Personal Assistant

by Cara North

He opened the door and his eyes rounded. His mouth dropped. Frankie was fulfilling a fantasy he had shared the night before. Naked except for the thigh highs, garter, and a bra, she had her hair pulled in a bun held by two black chopsticks, her glasses on, and a ruler popping the palm of her hand. He pushed backwards but not soon enough.

  She squealed and dropped into the fetal position since it was her only defense.

  His brother, Jed, slammed against his back since he was moving forward through the door behind Jonas. He could hear Jed say, “Holy shit!”

  Jonas closed the door and let his forehead rest against it while he gathered his thoughts. “Give me a sec to, uh…”

  “Sure thing, little brother. I’ll be right behind you in say five minutes?” Jed smacked him on the back.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I wouldn’t apologize for that, man. Don’t ever apologize for that.” Jed laughed.

  Jonas had not seen his big brother in over a year. He was excited that he was back from his last project and wanted to introduce him to Frankie immediately. Maybe he would need to be clearer if his surprises included people from now on, but he never thought she would take him seriously about greeting him with nothing on.

  Boldly, he stepped into the hall and realized she was gone. He found her a doorway down in the room that led to the pool. She had just wrapped a robe around herself. Her shoes were off, the ruler nowhere to be seen. She was shaken and embarrassed. “Frankie.”

  She held up a hand to silence him. She was trying to keep her steel resolve. No doubt her pink cheeks and trembling fingers were due to the surge of embarrassment. He felt awful for her.

  He stepped into the room and fought her protests until he had her wrapped in his arms. “I’m sorry. I should have told you I was bringing someone home with me. I never in a million years expected…”

  “Please tell me I have not done something irreparable.” Her voice cracked as she spoke.

  She took a shallow breath and he looked at her with concern. “What?”

  “I know I embarrassed you. I don’t know who in front of, but I know this was my fault.” She sniffed.

  “Are you serious?” He held her at an arms distance and made her look at him. “You…you look at me, Frankie. This was…fucking amazing. If that wasn’t my brother I would have told whoever it was to get lost so I could get lost in your fantasy. Stop worrying so much about me. I’m more concerned about you. Are you going to be all right?”

  The door opened down the hall and her eyes widened as she looked up at him. “He’s still here?”

  “He’s my brother.” Jonas shrugged. “You have to face him sometime. We have dinner plans with the family tonight. I didn’t want to wait for you to meet him. I thought we could give him a ride since I sure didn’t think we had time for…well, class.”

  Her face burned redder and he knew that it may have been less embarrassing if it was not a family member.

  “Oh my God.” She put her hands over her face.

  “Hey.” He tugged at her wrists as heard Jed make his way to where they were. “I love you.”

  He knew Jed stopped in his tracks because he heard the words. His big brother was probably in shock. No one had been able to communicate with his reclusive brother in more than six months since he was allegedly shooting an indie flick in the middle of nowhere.

  She looked up at him, her eyes still watery, but she was trying not to cry and said, “I love you, too.”

  “See, sometimes we will have to have these conversations in various states of undress. Can you handle that?” He smiled as she leaned into his chest and his arms slid around her back. “Jed, this is Frankie. Frankie, this is my big brother, Jed.”

  She lifted her head from his chest long enough to bashfully say a timid, “Hello.”

  He could have sworn his older brother blushed, but the beard hid most of his face. Jed said, “I didn’t see anything. But I found this.” He held out the ruler. “In the hall. You might need it.”

  With that, his older brother sat the ruler on the cabinet next to the door and headed straight to the kitchen where he had intended to go to begin with. He had only been in town a few hours and was starving. Jonas had promised him a stocked refrigerator that would tide him over until dinner.

  Jonas looked down at Frankie. “It could have been worse.”

  “Really?” Frankie pulled the robe around her and picked up the high heels she had been wearing. He felt a lick of heat through his spine and hoped he would get to play later. They started down the hall. “How?”

