His Wild Blue Air

Day 1

"You need to take a chill pill, Ethan. This isn't your fault. And it damn well isn't my fault either because I wouldn't want you in that way even if I get paid a million dollars for it." He couldn't resist the chuckle that escaped him. "Let your rep handle this. It's his job."

"You know you need to release a statement on your end as well, right?" he said.

She groaned. "My rep is a bitch."

"You love her," he teased.

"Stop being the worm in my stomach," she taunted, echoing his own words.

Before he could answer her, his office door burst open without so much as a knock. His PR rep strode in with another magazine with the same headline in his hand. He sighed. "I gotta go."

"He's there, isn't it?"

Ethan glanced up at the red face and the pinched eyes. "Yeah, and boy, does he look pretty?"

"Tell him I wish he rots in hell."

"Tell him yourself." And then he put the receiver back where it belonged and signaled for his visitor to sit down. "Good morning, Jeff."

"It's hardly a good morning," Jeff said, slamming the item in his hand on the table. "What the hell is this?"

"Paparazzi doing their job," Ethan said with a shrug. He was tense just now, so tense and so angry and ready to fuck the world over. But his talk with Emma had calmed him down. "Release a statement."

"The paps are not only hogging your office building's door. They're flooding your house's front door too."

Ethan stared at him, feeling the fire rise in him again. He had no problems with the paps abusing his office building's doorstep - actually he did, but he tolerated it - but there was no way he would tolerate them disturbing his family. He put his palms together calmly and leaned back against his chair.

"I want a lawsuit on their asses and release a statement."

Jeff noded in agreement. "You want to bring this to court?"

He shook his head. "Not unless it needs to. Make them apologize and pay. I don't care about the money; you decide. But make them do exactly those two things. If not, we're bringing this to court."

"Understood," Jeff said. He stood up, already typing on his phone. "What do you want in the statement?"

"Emma Lyons and I are just good friends. We are nothing more than that. We were simply catching up last night at the ball. I support Emma in all her choices and I will not offend her or any of the LGBT community out there in such a brazen way."

Jeff nodded, pushing up his glasses and pivoting on his heel, heading out. Before he stepped out, he turned back slightly. "Just to be clear, there's nothing going on between you and her, right?"

Ethan glared at the other man. "You did not just ask that."

Jeff gulped and nodded before he closed the door behind him.

Ethan's eyes remained on the closed doors, but his mind was elsewhere. His eyes then traveled down to the copy of tabloid Jeff had left behind, mocking him. He looked away and to the wall to his left, where front pages of TIME, Forbes, Vanity Fair, GQ and various other magazines with his face splashed over all of it were framed and hung on.

He had took this company over when it was falling apart five years ago and built it back up all on his own. He took unimaginable risks with this company. He had watched as it rose and fell and rose and fell for two years before one risky deal with a woman he now called his friend had put it back on track. And then it took another year to put it in the Forbes 500 list.