Bad for You by Weston Parker
13
TRISTIN
The attention I was getting for the lunch we’d had with Faye was ridiculous. Not to mention fucking annoying. We hadn’t even been alone, but that wasn’t the way it was playing out in the media.
Selena was nowhere in sight in any of those pictures. She’d only left the table twice. Once to use the ladies’ room and another time to take a phone call. All the photographs must’ve been taken during those two brief periods of time, but the way they’d been put together made it look like we’d been there, alone, for hours.
Before I’d come home, I’d known the Raleigh press would make a fuss of my return. American Aviation was a large employer in the area, and my family had our name connected to all the notable local foundations, but I didn’t appreciate the interest in my personal life.
It was made even more infuriating by the fact that I wasn’t even the least bit interested in Faye, yet one tabloid had gone so far as to claim there were wedding bells in our future. Near future.
I’d woken up to hundreds of notifications on my phone, emails from what felt like every reporter from here to the moon requesting a comment, and even worse, an inbox flooded with spam from wedding vendors.
After I’d gotten dressed, I’d spent far too long wading through all the crap while I’d been having my coffee on my balcony. My actual work was buried so far underneath it all that it took me several long minutes of scrolling before I’d gotten to it.
Once I’d replied to the meeting requests requiring my attention, I deleted as much of the spam as I could in the time I had available and then headed downstairs. I found my mother in the kitchen talking to our chef.
Without pausing in my mission to allow them to finish their conversation, I pulled her aside and asked the chef to give us a minute. She frowned at me, irritation flickering in her eyes as she lifted her hands.
“Well? What is this about?”
I showed her my phone and met her annoyed glare with one of my own. “What’s your plan with all this, Mother?”
“Oh, you mean the publicity about you and Faye?” Smug satisfaction replaced the irritation, and some of the tension melted out of her features. “A stroke of genius, don’t you think?”
“Excuse me?” I took a step back, raking a hand through my hair and dropping my head back with the movement, letting my eyes close as I faced the ceiling and took a few deep breaths. “No, I don’t think. I’d like to know what you were thinking, though.”
A short huff let me know she was back to being annoyed. “I might’ve leaked a thing or two to the press here and there, but it’s all in the name of PR.”
“Why?” I inhaled again before I could look at her without feeling the urge to take her by the shoulders and shake some sense into her. “What did you tell them?”
Her jaw was set with determination, her gaze unwavering on mine. “American Aviation cannot be seen as weak or in decline now that you’re taking over. A little buzz in the press is a good thing, Tristin.”
“Sure, but what does my love life have to do with the company?” I asked, grinding my teeth together to keep from telling her what I really thought about it.
She rolled her eyes, then arched a blonde brow at me like she thought I was being deliberately obtuse. “Faye would be an ideal wife for you. This way, the press will note that our company is only getting stronger now that it has even closer ties with theirs. Transportation is a massive industry, Tristin. We’re only in aviation. Publicly strengthening our relations within the industry can only help us in the long run.”
“Only in aviation?” I stared at her. “Are you being serious right now?”
“I’m always serious when it comes to the company,” she replied before looking around for the chef and motioning him back when she caught his eye. “Was that all?”
“No.” I crossed my arms and raised my chin, my gaze locking on hers when she turned back to me. “Leave me out of your schemes next time, Mother. I mean it. I’m not here to play games, and I don’t have time to be inundated by the fallout of yours.”
Before I’d even finished the last sentence, I saw that she planned on ignoring me. Like she always did.
She got this faraway look in her eyes, already moving on from this conversation in her head. For anyone who knew her as well as I did, my mother could be an open book. She simply didn’t always care enough to hide her intentions.
To her mind, it would be a done deal that Faye and I would get together eventually. She thought it made sense, approved of Faye as a match, and thought I would bend to her will if she tried hard enough for long enough.
Good luck with that, Selena.There was no way it was happening, but she wouldn’t just lie down and accept it if I told her that right now.
“I need to get to the office,” I said instead. “I’ll see you later.”
She gave me a wave with her fingers and went back to discussing Dad’s diet and menu for the week with the chef. Before I even made it to the garage, she’d have put our exchange out of her mind.
I’d thought I’d made myself crystal clear at lunch, but it seemed she hadn’t even begun to get the message. Not my problem.
If she thought that my being back would mean I’d fall in line with her often outrageous plans or misconstrued ideals for my life, she had another thing coming. I’d only been back for a short time, but she’d learn soon enough that I wasn’t going to let her push me around. I hadn’t in the past, and she’d had a lot more leverage over me then. I had no idea why she was under the impression it would be different this time.