  “Well, it could have been Buddy Junior, my mom, your dad…”

  “Shut up!” She surrendered. “Just know I will not be meeting you at this door in a state of undress again.”

  “Damn.” He slapped the wall and she jumped. She turned to look at him with a mix of shock and excitement. He gave her his best devious grin and said, “That’s not fair.”

  “I said this door.” She smiled. “You have plenty of other doors that I can play in.”

  He groaned as she went towards the stairs and he went towards the kitchen.

  He sat across from Jed at the table.

  “So, correct me if I am wrong, is that your girlfriend or your PA?” Jed had his big brother voice on, the one that came with lectures.

  “That is the love of my life. Yes, she handles the work of a personal assistant, but she is my girlfriend.” The term sounded so weak to his ears. How did the world girlfriend compare to the terms love of my life? It didn’t sound right. Frankie was more than his girlfriend.

  “Have you met her parents?” Jed asked.

  “Yes, a few times. I’ve been working, they both work. I‘ve talked to her dad on the phone a couple of times. I like him, he seems to like me.” Jonas crossed his arms. “What? Say it. I know you have something to say about it so just say it.”

  “How is the reaction of your fan base?” Jed asked pointedly.

  “What?” Jonas hadn’t really sought approval from them. He didn’t owe them when it came to his heart.

  “Can you check your own ego for a second? I’m not concerned about how they react to you. I’m asking if you know how they are reacting to her. Have you been out and about? Was it just the one magazine pic with mystery girl and you coming to her rescue? Does anyone know who the fuck she is in a public sense?” Jed knew more than most what impact the public could have on a relationship. He moved from in front of the camera to behind it when his high school sweetheart committed suicide because of letters and comments about her from angry fans. Her letter was clear why she chose to end her life. He was devastated, and may have never fully recovered from it judging by the way he looked at Jonas now.

  “She doesn’t need their seal of approval, and I won’t tolerate them treating her unkind.” Jonas hadn’t really thought about it.

  “You need to talk to her, to prepare her for both sides of this. I saw the magazine. It was left in the back pocket of a plane seat and no one had removed it. My gut dropped the moment I saw it. That’s why I came to you before stopping anywhere else. You’re my little brother. I don’t want you to go into this unprepared.” Jed looked up and then said, “Shh. We’ll finish this later.”

  ***

  Frankie entered the room where the brothers sat in conversation. At first the air was thick, tense, and then it was normal again. Maybe they had been “having words” as her mother called it when she and her father would argue. Frankie didn’t know. She knew of Jed, but in the same roundabout way she knew of the rest of his family at first.

  “I hope I’m not interrupting.” Frankie looked from one brother to the next. Liquid blue eyes stared at her from both angles of the table. A girl could be in trouble trapped between those stares.

  “No, not at all,” Jed said with what was probably a smile under all that hair. He had a full beard, long, and thick, if she didn’t know who he was it would have been scary. Well, maybe not if his eyes were still soft and disarming.

  She looke
d from Jed to Jonas. He was lying. She knew that by now. Something had happened, and he was trying too hard to make it look like nothing important had transpired. Maybe it was just family business. Jed wouldn’t think she cared about it, and Jonas knew she cared about everything.

  “So, am I dressed okay for dinner? You didn’t tell me where we were going, and I,” she said. Cleared her throat and continued, “Thought I had time.”

  Jonas blushed. She liked that he still reacted to her that way. “You look great.”

  Frankie took in a deep breath then let it out. “Soooooo.” She clapped her hands together and looked from one brother to the next and back again. “I uh…where are you staying, Jed?”

  Jed shrugged. “I had a really nice flat, but I was never in it so I let it go. I’ll crash with mom maybe see if dad’s place is available for a while, then I’ll decide if I am going to stay out here or go back to New York and my condo there.”

  “Oh.” She didn’t know what to say. If he were her brother she would ask him if he wanted to say with her. But he wasn’t so she didn’t. His brother didn’t either. She gulped. “Well, uh, I think we could start heading to wherever it is we are going now, don’t you?”

