I grabbed three more shots and a Coke and gave the shots to my friends and Melinda.
“Where’s Harper?” I asked.
She was supposed to be Mike’s girlfriend. It was hard to imagine that she’d miss a party with the rest of her friends.
“Her grandmother had a birthday party tonight, so she had to go home for that,” Tami told me.
“Does she know what you cooked up for Mike?”
“Yeah, she thought it was funny.”
I wouldn’t count on that but didn’t say anything. Mike was the vengeful sort.
“You better warn her not to tell him she knew,” I said.
“Already taken care of,” Tami shared.
“Let’s dance!” Melinda shouted.
I looked at Tami and leaned in so only she would hear.
“Someone needs to learn to use their indoor voice.”
Tami burst out laughing. That was a common refrain from our moms when we were growing up. I let her explain to Alan how many Jell-O shots Melinda had already had and followed my weekend blind date out onto the dance floor.
Melinda was a lot more fun to dance with when she wasn’t working and had had a few. She was a total free spirit and bounced around. We had a blast. She had me teach her some of the moves I’d learned. Melinda was impressed that I knew how to dance. I guess there was at least one person who hadn’t seen my
When we finally took a break, I got us both bottles of water. The cute girl who Kevin had let in came over to us.
“Hi, I’m Amy Ferguson with the Daily Tattler. I was wondering if I might ask a few questions.”
The Daily Tattler was State’s college newspaper. This was something Frank had warned me about: never give them an interview unless it was scheduled or planned. What he meant by ‘planned’ was if I was to go out and run into paparazzi, he always had me prepared with a few quotes. In the middle of a college party was how people made the news, and not in a good way. Before I could answer her, Melinda jumped in.
“Tell her why they call you ‘stupid boy.’”
I motioned for Paul, and he was startled into action. He was bored, having to watch me all night. I turned to him.
“This is a reporter who’s crashed the party,” I said.
“Are you really going to handle it this way?” she asked with a tone that carried an underlying threat.
“Did you just threaten me?” I asked.
“If you don’t talk to me, there’s no telling what I’ll print,” she said with a smug look.
“So, if I don’t give you a quote or a story, you’ll just make something up?” I asked.
“You betcha, ‘stupid boy,’” she said.
I turned to Paul.
“Are we good?” I asked.
“We’re good,” he said with a grin.
I was checking to make sure Paul had his bodycam turned on. I turned back to her.
“Look, I have no desire to trade threats. You see the camera sticking out of his pocket?” I asked.
She lost some color and nodded.
“He’s wearing that for a reason. People assume that I’m an easy target. Now if you would’ve asked nicely, you could have gotten my publicist’s number, and he would’ve set up an interview. You should chalk this up as a life lesson and just walk away. What do you say, no harm, no foul?” I asked.
“Can I stay and party?” she asked.
“If you promise to just have fun and forget that you’re a reporter for the rest of the night,” I said.
“Would you dance with me?” she asked.
I had to give it to her, she would someday make a great reporter. Melinda nodded to me because she needed a break. I took Amy out and danced for a couple of songs. When we finished, she apologized, and that was the last we saw of her.
Chalk up another one for Fritz. If the paper showed my face at a party like this, Moose would have me in his office first thing Monday morning. I’d have Paul send me the video. I would send it to Caryn and let my business manager do her job; she’d coordinate with Frank and Ms. Dixon to make sure Amy kept her word.
◊◊◊
About two hours later, Alan came to me, all excited.
“You have to see this,” he blurted as he shoved his phone into my hand.
I wondered what would get him so amped-up. I looked down at the screen and … oh, shit! Who came up with this? I started to flip through the pictures. It was good that they hadn’t done anything X-rated, but Mike was going to kill me. He would be sure this whole thing was my idea.
When Alan said that they needed to make a plan, I never dreamed they would come up with this. They’d shaved Mike’s head. At least they hadn’t shaved his eyebrows. What made it so bad was they’d used permanent markers to draw in my tattoos—the ones from my movie
I will give credit where credit is due. It was a fantastic idea for revenge because it wasn’t over the top. While it was a pain in the ass to get permanent marker off your skin, you could do it. It wasn’t like they’d done something terrible. Okay, shaving his head was bad, but it would grow back.
If it had been me, I would have owned it. The guys did an excellent job of duplicating the tattoos. They’d also not left any messages or drawn anything inappropriate. I would leave it because I wouldn’t want to show it bothered me. That would take a lot of the fun out of it.
