Rumor Has It (Limelight) (26 page)

After we’d eaten Ellie turned to me with an excited look on her face. “Where’s your lap top?”

“On the nightstand…why?” Something was up. I could tell by the look of mischief on her face.

“I want to show you something.” She bounded into the bedroom and came back a second later holding my laptop. She sat beside me on the couch, put the laptop on the coffee table and waited for it to boot up.

“What are you up to?” I asked her as I fingered the nape of her neck.

“You’ll see,” she said in a sing-song voice.

I grinned. Her enthusiasm made me decide to try patience on for size.

“I know you said you didn’t want to participate in social media because it’s a pain in the butt. But I think it’s important for you to be on there. You don’t need to spend every waking minute on there but you need some kind of presence. No, no. Before you say anything just look at what I’ve come up with. I revamped your website and moved some things around. None of this is live so if you don’t like it, it’s nothing for me to get rid of it. Take a look and let me know what you think. I think it’s much more…you.”

She shifted the laptop to face me and I saw a website I didn’t recognize. It was mine. My name was there, as was my image. But this one was cooler looking, more streamlined.

“Let me point a few things out to you. Before, when you landed on your page you’d be met with one of your songs blaring full blast and a whole lot of graphics all over the page. The eye didn’t know where to go—there was so much happening. Studies show people don’t like music playing on a site when they land there. Who knows what level the volume is at and if they’re at work or somewhere they aren’t supposed to be surfing the web that poses a problem.”

“Good point. I’d never really thought about it. Not that I visited my site much.”

“Well, now the first thing people see is the option as to whether they want your music to play or not. If they pick yes, then they can narrow down their choices by album, who else is performing in the song with you, or even random. I also had the idea that when the song was playing you could have a story scrolling underneath the player explaining how you came up with the lyrics for that song, or some kind of inside scoop on the making of the song. Fans love anything that makes them feel closer to a star, like they really know you as a person, understand the motivations behind your creations.”

“That’s a really great idea.”

“I’m not done yet.” She flashed me a big smile. “You can see here I’ve streamlined your page, too. I’ve broken it down into basic tabs rather than all the scrolling graphics and stuff that was flying around before.”

“What’s this tab here for F.A.N. Club?”

“Ah, that my friend is the Fanatic About Nash Club, or your F.A.N. Club. I know you already have one but from everything I could dig up it was pretty much a glorified e-mail list. With this people will be able to buy merchandise only available to people in the F.A.N. Club, they’ll get a section of tickets blocked off for first purchase at all the shows you headline, and they’ll get a bunch of extras like a video message from you at the holidays, maybe you can give them access to a new song before it’s released to the radio and stuff like that. I even thought that maybe the cost to join could go directly to a charity of your choice.”

I clicked around the site she’d developed. Half of me was blown away she’d accomplished so much so quickly and the other half was a little pissed that the people I paid for shit like this hadn’t already thought of it.

“Ellie, this is amazing stuff. I mean, I never would have thought a website could give the actual feel of a person, but you’ve managed to do it.”

“Well, your last site screamed gangster rap and I know that’s not you.”

“So what about the social media stuff? Am I going to have to tweet semi-naked pictures of you to stay relevant?” I grinned devilishly.

“I’ve had enough media attention this year, thank you.” She leaned in to kiss me and when I tried to deepen the kiss she pulled away with a grin on her face. “Behave for minute. I had some ideas about that. I know you don’t want your personal business everywhere…I was thinking you could use your social media in another way.”

“How?”

“Instead of telling the world you’re about to eat Fruit Loops for breakfast you could do things to involve your fans. Like contests or having them vote for two different album covers, or maybe pick what song you open your next show with…stuff like that. When you have a contest you make sure that everyone has to give their e-mail address for your newsletter. That way when you have a new album, tour, or video releasing you can send an e-mail to all your fans. The newsletter is key. It’s a money maker and it’s the kind of thing that’s going to drive people to buy your album when it first comes out and get you to the top of the charts faster.”

“You seem to have thought of everything.” I pushed the laptop away and pulled her on to my lap.

“I don’t know about that.”

I kissed down one side of her neck and up the other. “Mmm. I do. Did you think of how I’m going to repay you for all your hard work?” I nipped at her neck and Ellie squirmed, letting out a soft moan.

“I’m sure we could come to some type of arrangement we’d both find satisfactory.”

My hand brushed up her waist and grazed the side of her plump breast. “I have a few ideas. Maybe I can show them to you and see what you think?”

“You most definitely can.” I brought my hands to the hem of her shirt to raise it over her head when she stopped me. “After.”

“After. After what?” I sounded like I a whiny kid but damn. This girl’s mind was as much of a turn-on as her damn body. A man could only take so much.

She slid off my lap. “After I do that thing I mentioned before.”

That might have been the only thing that would’ve gotten my one-track mind off the track it had already been barreling down. Whatever it was it had seemed important to her after what happened earlier. “Are you going to tell me what it is now?”

“No. But I’ll show you once I’m done.”

“That’s very cryptic.”

“Hand over your laptop, buddy.”

“Or what?”

“Or you won’t be getting me naked later like your banking on.”

“What makes you think I’ll be trying to get you naked later, huh? Maybe I won’t be in the mood anymore.”

“This,” she said and grabbed the hard-on I’d been hoping hadn’t been too noticeable. Guess not.

“Touché.”

She stood up and I smacked her ass since the fine thing was dangling right in front of me. She yelped but continued to the spare bedroom and closed the door.

