Moving Forward

Loving Proof

"Ready to show them you love me?" Brad asks as our car pulls up to the event "Or we can just drive by and go eat burgers somewhere."

"Let's leave here early and do that.  I wanna just get this over with."

He grabs my hand, leading me out of the car.  The paparazzi go crazy as we walk through them guided by a security guard.  They yell out all kinds of crazy questions, hoping we say something we'll regret and make this whole situation worse than it is.

"Just remember why we're here, to support our friends." He leans down, whispering in my ear "If questions about us come up, you don't need to answer unless you really want to.  Don't feel pressured into it."

"I know." I laugh at how he's acting like this is the first time I've been to anything like this "I'm just a little nervous, but I kinda want to address everything in a way."

"Well this should help." He smirks, pulling me closer.  I keep walking, thinking he means the event itself, but he quickly stops me.

He turns me towards him slightly, leaning in for a kiss.  I open my mouth, letting it deepen as it continues to get steamy.  We ignore the fact that we're in public, until we get interrupted by George.

"I know you guys wanna show you aren't getting divorced, but do you really have to make out right in front of me?" He pulls us apart, trying not to laugh as he does it "This is my event, if anyone gets kissed it should be me."

"Okay." I lean in, kissing his cheek for fun "There you go."

"I think we're even now." George looks to Brad smiling "Maybe now we'll be getting married and that'll be the next rumor."

"You can have her." Brad jokes, pushing me aside "But you get the kids too and they can be really annoying."

"But they're cute."

We walk the rest of the carpet, all three talking and joking around about everything going on.  The reporters beg us for interviews as we walk by, but we chose to ignore them and enjoy our time together.

"Oh yeah, by the way you guys have to wear these." George hands us each a sticker name tag and a pen "Apparently it's to go along with the movie theme or something.  Whatever it is I think it's dumb."

I quickly take mine, writing my name on it and sticking it on my dress.  Brad does the same, writing a random name on his.

"You really wrote Jennifer Pitt?"  He reads mine, looking upset "You could have had fun with it and you write your real name?  That's so boring."

"I know, who has a last name as short and boring as Pitt?"

I walk over to the bar for a drink, and turn around to see a reporter in my face.  She has everything ready for my interview, so I decide to go along with it.

"Do you have a minute?" She asks.  I nod my head, so she goes along with the interview "How has New York been so far?  Have you done any touristy things yet?"

"Not really.  I grew up herex so all that is weird to me, but Brad does like to explore, so I'm sure we'll do something before we leave.  It would be nice to get presents for the girls."

"How has your relationship been?  I know there was a big strain in it a month ago."

"We're honestly fine.  There was absolutely no truth to that rumor at all, and we have no problems.  We're happily married."

"What made you decide to completely ignore the tabloid situation and not release a second statement to reverse the impact of the first?"

"Our family.  We wanted to spend time with our children instead of spending extra time confronting something like that and losing precious time.  The whole situation just proved to us that more of our life is put out to the public than we like, and we wanted to change that."

"Do you think all of this has impacted your parenting style?  Have you shielded your children from the media more than before?  I know you and Brad have tried to stay out of the public in general."

"I think so, in a way.  We had always wanted to keep their lives as private as possible because they aren't the ones who chose this life, but recently we have really put our guard up and tried to protect them as much as possible.  It's been an adjustment, but based on some instances that happened because of the fake statement, it's well worth it."

"What does it feel like to be here for your friends?"

"It's great to be able to have the amazing friends we do.  We constantly support them, and they support us through everything.  I love getting to see all their hard work come to life, and I can't wait to see the movie."

I walk back to our seats, handing Brad his drink and sitting as close to him as possible.  He lays his arm on my shoulder as I rest my head on his chest.

"This is really good." I whisper halfway through the movie "I like it more than I thought I would."

"Yeah, me too.  Who knew George could be so funny."

We get up once the movie ends, talking to some people until we find George again.

"We're gonna go get some food.  You coming with?"

"Of course.  I'm not eating this crap."

I go to get our driver, but Brad stops me suggesting that we walk like "normal" people. 

"My feet hurt.  Are we there soon?" I ask after a few minutes "I need to take my shoes off."

"You're such a baby." Brad replies laughing at me as he stops walking and reaches for my purse "Here, I snuck these in here earlier."

"How big is that bag?" George stares at the pair of flats Brad pulls out in amazement "What else is in there?  The entire bathroom?"

"Just part of it." I smirk, hanging on Brad to switch shoes "It's full of everything Ava can stuff in it."

We continue the walk to the burger place, amazing people as they see the 3 of us casually walking by.

"So," George asks as he sits across from us "How is everything going with your mom?"

I look to Brad for approval, wanting to know what he thinks.

"I think they'll be just fine."