They had just dug into their food when Liz’s phone rang again. She glanced down at the screen. Still no Brady.
“I have to take this. It’s Heather,” Liz told them.
Savannah’s brow furrowed. “That’s strange. What does she want?”
“We’re about to find out.” She walked away from the table and found a seat on a bench outside. “Hello?”
“What did I say about staying out of the papers?” Heather asked icily.
“What are you talking about?”
“I said anything that might be suspicious, anything that might show up in the papers, anything that might make Brady look bad went through me,” she all but growled. “I thought we were clear on this. We haven’t had any negative incidents recently.”
“Heather, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But she sure didn’t like the sound of it.
“You were out gallivanting around with your ex-boyfriend? The one who, I don’t know if you remember, wrote the article outing your relationship to the press!” Heather cried. “What made you think that was a good idea?”
Liz sat up straighter. How did Heather know that, and what did it have to do with the press? “Did Brady tell you that I saw him?”
“Brady knew about this?”
“I talked to him about it Monday. Why?”
“And neither of you thought to inform me of your catastrophic error? You allowed yourself to be photographed.”
“Photographed?” Liz nearly shrieked.
“Yes, congratulations! Tomorrow your photo with your ex will be in the tabloids. I’m sure with some stupid slogan about cheating on Brady. Just what we need.”
“No.” Liz shook her head. “I did the right thing. I told him that I didn’t want to see him. I told him Brady was more important.”
“Well, none of that is going to show up in the tabloids,” Heather said, giving her a reality check. “You became complacent. But you can’t be complacent in this job. I don’t care what you want to say about your relationship with Brady, but because he is in the public eye part of your relationship is a job.”
“Heather!” Liz cried, her emotions all over the place. She couldn’t believe how she was talking to her, but the worst part was that she was right in some ways. She had tried to treat her relationship with Brady like any other relationship and her life as it had been before showing up in the papers. Now she was about to be in them all over again because of it.
“I could have prevented this. Now we just have to deal with your poor choices,” Heather said. “Be on the lookout for more information from me regarding the severity of the situation. In the meantime, hole up somewhere and try not to cause any more problems.”
Click.
Liz stared down at her phone in disbelief. Heather had hung up on her again. She had done everything right in this situation except happening to walk for five minutes with Hayden and the whole thing backfired in her face.
Tears marred her vision and she tried to keep everything under control. She was simply too choked up. She glanced up and down the road that she was on and decided it wasn’t safe. Heather was right: she should hole up. Now she would have her face in the papers two days before graduation. Just what she needed.
She stumbled back into the restaurant and over to Savannah and Easton. They were speaking animatedly when she approached, but their conversation cut off when they got a look at her.
“What happened?” Savannah asked. “Is Brady okay?”
“Yes, he’s fine.” Liz wiped at the tears in her eyes. Easton didn’t really know anything about her life and she wanted to keep it that way for as long as she could. “Can you take me back to my house? I need to call Brady.”
“Of course.” Savannah grabbed her purse. “Sorry. Maybe we can meet up later?”
“Yeah, of course. Liz has my number,” he said, and then turned to look at Liz. “Are you going to be okay?”
“Fine. Just fine.” She turned away from him. The last thing she wanted was sympathy.
“Okay. Get home safe. Let me know if you need anything,” Easton said.
Savannah and Liz quickly exited the restaurant, and Liz pulled her phone back out to call Brady.
“What happened?” Savannah asked.
“Pictures of me and Hayden together are going to show up in the tabloids tomorrow. Heather just got wind of it.”
“Shit! Was she pissed?” Liz just stared at her. “Of course she was. Brady should really handle her. She’s getting out of control. She shouldn’t take this shit out on you.”
“Shouldn’t she? It’s my fault. I should have thought about this. I let my guard down.”
“Hey,” Savannah said, grabbing her arm. “Listen to yourself. You are not the campaign. You’re not running for office. You weren’t born into this. It’s okay to let your guard down. You’re dating my brother, and that doesn’t mean that you can’t walk down the street with Hayden. Don’t let her get to you.”
“Okay,” Liz said. She had no will to argue. She dialed Brady’s number and he answered on the third ring.
“Hey, Heather just called and told me pictures of Hayden and me are going to show up in the paper tomorrow.”
“Did you go see him?” Brady asked, clearly frustrated.
“No! I told him no,” she told him. She wiped her eyes once more and sniffled. “I told him I didn’t want to see him, that it wasn’t worth it. These are from Monday when I first saw him.”
“Shit! Where are you right now?”
“I’m with Savannah. We were out to lunch when Heather called,” Liz said, leaning back in the seat of Savannah’s BMW.
“All right. I’m going to deal with Heather. She shouldn’t be calling you and sending you into tears. I can’t have that,” he growled. “I’m tired of her shit. You’re with me. She needs to fucking get over it and treat you like you belong with me.”
“She’s only doing her job,” she whispered. She had no idea why she was defending Heather’s actions except that she felt like complete shit about what had occurred.
“Her job is on the line if she doesn’t start treating you right and trying to make you happy.”
Liz laughed lightly. “She’s not going to like that.”
“Well, if she doesn’t like it, then she can find someone else to work for. She acts like she’s irreplaceable. She’s not. You are.”