Ch 33 ~ Game On

Even in the early morning hours, Las Vegas was hot.  Running in the heat, combined with the excessive amount of liquor and the lack of sleep the night before, left Rachel cranky, sweaty and thirsty.  All she wanted when she returned to the hotel room was a cool shower and a huge glass of icy water.

Instead, she got Ground Zero for Bon Jovi PR damage control. 

She found Jon deep in conversation with Paul and Ken Sunshine, his public relations guru, and she didn’t have to question the topic they were discussing.  None of the men looked happy.  

Well, they weren’t the only ones who weren’t happy.  The reminder of Jon’s stupid behavior was made fresh all over again and, despite her exhausting run, Rachel was instantly tense and irritable.  That irritability was fed by her mother’s distinctive ringtone pealing from Rachel’s phone charging on the counter. 

“Rachel, you need to join this conversation,” Jon instructed her loudly, to be heard over the ringing. 

Irritability escalated into downright bitchiness as the hounds of media hell snapped at her heels from every direction.

“In a minute, Jon.  Right now my mom’s ringing my phone off the hook, probably because she’s heard about your Seattle shenanigans.  I can only deal with one acid rainstorm at a time,” she barked, snatching the phone from the counter and stalked to the bedroom while swiping the screen with a sharp flick of her wrist.  “Hi, Mom.”

“Hi, honey…  How are you?”

Rachel wasn’t in the mood to play the polite game, even with her mother.  She’d rather get to the point and move on. 

“I'm fine.  Did you need something, Mom?”

“Well, yes, actually.  Your cousin, Tanya, sent Robin and me some stories that are floating around on the internet about Jon.  Have you seen them?”

“No, I haven’t actually seen them, but I’m aware that they exist.”

“So this is just tabloid fodder?  There’s no truth to it, right?  That’s what I told-”

Of course her mom would assume it was made up drivel.  Who wouldn’t?  Things like this didn’t happen in real life and, if they did, she naturally assumed Rachel wouldn’t be in a relationship with a man who would do them. 

Me either, Mom.  Me either.

She couldn’t let her mother parade around her staunch convictions that Jon would do no such thing when he had, so Rachel cut her off in mid-sentence, “They’re true, Mom.  Well, mostly anyway.  There may be a detail here or there that isn’t accurate but for the most part, yeah… they’re true.   I don’t like it, but it was while we were apart and we’re dealing with it.”

“Oh my word...  You’re dating a man who sleeps with two women at a time.  That’s so far removed from our world that I don’t even know how to process it.  What do you buy someone like that for Christmas?  Extra condoms?”

For the first time in the whole fiasco, Rachel laughed.  Throughout her lifetime, she’d had many a frank conversation with her mother.  Dear old Mom wasn’t a prude and she had no problem addressing the taboo with a simple forthright approach, and this debacle was no different.

“He did that, but he’s not someone like that.  Or he’s not anymore.  How we handle this… situation… is between Jon and me, and we’ll work through it.  I agree it’s distasteful, but it happened while we were apart, so that’s all I’m going to say about it.”

“You’re sure about this, then?  About him?  After… this, you’ve thought about what kind of life you’re setting yourself up for?”

“He’s not perfect, but neither am I.  The difference is my mistakes are of no interest to the rest of the world.  I love him and I’m committed to a life with him, so if a little rain falls on me in the building of that life, I plan to shake it off and keep going.”

“As long as you’re sure….”

“I am.”

The remainder of the call was brief, but before hanging up, Rachel made it clear the topic wasn’t going to be open for further discussion with Tanya or Robin or anyone else.  Case closed, end of discussion.  Her mother agreed and said she was looking forward to seeing her at the wedding that weekend.

Even more wrung out now than she was when she walked in the door, Rachel decided that Jon and his associates would just have to wait a few more minutes.  If she was going to have any chance of chaining her inner bitch, she needed a cool, refreshing shower before joining them.  Then, of course, there were the typical post-shower activities – hair, moisturizer from head to toe, finding some comfy clothes…

Finally, she’d stalled as long as she reasonably could and resigned herself to joining the three men.  They were no longer in the living area of the suite, but seated at the large dining table at the opposite end of the room.  From the looks of things, they’d decided to have lunch brought in while she was showering.

“I ordered you a salad with chicken,” Jon informed her peevishly over his own salad as she pulled out the chair at the end of the table closest to him.  “And iced tea.”

His tone immediately rubbed her the wrong way.  He could be peeved all he liked, but she was still put out with him and had no inclination to jump just because he snapped his fingers. 

Guess I could’ve skipped the shower.  The bitch is running free anyway.

“Thank you.”  Leaning forward, she reached for the plate he had indicated and removed its silver cover, managing to stifle the urge to slap it onto the table with a clatter.  She deliberately took her time drizzling a bit of dressing over the greens and then squeezed the lemon into her tea before she met eyes.  “So.  You said I needed to be in on this conversation?”

“That was thirty minutes ago,” Jon muttered under his breath, pushing his plate away and tossing the napkin into its center.

“Well, I’m here now, dear.”

The air crackled with tension as their gazes clashed in a silent duel.  She would almost say she saw a spark of it light the air between their faces, and she knew this was a defining moment.  Things could go ugly within a heartbeat if he chose to take that path. 

But he didn’t. 

New Jon was in the house and he seemed to pick up on the vibe that it wouldn’t do to cross her at this moment.  Had they been alone, maybe he would have chosen differently, but here in the presence of others he backed down with an agreeable nod.