  She looked at Jonas. He looked at her a long minute and then nodded.

  He was wearing a pair of jeans and a button down shirt. Jed, on the other hand was wearing a pair of well-worn jeans and a hoodie with the name of some band she really needed to listen to since this was the second appearance of the logo she had seen this family wear and the third appearance of it altogether. Somehow, she could not find them anywhere and she had looked through all of the major and indie music outlets. Maybe they were too indie even for indie outlets if that was possible.

  Frankie rode in the back seat of the car he had bought for her. He was likely drinking this evening, and if his mood didn’t improve he was likely not playing school later. Jed was pleasant enough but they didn’t really talk. It was a decent drive to where they were going.

  “Hey, who is InkBlot? I’ve tried to find them but can’t seem to.” She had to break the silence.

  They both laughed out loud.

  “You’re looking at InkBlot, babe,” Jonas chuckled.

  “What?” She was really curious now.

  Jed clarified, “We put together a band when we were younger. We had some good promotional material made up, but our first gig was a mess. It was a one show wonder.”

  “That explains it then. I’ve been trying to find the band since Jonas wore the t-shirt on our camping trip. You have it on that sweatshirt, and Janice has it on a sticker inside the glove box in her car.” Frankie sat back and was satisfied the emotional vibe in the car had changed.

  “How do you know that? I don’t know that,” Jonas said.

  “A few days ago they stopped by. She asked me to grab the hand sanitizer while she put Buddy Junior in his car seat. I think he gave her a rock or something he found on the ground. Anyways, I looked, it was there. I thought it was odd, but it made me want to find the group even more.” Frankie waited as they laughed again.

  “Did you ask her about it?” Jed asked.

  “No,” she said. “I mean with both of them having the logo around I didn’t want to seem…uncool, I guess. I mean it seemed to me InkBlot was everywhere at the time, and I had never heard of them and couldn’t find them.”

  The boys continued to crack up in the front seat. She didn’t care it was at her expense. “What?” She did care that they were not sharing the fun.

  “She was our lead singer.” Jonas laughed until he had tears in his eyes. Jed struggled to catch his breath. Frankie understood why it was so funny now. Janice is the epitome of respectable, good, all-American girl. For her to be in a band, a bit of a punk band from the way the logo was formed, and to be the lead singer no less, was a bit hard to place together. He continued, “She went through a stage. It was her idea. We had no idea she kept that around.”

  “Well you can’t tell her I outed her,” Frankie smiled.

  “It has to happen, babe,” Jonas said.

  “Absolutely has to happen,” Jed agreed.

  ***

  Frankie survived dinner with his family. Janice had admitted her InkBlot experiment and Buddy learned something new about his wife. Everyone asked Jed so many questions Frankie felt bad for him by the end of it. He looked exhausted and dodged most of them. Jonas did not invite him to return, and by the looks of it, his mother would not have allowed it anyways. Whatever he had been filming, it was not something she wanted him working on often. The waiter came over and in a low voice mentioned, “I’m sorry. They are here.”

  ***

  The first flashes of paparazzi startled her. He knew it was coming. It was only a matter of time. Still. The lights flashed against the night in rapid succession. Jonas pulled her in closer to his side. She wasn’t used to it. Questions popped from all directions. Most of them about her.

  She didn’t say one word. She ducked behind him the slightest bit and he led them through the crowd to the car. He opened her door and she got in. He was glad to see her sitting up straight, not hiding, not shielding, but not playing into the cameras either. He was glad he didn’t have more than a few sips of wine o drink. He had a feeling this would happen.

  He looked at her. She had that steeled spine look she would get when she needed control. He had grown accustomed to that movement and what it meant. It was somewhat satisfying to learn these things about a woman. It was also unsettling to know what these things meant. Frankie made this move, got this expression, when she was faced with a major adjustment.

