enquirer is willing to pay one million dollars to the first person who can capture you and Krystal kissing," she told me in all seriousness.
"Really?" I asked. "You didn't get the numbers mixed up did you?"
"Nope. One million dollars. Oh and Dave wants you in on the recording."
I shrugged. "Okay." I leaned back into the booth adjoining me. "Yo, Brandon. Can you cover the phones for me for a bit?"
Brandon walked around and looked at me. "It'll cost ya."
"Fine, I'll bring you coffee tomorrow. Just do it okay?"
He grinned at me and came around to take my place. I stood up and followed Shelly into the recording booth. I recorded the bit with Dave and Shelly and then paged Krystal. Krystal must not have been doing anything because I had no sooner hung up the phone than it rang. "Good morning, KZAP, KALL, and KATT, how may I direct your call?"
"Hey Becca, you paged?" Krystal said on the other end.
My breath caught in my throat. "Gee, are you like, not busy?" She giggled. "Um, I thought I'd let you know that I just got out of recording a piece with Shelly our Hollywood Gossip reporter." She giggled again, thinking that I was only calling her to say that I was going to be on the radio. "Do you know what the foundations could do with two hundred thousand dollars?"
"Probably a lot, why? Are you thinking of donating two hundred thousand dollars?" She giggled for a third time.
Her giggling was driving me mad. "No. But Andre might."
"Huh?"
I sighed. "The National Enquirer is willing to pay one million dollars to the first person to get a picture of us kissing. So I was thinking that if Andre did it, we could convince him to donate the money to the Boys' foundations." I held my breath while I waited for her answer.
I was just about ready to start turning blue when she finally answered. "You are a genius! But you do know it's gotta be like he was snooping around."
"Of course! So, I fly out to LA and we're hanging by the pool and he's hiding behind the bushes or in the lobby or something. I mean you know that we don't see each other that much anyway so it'd just be better if he did it because then we'd know for sure it was us in the paper and not just some models pretending to be us."
"Beat them at their own game, huh?"
"Exactly!" Just then Dave came around the corner. He glared at me. "Look K-girl, I gotta go. I'll call you tonight and we'll arrange it, okay?"
"Sure. Love ya."
"Back at ya. Bye." I hung up the phone and looked up at the older balding man innocently, folding my hands on the desk. "Yes, oh Great One? Is there something I can do for you?" Dave just smiled and shook his head at me before continuing out the front door.
For the weekend, Krystal flew out to see me instead of me going out to see her. Andre came with her and we told him our great idea. He loved it and agreed wholeheartedly to do it for us. We staged a couple of purposeful kisses, like when we were heading out of one of the fanciest restaurants in a nearby town, or when we were hanging at the pool in my apartment complex. Then of course there was a real one at the airport before they left on Sunday. I couldn't wait until we got the prints back. Andre had promised us that we would get them before he sent them to the Enquirer. It was going to be a nice thing for my scrapbook.
The photographs came in the mail along with a note from Andre saying he had sent them in and they were issuing him a check. The foundations were going to get about a hundred thousand dollars each being he had to account for taxes. It didn't bother me, as long as they got the money. There was also a note from AJ telling me to email him. As I was playing with the pictures, trying to figure out how to put them in my scrapbook, I composed a simple email to AJ and asked him what he wanted. He got back to me almost immediately, probably being online at the time. We started instant messaging each other back and forth.
"Hey, what's up, B?" he asked me.
"I was about ready to ask you the same thing. What do you want?"
"How's things with Krystal?"
"Fine," I replied, not yet annoyed with his pestering.
"Have you guys done it yet?"
I laughed before answering, "Why do you want to know? You're so bold Mr. McLean."
"I want in on it!"
I gawked at my computer screen and read his answer four times before I finally hit the reply button. "You want what?"
"I want in on it!" he repeated and then added, "It's every guy's fantasy to watch two girls go at each other."
"It's not Brian's," I replied, remembering the long talks Brian and I had had and all the time I had spent trying to convince him that I wasn't a bad person.
"How do you know what Brian's fantasy is?" he asked. I could almost picture his face as he typed that line.
"We talked about it," I told him.
"Back to me," the egotistical man replied. "I want in!"
"So you just want to watch?" I inquired.
"Yeah, unless you want something more..."
I smiled to myself and replied, "Well, I would have to talk to Krystal about it, but personally I don't think she'd go for it."
"I'll keep bugging you about it..."
"Do you want to wind up hurting, Mr. McLean?" He didn't answer that right away.
"Would it be a good hurt or a bad hurt?" he typed. I just rolled my eyes toward the ceiling.
"Bad," I replied. "Now, look, I've gotta go. I'll talk to K about it, but I doubt she'd be up to it."
"Sure thing, B. I'll catch ya later." He signed off with that and I thought I was through with it. I was wrong.