“So you are.  I assume your mother has heard?”

Rachel forked a slice of grilled chicken and popped it in her mouth before answering, “Mm hmm.  Have I told you about my cousin Tanya?  The card-carrying member of your fan club with social media connections that your own PR people would be envious of?   Yeah.  She was kind enough to share the news with my sister who naturally shared it with my mother.  Lucky me.”

“There’s one in every family, babe,” Jon replied in a softer tone.

“I asked my mom not to discuss it with anybody – family or otherwise – and told her it was between us.”

“That’s great in theory, but it’s obviously become a public thing that could, hypothetically, take on a life of its own.  How we handle it will determine how soon it goes away.” 

While Paul remained most interested in his lunch, but, as the man responsible for PR, Ken picked up the ball that Jon handed him and ran with it.  He put a sheet of paper beside her salad plate and spoke directly to her, sharing what she assumed the men had already discussed. 

“We’ve secured an advanced copy of the woman from Seattle – Lynne’s – story.  After analyzing what they’re running and our prospective responses, we believe we’ve identified the most expeditious way to kill the interest in this story.”

 “And that is…?”

“You and Jon are going to need to make a couple of well-planned public appearances.  This will cement your relationship in the public eye and capture the interest of the media, leaving this woman and her tale as yesterday’s news.”  He smiled at her, clearly pleased with himself.  “The timing was actually quite fortuitous because Las Vegas offers us many excellent opportunities for the two of you to be seen out and about.  With barely any effort at all, the news of Jon’s new love will trump the tabloid rumors.”

She had barely begun skimming the story copy Ken had provided before she ran across the woman’s account of her night with Jon, and the phrase “he said he likes a woman who lets her body do the talking” jumped off the page with the intensity of every light on the Vegas strip.   Those quoted words body-slammed her with the power of a heavyweight professional wrestler, maybe not in the literal sense, but certainly the figurative one, because Jon had uttered those very same words to her just a couple of nights ago. 

The exact same words. 

She could picture the scene vividly, seeing as she was straddled across him in the chair not twenty feet away.  The thought of him in the same situation with another woman made Rachel ill.  That nausea, combined with the contrived way of handling the matter all hit her in the worst possible way and made her feel not particularly cooperative.

“So you’re pimping me out to displace the slut.”

Ken looked uncomfortable for a moment, glancing back and forth between her and Jon. 

“Rachel…” Jon besought quietly. 

“Uh…”  Ken plodded bravely onward despite her obvious displeasure.  “Tonight we’ll have press in place at Caesar’s Palace to chronicle the two of you at the Cher concert.  Tomorrow, there will be another cadre of press here at the hotel to document your departure for the airport.  Another contingency will be in place when we land in Denver.”

She wasn’t going to Denver, but that was irrelevant for the time being.  Right now, there were hotter topics to address than her travel itinerary.

“Just suppose I don’t feel like being on display, Jon?  Hmm?” she asked cattily, pushing the offensive page away as though it carried a distasteful disease.  “I don’t exactly relish the idea of putting on a phony show for photographers, and I certainly don’t want to sit in some theatre tonight so everybody in the room can have a crack at us.”

“It’s the best way to put out the fire, babe.  Ken will make sure you’re prepared for paparazzi.”

“I have to get ‘prepared’ for photo snipers?  It’s not like I haven’t dealt with it since we’ve been here.”

He shook his head firmly.  “It’s a different ballgame now.  They might say any-damn-thing to try to get a comment or revealing bit of information out of you.”

“Jesus.”

It’s the nature of the beast,” he told her simply, picking up her hand and folding it in his.  “ – and a part of my life you’re gonna have to get used to.  I’m sorry we’re in this position, but the sooner we get out there as a normal, loving couple, then the sooner it will fizzle out.”

“So you’re going to take me out in public for the sole purpose of being photographed with me gazing adoringly at you, is that the game plan?”  Rachel snatched her hand away with a scoff.  She was just plain irritable and didn’t feel the least bit compelled to disguise it.  “How romantic.”

Paul & Ken both politely pretended to be engrossed in their sandwiches as he leaned in and spoke in a low voice, “Let me explain something to you, Rachel.  This isn’t a single situation we’re dealing with, it’s two completely separate ones.  One is how this affects us on a personal level and, while I get that you’re pissed, we’ll handle that behind closed doors.”

She pursed her lips and fixed him with a look that assured him they would handle it. 

“The second part is the public side of the equation.  And let me tell you that – in public – we will be the loving, committed couple.  Period.  You can bust my balls all you need to in private, but publicly this deal is done.  That is how the game is played, and you need to be aware of your role in it.  If you can’t handle the two personas that are required…  Well, then, I need to know that right now, because it’s all part of a life with me.”

Rachel lifted her chin and met his gaze unblinkingly.  They silently exchanged a steady stare, each willing the other to back down first.

Her man knew he was in the dog house, but he wasn’t going to let the public know he was in the dog house and that was the bottom line.  As a ‘star’, he had two separate lives – the public one and the private – and they didn’t always coincide.  Nor did they have to.  He’d been around the block enough to know that and now it was Rachel’s turn to learn it.  With his little monologue, he had essentially dared her to rise to the occasion.

With a silent sigh, she relented and was the first to blink in their wordless showdown.  Jon had once again earned her admiration.  She begrudgingly acknowledged that he knew what he was doing, even if she was loathe to admit it to him. 

It was time to put her big girl panties on and take her place beside her man. 

“What time should I be ready?”