Either way, if she wanted to waste her time leaking bullshit rumors to the press, then so be it. I already planned on having my assistant block the address and number of every unsolicited sender in my inboxes. After that, I’d speak to our actual PR department at the company to explore options surrounding getting some relevant news out there about my taking over as CEO.
It had been on my to-do list anyway. Selena’s latest stunt had just made it move up a few places on said list.
Archer was already waiting in my office when I walked in, his dark eyes glinting with humor when he held up the takeout coffee he’d brought for me. “You look like you’ve been through the wars this morning. I’m assuming you’ve seen the gossip, then?”
“I have,” I grumbled, managing a small grin when I took the coffee from him. “Thanks for this. Caffeine might enable me to act like I’m not ten seconds away from losing my shit today.”
He made a sympathetic noise. “I got you a double shot. When I saw the news, I thought you might need it since I didn’t recall you telling me you’d had a hot date with a girl who was practically your fiancée.”
“Nope. I just didn’t know at the time that my mother’s stunt included leaking some false information to the media.”
“Are you kidding?” Surprise flashed in his eyes. “Your own mother leaked that shit?”
“Yep.” I moved in behind my desk and started up my computer, glancing at him over the screen as I shook my head. “I should’ve seen it coming. At the very least, I should’ve known she’d pull something like this.”
“Why would she?” He cocked his head, rubbing his chin between his thumb and index finger. “Surely the press will realize you’re not actually in a relationship when you’re not seen together again.”
“My mother thinks we will see each other again.” My eyes rolled when I opened my emails to find a flood of new emails on the subject. I jabbed my hand toward the screen, giving it a half turn so he could see what I was referring to. “She set all this in motion for the publicity, and she’ll keep them guessing until she convinces me to go along with her plan.”
“Will you?” he asked.
I snorted. “Not a chance, but she won’t accept it if I tell her that. We’ll have to see how all of this plays out. In the meantime, we need to get our own media strategies in place. We’re both young and new around here. I might not agree with her methods, but she’s right about needing to set the public at ease.”
“We’ll work it out,” he said confidently. “I’ll set up a meeting, but why don’t we have our own strategic session?”
“We can if you want, but I’ve never been very good at playing the media.” I shrugged when he gave me a disbelieving look. “What? I’ve never had time for it, and even though I understand why people are interested in what’s going on at the company, I’ve never really gotten the interest in our personal lives. It’s not like we’re celebrities.”
“Maybe not, but you are one of the richest families around.” Archer laughed and ducked when I crumpled up a sheet of paper and tossed it at his head. “What? I’m just saying. There’s always interest in the well-off families. I bet you could even get your own reality show if you wanted.”
“If you ever make that joke in front of my mother, I’ll throw something a lot heavier than paper at you,” I warned, groaning as I covered my face with one of my hands. “She’d be on the phone to a producer within minutes, no doubt.”
He let out a low whistle between his teeth, his brows climbing. “You really think so?”
I nodded. “I’m almost positive she’d make it happen if she thought it’d be good for the company.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I don’t really understand why people would want to know anything about your personal lives either. Feel like doing that strategic planning session while we also just have a beer and blow off some steam later?”
I considered his offer. “Sure. Where do you want to go?”
“There’s a new bar everyone’s talking about.” When he saw my eyes widening in warning, he gave his head a shake and chuckled. “No, dude. Not like that. Trust me, there won’t be any press there, and it’s not the kind of place I’d imagine your high-society girlfriend would hang out.”
“In that case, it sounds perfect. But she’s not my girlfriend.”
When we arrived at the bar he’d mentioned hours later, I saw what he’d meant. This wasn’t an upscale, après-work place. It was a dive bar with a ton of drinks specials, a large dance floor, a burger bar, and classic rock music flowing through the speakers at this hour. Undoubtedly, the music would become more upbeat later when the dance floor started filling up.
I was pretty sure Faye Marston wouldn’t be caught dead in a place with peanuts on the tables, beer served in pitchers, and gigantic burgers dished up on paper plates. I, on the other hand, loved it instantly.
The vibe was relaxed, the drinks cold and cheap, the food delicious, and the music good. Archer and I tossed around some ideas about how to handle our media presences, but eventually decided to leave the details up to the professionals. As long as they focused on us as professionals, we wouldn’t have any problems.
We were back to discussing my mother, and I was telling him about our conversation this morning when I noticed a familiar face across the room. The dance floor between us had started filling up, but that was definitely her.
This city was small, but it wasn’t that small. Brittany and I running into each other? Again? That was fate, and I wasn’t even going to try to resist it.
