Serendipity Strikes

7

Shawn

Instead of talking on the phone, I suggested that Em come over so we could talk in person.

She'd left fairly early the night before, and I'd starting drinking soon after that, so I was nursing a mild hangover which didn't help how I reacted to the latest online bullshit.

Emmaline arrived wearing turquoise polka dot cotton pajamas, holding Jax in her arms. He was wearing salmon pink onesie with a cute puppy face on it. On one of our walks, we'd talked about how she felt strongly that gender should not be assigned to colors. She said she and Mike had decided they'd dress their son in every shade possible. Once he was old enough, Jax could make his clothing decisions for himself. I was fond of wearing pink, so I loved this concept.

"Mike already told me," Em said as she got comfortable on the couch. "I spent some time this morning looking at what's being circulated online."

"I'm really sorry. I know you hate this kind of thing, and honestly, I'm really bothered by it, too. I swear, my friend who snapped the pic did it in total innocence. She texted me this morning apologizing like crazy."

"I'm not mad at your friend or you. Don't worry. I'm just flummoxed, because it's such a huge leap to conclude that your affection towards Jax means you are his father. Why do people always want to believe the most outrageous lies?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know, but it seems like the crazier the rumor is, the more people grasp onto it."

"What do you typically do about this kind of thing? Do you ignore it? Do you release a statement?" she asked as she held Jax against her shoulder. He was looking at the sunlight streaming through the clouds onto the patio like it was the greatest thing ever.

"I talked to Andrew, my manager, and he said we should just ignore it. It's a complete lie and there's no reason to refute it. That's what always worked best in the past."

I'd experienced this kind of crap before with my ex. Several photos of us together had resulted in outrageous speculation. If she wore something tight that showed her belly, everyone assumed she was pregnant. That got old quick, especially for her since she felt body-shamed. One time I was frowning in a photo someone had sniped when we were in a restaurant in midtown Manhattan. The number of articles saying we were breaking up was nuts. I'd made that face because my chicken was undercooked, not because of my ex-girlfriend. We did break up several months later and that picture resurfaced as evidence that things had been bad for awhile. The internet could be such a toxic place, and having my new friend dragged into this wasn't fair.

I then asked the question that had been on my mind since I saw the posts pop up. "This can't impact your career, can it? You're a children's book author, so does a scandal like this, even if it's fake, affect you?"

"People don't really care that much about the lives of early childhood book authors. If I were writing for older kids, it might be different. Probably not, though, since the lives of writers aren't typically newsworthy. I talked to my agent and she said that she didn't want me doing anything. Her take was that if anyone was going to say something, it would need to be you, but that it was fine to ignore it. She contacted my publisher who agreed. They know Mike is Jax's dad and that these stories are nonsense," she said.

Emmaline switched Jax to her other shoulder, and he turned his head towards me and smiled. According to her, most smiles this early were a reflex, but this one seemed pretty genuine. It felt good to have him give me one either way.

She continued, "I care more about how my family and friends take it. I know they won't believe it, but it will hurt them to see my name thrown around considering I'm pretty private. And obviously it's especially shitty for Mike, though he seems to be handling it."