Played By Riggs

19

It was yet another day of publicity. However, this time, it was without James. It felt odd to be discussing the project without him there, but the radio stations wanted to talk to me by myself, and James had things to do. Tina sat in a chair to my far left. She was there to stop me if I said something inappropriate, or snapped at the interviewer for asking a stupid question. Which had happened. And was, still.

Questions were asked about my fashion, my hair, my future plans regarding children and little, very little, about business. From the corner, the wary look on Tina's face confirmed that she knew how riled up I was getting, how completely nerved I was that interviewers had the decency to ask me of such private details, when they had beforehand settled that they would do none of that sort. The script was shown to me before we went live, and I scanned through to pick out subjects I did not want to discuss; the questions being asked now were not on the script, and I was close to calling them out on it.

"Do you want children?" I asked back. The woman across from me raised her eyebrows, as if to confirm whom my question was aimed it. "Yes, you. Do you want children?"

"I..." she stumbled, unsure where I was going. "I don't know. I guess so...but I don't see how my decisions have any importance to this-"

"It doesn't," I smiled dryly. "So neither should mine. If you plan to ask me about the progress on the project, or considerable invites for the opening, then go straight ahead – I came here for that. If you're gonna ask me more private questions about kids, or men, then let me know so I can politely excuse myself outside."

No one quite knew how to take that. The interviewers looked stunned, embarrassed, so rightly they should. One guy in the back looked like he was on the brink of laughter, though was trying to conceal his amusement in threat of being caught. And Tina, well, Tina looked furious.

They cut to an advert break, and took the off air moment to apologise. I, however, did not have the time to accept or decline the desperate apology, because Tina did so first and then quickly motioned me to the door and outside where I was then, of course, given an earful.

"Are you out of your mind?" Tina exclaimed. "Kelsey, what the hell were you thinking? You can't say shit like that, especially when you're live on air!"

"I wasn't thinking, I was fed up. I refuse to sit there and be questioned about such things anymore. You best call up the next promo events you have lined up and ask them about their script, because I-"

"I get it. Kelsey, I get it, really. Even I was getting frustrated with the pathetic questions, but it's your job to sit there and politely grit through it. From that, you get positive press. From what you just did and said in there, well, I dread to think what they will write..." Tina paused, retrieved her phone from her pocket. "Kevin has text four lines of laughing emoji's. That's great. Glad someone finds this funny."

I pursed my lips together, because I knew that if I started laughing, she would probably start crying. She was doing her job. She was being a great assistant and watching my back. I appreciated her for that, even if I didn't want to hear it.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I shouldn't have said what I said, and I know I've probably just gone and made your job over the next few days a lot harder."

"A lot," Tina nodded, shaking her head at me. "What's with you? You never lash out like that, you always smile through it."

I gave a silent shrug before opening the car door, greeting Keith and climbing inside.

"Before you start," I said, catching his eyes in the rear-view mirror, "just... don't."

"I wasn't going to say anything," Keith cleared his throat, pulling away from the curb and heading towards the next destination.

"You can't lie, Keith, so I don't know why you bother," I said. And then came the laughter. "Did I sound as bad as it felt?"