My mind ran wild thinking of all the things she could be doing in there. Laptop, webcam…the possibilities were endless. I knew she wasn’t. But hell, it was way more fun to think of her in there making me some kind of sex tape than thinking of her typing up a letter or something.

My mind drifted to thoughts of what had happened at the women’s shelter. We’d gotten lucky, real lucky that no one was hurt. The thought of something happening to her was more than I could bear. Ellie had fast become important to me and even though we’d both been avoiding the topic, we only had one more week together in Virginia Beach.

What would happen once I got back to my regular life? What did she want to happen? Hell, what did I? When we’d started this thing we’d both agreed it wasn’t going to go anywhere. That was before I knew what an intelligent, straight-to-the-point, compassionate woman she was. I’d never met anyone like her before and it didn’t escape me that I probably never would again.

Time was running out. We’d have to talk about it soon. I planned on making the case that we should try and make something work between us. Screw that. I was going to prove to her we could make it work. She’d just have to get used to the idea of me spending money on her and doing things for her because that’s how it was going to be if we were together.

I sounded like fucking caveman. I needed to chill. I’d worked myself right up. I wasn’t sure if that was because of the day’s events or the fact Ellie was running through my system like a hard-core drug, but it was all clear to me. And important.

I’d figure out some way to make Ellie realize we were good for each other. I wasn’t giving up until I did.

A while later Ellie returned, laptop in hand. Her lips were pursed and her forehead crinkled. She’d gone in there like a raging bull full of confidence, now she looked more like a lamb being led to slaughter.

“All done?” I asked.

She took a deep breath in. “Yes, but I wanted to show you first before I hit the upload key. I’m not sure it’s a good idea now.”

“I saw your ideas in action earlier tonight. I’m sure it’s brilliant.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence but I don’t know. Here take a look.”

She set the laptop down in front of me at the breakfast bar where I’d been having a beer waiting for her to finish. After she pressed a button, a video of her came on the screen. She was sitting cross-legged on the bed.

As the video started, Ellie stepped back, chewing on a fingernail, clearly nervous.

“Some of you may know who I am. For those of you who don’t my name is Ellie Wagner. I graduated from the University of Miami with a degree in Comparative Media Studies. I’m like a lot of other twenty-one year-old college graduates. I’m a boomerang kid, back at home with Mom and I’m still looking for that elusive first job in my field, but lately I’ve been best known for this…”

A brief clip of the video of Ellie shoving food down her date’s throat played for a few seconds. I suppressed a chuckle because I didn’t think she’d appreciate it.

“And this…”

A picture of the two of us outside the nightclub flashed on the screen followed by the article scrolling slowly by. This time I didn’t chuckle but clenched my fists in my lap. Images of various newspaper articles about bullying and kids who had taken their lives as a result followed. Ellie’s voice spoke over them.

“You never know what someone else is going through until you’ve walked in their shoes. After the video of me went viral I received all kinds of hurtful messages. I didn’t know anyone who sent me these messages but they caused me pain regardless. I was wrong for throwing my date’s dinner in his face. What none of you know is that I was upfront with him. He knew I wasn’t going to sleep with him and chose to keep seeing me. He thought maybe his charm would work himself into my pants, and when I assured him it wouldn’t, he dumped me, called me every vulgar name in the book and told me I was a worthless whore. I didn’t take too kindly to that, which is when the food and foul language went flying.

“I only tell you this to show you that when you say nasty things to people you may or not know the whole story. But you WILL hurt them. Words can cause as much damage as fists, if not more. The only difference is that the damage is on the inside where no one can see it and it accumulates over time. Please, the next time you find yourself ganging up with others to make fun of someone think of this. And think of all the faces that you’ve seen on the screen while I’ve been talking. Every single one of these kids could still be with us if the people tormenting them had stopped to consider the repercussions of their actions.

“I decided to speak out because something happened earlier today that put everything in perspective for me. I’ve decided to stop worrying about things I can’t control and continue to do what it takes for me to succeed. I know who I am and it doesn’t matter what a bunch of strangers think of me. I’m an honest, intelligent, forthright person. I know this and for the first time in a while I believe it in my own heart.

“I want to say to anyone else struggling out there whether it’s because someone you know is bullying you, you have low self-esteem, or maybe you’re just going through a hard time…it will pass and you’ll be okay. You ARE good enough. It doesn’t matter what anyone else says or thinks of you, as long as you know your worth in your own heart. So stay strong because life really is too short and it can all be taken from you like that.

The video ended and the screen went blank. I turned to Ellie who was now pacing the floor behind me.

“Well?” she said quietly.

“That rocks.”

A smile crept on to her face. “Are you sure?”

“You have to put that up. It’s like a big F.U. to everyone who talked shit about you. Besides, it has a great message for other people to hear.”

“I wanted to take control. I figured I could tell my side of the story and people could either choose to believe me or not. If not, then there’s nothing else I can do about it. I’m going to move on.”

I hopped off the bar stool and gave Ellie a fierce hug. “I’m so proud of you.”

“Why?” she mumbled against my chest as I rocked her back and forth.

“Because. You’ve been through a lot the past couple of months and instead of wallowing in the fetal position, you’re grabbing life by the balls.”

She laughed into my chest because I hadn’t yet let her go. It felt right for her to be there. She belonged there.

“I hadn’t really thought of it like that…but okay. So you really think I should do it? What if a potential employer sees it?”

“If they see it and they don’t realize all the reasons they should hire you, it’s their loss.” I let her pull away. Finally.