738 Days: A Novel Read Online Free Page B

with more than a hint of impatience. “It’s going to be great. There’s a fine line between innovative media use and exploitation, and sometimes you’ve got to cut it closer than everybody else to rise above the noise.”
    I am not so sure about that. And my doubt must have shown through.
    “Chase, either you control the media or the media controls you. It’s that simple, sweetie,” she says, as if she’s speaking to the slow kid who keeps trying to put the square shape in the round hole. She sets her phone down just long enough to squeeze my thigh in what I’m sure is meant to be a sexy distraction or possibly reassurance but comes off more like a very familiar kind of condescension. Keep quiet, pretty boy. Let the grown-ups do the thinking.
    Elise is only a couple of years older than me, but she’s smart, Ivy League smart. And she definitely thinks she’s smarter than me. She might be, but it’s my life, a fact she doesn’t always seem to recognize.
    Her hand traces circles higher on my leg, which is, much to my irritation, actually working. My dick has zero conscience, apparently. It occurs to me, not for the first time, that sleeping with my publicist, even if it’s only on a casual, we’re-like-colleagues-with-benefits basis, was probably not a great choice. Another one of those brilliant “night before” decisions.
    “Besides,” Elise continues with a coy smile, “she’s going to love it. I mean, who wouldn’t love to have Chase Henry stop by for a visit?”
    Actually, it seems that maybe there are a lot of people these days who wouldn’t be so thrilled. At least, judging by the number of callbacks I’m not receiving.
    Not that I can blame them, exactly. It’s not as if I didn’t help this train wreck along with my own stupidity. It’s just so weird how fast things turn. Three years ago, maybe four, I was on the number-one show on television, setting new records for the network.
    Now I’m here, in a car in the-middle-of-nowhere-Pennsylvania, heading to do possibly the best thing for my career but also maybe my worst thing as a human being, and I can’t tell which one it is.
    “I mean, God, you saved her life. She says it right there in black and white.” Elise gestures at the file she prepared. Or, more likely, her overworked assistant, Nadia. Elise has very clear ambitions, and I seriously doubt that doing her own photocopying fits within that scope. “She’s going to be thrilled to see her hero, and the exposure we get will be fantastic. It was the anniversary of her rescue a couple of weeks ago, and everyone’s been trying to get an update without any success. I mean, she turned down People .” Elise shakes her head with a tsk of disapproval. “It’s a win-win. Stop worrying.”
    Reluctantly, I return my attention to the folder and the pages inside. Most of them are printouts from various websites, the relevant portions highlighted in yellow, as if Elise (or Nadia, acting on Elise’s instructions) doesn’t trust me to find it on my own.
    Phrases leap out at me. “Abducted by her former bus driver…”
    “… two years in captivity…”
    “… Grace, dubbed the ‘Miracle Girl,’ released a statement saying she’s just happy to be home.”
    “… escaped when she signaled a furnace repairman…”
    “… credits a poster of actor Chase Henry ( Starlight ) with reminding her of home and keeping her focused on escaping the horrible conditions in Jakes’s basement.”
    The People magazine cover, dated two years ago, is less discreet. “Chase Henry saved my life” is the pull quote on the front cover. Ironically, it is the one other time Amanda Grace and I have ever shared space—there’s a small photo of me in the corner, a publicity shot of Brody scowling from the third season , with the line, “What Former Starlight Hunk Is Driving Dangerously Close to the Edge?”
    That was the header for my second DUI.
    I wonder if we sent something to Amanda. I cringe at the idea