  “How you holding up?” This time he was nervous. She seemed a bit shell-shocked. The rest of his family began to exit the restaurant and enough of the photographers saw that as an opportunity they moved towards them. He was able to pull out of the space without worry of running over someone’s foot. The shutterbugs were sometimes desperate and violated all safety concerns for the people they were photographing as well as themselves.

  As they pulled onto the street he glanced over at her.

  “Everything’s a bit…” She reached up and scrubbed her eyes. “I should have worn my glasses.”

  He laughed. “You’ll get used to it.”

  “I don’t think anyone can get used to this,” she said with a sigh.

  “I’m used to it.” He frowned. “I’m not saying I enjoy the press when it has nothing to do with my work, but I have become a bit used to a certain amount of attention.”

  “Well, this will pass. I’m not worried about it. I’ve already seen the internet posts.”

  It was the way she shrugged it off that made Jed’s words hit like a fist in his chest as they rang through his ears again. Jonas said quietly, “Please don’t…just give it…I can’t control…”

  “Jonas?” She slid her hand over to his thigh, and the touch sizzled as it always did. He looked over to her briefly, still trying to find the words, and she smiled at him. His chest felt less heavy, but only the slightest bit.

  “Jonas, I taught hundreds of students each semester. There isn’t much they can say about me that hasn’t already been said. You think they are the first set of young girls, or guys for that matter, that wanted me dead?” She snorted and continued, “You obviously never took one of my final exams.”

  It didn’t matter. He knew it still hurt. It hurt because they were judging her and not for the same reasons. It hurt him too. Without knowing what else to say at the moment he said, “I love you.”

  It sounded as desperate as he felt. She squeezed his thigh and said, “Maybe I should give you that final when we get home.”

  A weak smile crossed his lips.

  Chapter Twelve

  Frankie had let a week’s worth of public criticism wash over her, penetrate her flesh, pull out every insecurity she ever had, beat her, bruise her, batter her heart and mind, and she was tired of it. Sure, a few people had said nice things about Jonas’s choice in girlfriend. A few. Too fe
w to make a dent in the words from the masses of hateful creatures talking about her.

  Jonas had been walking on eggshells. He was worried about the impact of the unofficial press known as social media. Not on him, on her. Frankie knew she had been giving an Oscar worthy performance as ‘girlfriend to a celebrity who didn’t give a shit what his adoring public thought of her’. In truth, she needed the break. He was at work, her parents had stopped asking if she was okay, her mother stopped threatening to open a Tweeter account to defend her, and she was about to indulge in some chocolate therapy. Hearing her mother say Tweeter instead of Twitter was comical, the reason she knew Twitter now existed, was heartbreaking.

  “Hey.” A familiar voice said as the person stopped next to the table.

  Frankie looked up to see an old enemy with a smile on her face. Delightful. Just what she needed: Ivy. Dryly she replied with, “Hello.”

  “Do you mind if I join you?” Ivy let the smile fade as she took the seat across from Frankie anyways. “I know we didn’t really know each other in high school, but I know that Jonas is happy. He was…is a good friend, a good man. I’m sure he explained why I couldn’t go to the award show with him. I just feel terrible about how people are treating you. Especially the ones comparing us.”

  Frankie had opened her mouth a few times to try to get a word in edgewise, but Ivy was bound and determined to speak her peace. Ivy stopped long enough for the waiter to set the molten lava chocolate cake with a heaping spoon of vanilla ice cream on top on the table.

  “Wow,” Ivy said as she looked at the cake. “That looks sooo good.”

  “He brought two spoons.” Frankie looked at the cake and thought better of eating the entire thing herself. It was a bit of a truce offering since she wanted to know more about the reason Ivy had stood him up at the award show. “Tell me why you cancelled on him and showed up with someone else.”

  Ivy took in a deep breath and picked up the spoon. “Well, he told me when I was ready to end it I should make a decision and stick to it. I debated it a long time. I mean we were a,” she used air quotes as she said the word ‘couple’ “and we needed some press for the release. I know it was a shitty thing to do, but I was already dating someone. I hadn’t seen him in months. It just felt like time to end the charade.”