Page 52 of At First Smile
“What is this article?”
“Why good morning, Sasha. How are you, Sasha? I hope you slept well, Sasha,” she deadpans.
I close my eyes and scrub my hand over my face.Christ, even her snarks are sweet.I take a deep breath and soften my tone. “Sorry.”
“Good boy,” she coos. “So, I take it you just saw the stories. There are three, but a few other outlets picked it up.”
“This isn’t what I meant.” I stand up and pace along the bench. “I thought you’d make a few calls and just make the pictures go away.”
“I don’t have a magic wand. That’s not how this works. If you want one story to go away, you need to feed the press sharks another story. That’s what I did.”
I rub at my temples. “A story that makes Pen look like a damsel in distress, who needed saving. She didn’t need me for a goddamn thing. It also paints me with some knight in armor bullshit. That’s not what happened. I don’t like using Pen to make me look good.”
“That’s not?—”
“Sasha, you of all people should get this.” I kick the bench’s leg. The slam of my foot against the metal surface subdues the snarl in my voice.
“Don’t you dare try to mansplain loving and advocating alongside my husband who is in a wheelchair,” she snaps back.
I slosh a long breath. “I’m an ass.”
“You are.”
I huff a small laugh.
“But I’m used to overprotective men that get ass-like about their ladies.”
“Still, I shouldn’t have raised my voice or accused you of not having our best interest at heart.”
“Our?”
“Sasha,” I groan.
“I thought theLA Presspiece did a nice job of capturing the experience of people with disabilities while traveling – peoplelike Greg and Pen. As independent as Greg and Pen are, there’re still challenges for them in an ableist society. Sometimes those obstacles need to be highlighted to push change. Being in a relationship with someone with a disability means seeing their ability and the ways they are challenged. It’s part of who they are. If you don’t see both, you’re not seeing them.”
“We’re not in a relationship.”
“He doth protest too much,” she drawls. “This was the best solution. The headlines are about something that Pen is passionate about. We’re using your fame to platform her issue. You may not like how it was done, but it got you what you wanted. To the world, Pen Meadows is just the adorable woman you assisted at an airport, nothing more. Unless…”
Groaning, I pinch the bridge of my nose. “This just feels wrong.”
“Of course, it feels wrong because what you asked me to do isn’t what you really want. What you really want you won’t let yourself have. I’m going to tell you what I told Greg when he’d got all caught up in his head and avoided asking me out for months after we first met… Pull your head out of your ass and do it already. Seriously, Rowan, for a man who spouts about how capable Pen is and how much she doesn’t need you, you seem to forget that she’s capable of determining what she wants.”
I sit back on the bench. “You’re right.”
“Naturally,” she says, cheekily.
“How do we come back from this? How do I make it right?”
Each action stacks like unbalanced blocks in front of me. I did not reveal who I am. I’d left her at the airport, rather than explaining anything. I’d inadvertently used her to make myself look good. Just like her asshole ex, Alex.
“Get out of your head,” Sasha chides. “I can hear you hate-spiraling over the phone. Stop telling yourself all the ways you fucked up and focus on how to do something about it.”
“How?”
“You need to beg for your Pen-ance.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
