Backdraft…
“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Ackley said and I shook my head.
“Suck it up, buddy. You walk on me now, you can kiss your ass goodbye as a fireman.”
“I know, I know, it’s just when I agreed to this, I knew it would suck, but now we’re here and staring at the cameras and shit, I’m well aware I’m about to go on national TV and tell the world what a fucking dickhead I was.”
“Yeah, yeah, you are,” I said and I have to say I felt zero sympathy.
“Most guys get to step off a situation like that and pretend it didn’t happen,” he muttered.
I snorted. “Yeah, rich guys, maybe, but guys like us? Not so much, man. Not so much. As much as I still want to punch you in the nuts for what you did, you’re still one of us. You’re still one of the good guys, and for some reason the good guys always face the music.”
He stared me in the face for a few heartbeats as we sat across from the hostess in the old school canvas-and-wood director’s chairs, which were uncomfortable as fuck. She had a whole pit crew fussing with her hair and makeup, doing last minute touches.
I gave Ackley a nod as the guy behind the camera started counting down and he let out a slow breath and nodded back. We faced the hostess and she smiled bright, the lights intensified and she said, “Welcome, gentlemen.”
I gave a curt nod and Ackley murmured a thanks. She turned her attention to me.
“For those in our audience that don’t know, you’re Emmet Calder, renowned author Timber Philips’ new flame, right?”
I cleared my throat. “If she wants to keep me around,” I said.
“There has been quite the scandal surrounding your relationship after Celebrity Beat’s scorching interview with your girlfriend, Victoria Russo.”
“Ex-girlfriend. That’s why I’m here, to set the record straight.”
“Please, do tell,” she leaned forward, all ears.
“I broke up with Tori over four months or so ago. You see, she cheated on me, and I took her back, but then she cheated on me again.”
“With me,” Ackley said, owning his shit.
“Wow,” the hostess said. “And who are you?”
“I’m Cameron Ackley, and I met Victoria through Calder here.”
“You use his last name.”
“We’re firemen, it’s just something we do. You get enough Johns, Daves, and Franks in a house, it can get complicated real fast, so we just use last names.”
“I see. How did you meet Timber?” she asked me.
I cleared my throat and shifted, this was the part that was hit or miss on if Lil would ever forgive me.
“I was at a bar and grill hanging with some buddies and I saw her and that Mark Schumer guy at a table. I was shamelessly eavesdropping and figured out pretty quick he was breaking it off with her. He was telling her about how she wasn’t the first girl he’d been with. That she was, in fact, the other woman. She had no idea. I heard him tell her that being with her made him realize how much he loved his wife or girlfriend and that it was over. She was humiliated and I couldn’t deal, so I went over and stepped in. Asked if she needed a ride home.”
“Oh, wow, my hero,” she said with a light fake laugh and I gave a nod.
The interview went on for around ten minutes more and I was sweating bullets under the lights. By the time we wrapped it up, I could see a spark of something in Mindy, the lady interviewing us. She was pissed. The revelation that the drone footage wasn’t taken through a hotel but Lil’s bedroom window struck a chord with her somehow, although, why it made a damn bit of difference, hotel room or not, was beyond me.
The camera man yelled cut, and I started pulling microphone wires right away. Mindy came up to me and said, “I had no idea this went as far as it did.”
“Well, now you know,” I stated.
“I’ll make sure they don’t edit too much out,” she assured me. “This needs aired.”
“No offense intended, ma’am, but I really just wish the lot of you would stop airing a whole bunch of shit. Namely, I wish you’d all just leave us alone. Lil’s a good woman, she just wants to write her stories and make people feel good and in return? You all tear her the fuck down.”
She rocked back on her heels a bit, and her expression went from nonplussed to not-surprised as she processed what I said. She gave a nod and asked, “Is there anything we can do for you to make your stay in New York tonight more comfortable?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Get me on the very next flight out of it and back to BWI. I don’t want to be here. I want to be with Lil.”
She gave me a sharp look and barked out, “Hal!” and one of the studio hands came scurrying over.
“Get Mr. Calder on the next available flight out if you please?” She looked at Ackley. “You too?”
He gave a sad grin. “If you don’t mind, no. I’d like to try and get one last shot at getting laid before that airs and I can never get a woman again.”
I laughed, and she gave him a slightly dirty look but nodded.
I guess I was going home a little early. I might even be able to catch Lil at the 10-13 with the girls.