Some Like It Charming - By Megan Bryce Page 0,9
can thank Ethan for me for such an enjoyable afternoon.”
Ellen smiled at her, looking like Ethan at his most winning. “I sure can. If you change your mind, we’ll save a seat for you.”
Mackenzie walked away, thinking of a cool shower and an O’Connor free night. No need to tell Ellen that only one person could get her to change her mind with any kind of regularity, and he’d used up that power for a good long while. She wasn’t going to forget today’s game anytime soon.
His grandmother called after her. “Mackenzie? It was very interesting meeting you, too.”
Mackenzie arrived at the office Thursday morning expecting the jokes and ribbing to continue. For three days now, she’d had to endure a near constant barrage of jokes, puns, and gags. It helped immensely to think of a cash-register ringing every time the word ball left someone’s mouth. She hadn’t been kidding about charging Ethan– he’d said it, he could pay for it. And it would probably cost him less than a sexual harassment suit. Just barely.
But this morning everyone was eerily quiet as she made her way to her office. There were no jokes, no exaggerated winks. She smiled at one of the interns, who blushed and looked away.
Mackenzie didn’t ever remember losing her temper over something Ethan had done but maybe he’d felt bad and told everyone to leave her alone.
That didn’t sound like him at all.
Ethan was waiting for her in her office, sitting in her chair again, and her confusion disappeared.
“Oh. Now I know why everyone looks so afraid of me. Come to rub it in?”
He looked up from the paper he was reading, his eyes hard, his mouth pulled together so tight his lips looked white.
She stopped in her tracks. “Are you okay?”
He threw the paper down on her desk. “I guess you don’t read the tabloids.”
“I try not to when I know you’re going to be in it.”
He didn’t laugh, didn’t chuckle, and she reached for the paper. Her eyebrows rose when she saw it was the National Enquirer, but her comment died on her lips when she saw the headline. And then sat down hard when she saw the pictures.
Her mouth fell open.
“I’m sorry, Mackenzie.”
She tried to tell him this was going to cost a lot more than a thousand dollars but she couldn’t get it past her lips.
She cleared her throat. “They just aren’t letting up on you, are they?”
One side of the cover in bold headline, He made me abort my baby!
And the other side was a picture of them facing each other, their bodies almost touching. There was no mistaking his grin and her smirk, and Mackenzie was sure that anybody who saw it would think they were getting ready to jump into each others’ arms. She was fairly certain they’d been threatening each other at the time.
She flipped open the paper, read the abortion article first, and then looked at all the damning pictures of them together. Him holding her in the air, his hand on her butt, his arm around her shoulders, him wiping her down after the slide.
She said, “At least these pictures all seem one sided. Maybe I can pretend you were annoying me. Oh, wait. You were.”
And then she flipped the page. “Oh, God.”
Just in case anybody had missed it, there were arrows pointing at his enlarged crotch and her pebbled nipples as they faced off.
Mackenzie closed her eyes and whispered, “Please tell me everyone thinks these were computer generated.”
“I’m sure the Enquirer would do that but I doubt they needed to. I thought I’d hid it better than that, though.”
Her eyes popped open. His lopsided grin was self-deprecating and she looked down at the paper. “Well, just let me pretend it was computer generated, okay?”
“I do have to wonder, though. If mine was real, maybe yours was, too.”
She refused to blush. “Whatever gets you through the day, O’Connor.”
She closed the paper and put it down on her desk, sitting back in the uncomfortable chair and resting her head.
She said, “While the pictures are embarrassing, I guess it’s not the first time they’ve splashed your new girlfriend on the cover.”
“Are you my new girlfriend now, Mackenzie?”
“Or someone they could pretend was your new girlfriend.”
He laughed. “I can honestly say that normally it is my new girlfriend.”
“I’m so glad you can keep your sense of humor about this, Ethan.”
He smiled and started opening the drawers to her desk. “You bring out the best in me, Mackenzie. Maybe the