“Okay…we’ll be in a magazine…together? Like, I’ll be in the pictures?” The thought seemed terrifying. Yes, there were pictures of Kurt and me on the internet, but those hadn’t been intentional. This would be putting something out there for people to pick apart.
“Yeah…why wouldn’t you be in the shoot?”
I shrugged. “Maybe I could just be the invisible girlfriend. Like, ‘Oh, he’s so handsome standing there holding the air.’ And ‘Oh, look at him lying on that couch, sharing a bowl of popcorn.’”
“You want me to do a photo shoot and pretend I have an invisible pregnant girlfriend where I’m announcing that fact?”
I scratched my chin. “Yeah, I think that’s an amazing idea. Unique.”
He stood and kissed my head. “Think about it. We won’t do anything you don’t want to, but this will allow us to control the story that’s being told. It’ll be planned, which tells people that we wanted this.”
And even if it was a surprise, it was no one else’s business. I got it. But a public life for our child wasn’t something I necessarily wanted. “Does this mean we’ll have to do a lot of photo shoots of the kid?”
“No. I won’t profit off our child. Yes, people will be curious, but when it’s time to decide, we can handle it in a way that we are comfortable with. If you don’t want pictures to be taken, they won’t. But we’ll want to dissuade the interest, if that makes sense.”
Behind this messy, cusses-like-a-sailor rock star was a brilliant business mind. “Okay, I’ll agree to the photo shoot as long as they paint me as a good person.”
“Of course. I’ll work with Waldo to get it set up. It’ll probably be right after we tell Knoah and Cameron.”
I chewed on my lip nervously. “Maybe we could get a pregnant blow-up doll for you to take pictures with.”
Kurt chuckled and gave me another kiss. “You’ll do great. I swear, I wouldn’t put you in danger.”
“I believe you. Go take you’re shower; you’re stinky. Do you want some breakfast?” The smell seemed stronger and turned my stomach.
“Yeah, pour me a big bowl of Cocoa Puffs.”
“That kind of defeats the point of the run, ya know.”
Kurt shucked off his shirt and flexed his abs. They were nice. Very nice. If he wasn’t stinky to the point of making me nauseated, I would be jumping his bones.
Like a game-show host, he ran his hands over his stomach. “This is perfectly sculpted with copious amounts of sugar.”
Throwing my pencil down, I snorted. “You are so full of it. I don’t know how you have a body like that. You eat like shit.”
“It’s the super genes.”
I threw my huge eraser at him, but he dodged it with ease. “Go shower. I’ll get your Cocoa Puffs.”
Turning toward our bedroom, Kurt called out, “Mail is on the counter. Waldo picked it up for us.”
“Thanks.”
After getting the dates we’d talked about penciled in, I stood and went over to the counter. Most were bills that I’d already paid online. Using my phone, I cross-referenced them to make sure. Some of it was junk, but there was an invitation to Chelsea’s wedding shower. Wow, it had been forever since I’d seen her. I wondered what she’d been up to. She’d been the receptionist at As You Wish, the event-planning place where I was working when I met Kurt. Hopefully, I would be in town to celebrate with her.
Next was an envelope with my name scribbled on it in black marker. Hearing the shower turn off, I put it down, made Kurt’s cereal, and gave George some food. He lifted his head, looked at the bowl, and laid his head back down to sleep some more. Wow, he’s worn out.
Kurt came in and grabbed his bowl. Around a mouthful of cereal, he said, “Thanks.”
“Anything for you.” I made a little kissy face as I went back to open the envelope. Kurt continued to shove the cereal in his mouth as though he hadn’t eaten in a year.
I pulled out a folded piece of paper. The words on the page were spelled out with letters cut out from the newspaper, and my blood chilled.
Walk away, bitch
Or you might end up in a ditch
I could only stare at the letters, blinking over and over again to wash them away. Sounds around me grew muffled. This is a threat. Someone is threatening me.