Part 37 -  A Colossal Mess

“So when she starts telling you that she’s going to puke, just tell her she’s not… But if she starts looking green, then she really is going to blow chunks and you need to move out of her way,” Christian told Kevin with a giggle as I sat in the hair and makeup chair at the Today Show.  It was Book Release Day and my first gig was an interview with some fairly new reporter who apparently was a huge fan of mine. 

Kevin laughed, “Got it… if she’s green, haul ass.”

“Both of you can shut up…” I told them which caused them to giggle.

“Oh and just be prepared to have bruises on your hands and arms.  She’s quite the grabber when she’s nervous…”

“Yeah I think I lost feeling in my hand on the way here…” Kevin teased.

“Keep it up, Richardson…” I warned and glanced at him as the makeup chick turned away to grab for another brush of some sort.

He laughed and sat down in the chair next to me, “I love you.”

I tried not to smile and failed miserably, “I love you too.”

“I love you three!” Christian cooed.

“And I love you four…” was heard from the doorway. We all turned our heads to see Al Roker standing there with his trademark grin on his face, “Good morning!”

“Al my pal!” I squealed and motioned for him to come closer, “I need some sugar!”

He gave me an air kiss so not to mess with my makeup or his own but squeezed my shoulders, “Hello, my dear.”

I couldn’t help but grin around Al, his happiness was contagious, “Hello yourself, sexy!  I’m so bummed you’re not going to interview me this morning! It’s totally breaking our tradition.”

“I know, I was pretty ticked off myself when I found out,” he said.  “But the new kid needs to get a good interview under his belt.  I wanted to at least stop by and say hello though… couldn’t have you in the building without getting some love!”

I giggled and looked at Kevin, “Al did my very first national TV interview and ever since then I’ve made sure that he’s the one to interview me when I’m on the show, now they’re going and screwing up our on-air love affair.”

Kevin opened his mouth to respond but Al cut him off, “Kevin?! What the heck are you doing here?”  He reached out and shook Kevin’s hand and did that half hug thing that men do.  “Man it’s been a while…”

Kevin nodded, “A very long time… good to see you.”

“So are you on the show today?” Al asked.  “Are you back on Broadway and I didn’t hear about it?”

“Nope, I’m here strictly on boyfriend duty.”

Kevin smiled as Al did the math in his head and then smiled from ear to ear, “You two? Oh man, that’s great!”

“I think so…” I said and reached out to hold Kevin’s hand. 

Kevin smiled, “And before you ask, yes, I’m divorced…” 

Al chuckled, “Apparently the reason I’m a weather guy is because I’m a bad reporter.  I had no idea you’d gotten divorced and were dating this one here…”

“Nah, you’re not a bad reporter, honey…” I said with a smile in the mirror at Al.  “The divorce was hush hush.  Most people don’t still don’t know.  This week is sort of our coming out.”

Christian laughed, “Haha… you said coming out.”

Al looked at Christian and shook his head while chuckling, “I should have known you’d be here…”

“Of course!” Christian replied and then shook Al’s hand. 

“How’s Josef?”

“Brilliant as always!”

“My wife and I are going to be in Miami next month, we’ve already got reservations to have dinner at his restaurant down there… can’t wait.”

“Awesome! He’ll be thrilled.  I think he’s planning on being at the Miami restaurant all next month so you’ll probably get to see him.”

“Even better!” Al squeezed my shoulders again, “I’ve gotta run, but I wanted to say hi.  I’ll blow you kisses on set later.

“Ooh baby…” I flirted. 

Kevin laughed after Al left, “Flirt much?”

I giggled, “I can’t help it.  I love me some Roker…”

“You should see her with Lester Holt…” Christian said with his own giggle.

“Oh my god…” I said while laughing then explained to Kevin and the makeup chick how the last time I’d been on the show Lester had been subbing for someone and I’d turned into complete mush in his presence and all he’d said to me was hello.  “He’s pretty…”

“He’s not here today is he?” Kevin asked the makeup chick.

She smiled, “Nope… last I heard he was on location somewhere.”

“Good…” Kevin replied and we all giggled. 

Once my makeup and hair was all done we were moved to the green room to wait until it was my turn to go on set.  I was nervous but it wasn’t anything epic that I hadn’t experienced before.  More than anything I found myself nervous about how Kevin was going to like my interview.  When I told Jules she thought it was cute, but I thought it was annoying.  I didn’t want to be that kind of girl who was worried about impressing her boyfriend.  She said I was overanalyzing again and told me to suck it up.

Time flew by and the next thing I knew I was on set sitting across from the new reporter, whose name was Mark something, and he was asking me all of the typical questions about my writing, what the new book was about, how Vinnie was, and of course about the movie rumors.  We’d small talked about my sprained ankle and I answered all of his questions like a pro and was quite proud of myself for not stumbling over my words or saying “um” too many times. 

I had to admit that Mark was doing a great job.  He seemed to have done his research on me and knew things about my books that only someone who’d read them would know.  Even though I still missed my buddy Al, things were going pretty great with Mark.  That is until he decided to totally throw me for a loop.

“So let’s talk a little bit about your personal life…” he said as he shot a smile at me.

“Oh goodness…” I said with a chuckle. “What now?”

“Well, as soon as you showed up to the studio this morning the buzz was all about who your new beau is.  Someone who you’ve previously referred to on your blog simply as ‘The Guy.’”

I blushed and smiled, “Uh huh…”

“Would you like to share with the audience who The Guy is?”

“Do I have a choice?” I teased.  “No, I’m kidding. Of course I’m okay with it… I’m dating an amazing man named Kevin Richardson.”

“Of the Backstreet Boys?”

“Formerly, yes…”

“So when did you two meet?”

“Not too long ago… the beginning of the summer, basically.  He was in Florida staying in my friend’s condo and we ran into each other and just sort of hit it off.”

“When you started dating him, did you know he was married?”

I plastered on a smile in Mark’s direction, “He’s not married and wasn’t when I met him.”  I could see Kevin standing off to the side of the set and saw him cross his arms across his chest, a sure sign he was uncomfortable.   I was pretty damn uncomfortable myself suddenly.   

“That’s funny because just before we went on the air I was handed this statement that Kristen Richardson, Kevin’s wife, apparently released this morning.”  He looked at a blue card in his hand so he could read the quote.  “She says, ‘Kevin and I were not divorced when he started seeing this Kellie person.  He went off to Florida to visit a ‘friend’ while I was on tour and the next thing I know I’m looking at pictures of him with his hands all over this chick on the internet and I’m getting divorce papers in the mail…’”  Mark looked at me, “What do you have to say about that?”

I wanted to say that she was a raving psychotic bitch, but I didn’t.  I knew that wouldn’t help anything.  Instead I shook my head sadly, “She’s lying… I don’t know why, but she’s lying.  None of that’s true.”

“How sure are you about that?  According to Mrs. Richardson, this isn’t the first time that her husband has cheated on her.  They apparently have had a pretty rocky relationship.”  I glanced from Mark to where Kevin was standing with Jules.  Jules was speaking very heatedly to someone, most likely threatening his life if he didn’t put an end to this attack.  Kevin meanwhile was literally being held back by someone.  He was trying to get onto the set and I imagined they were telling him that he couldn’t interrupt the shot.  Christian had stayed back in the green room but I was pretty sure he was losing it as well at the moment.  “Why would she say that about you if it’s not true?” Mark asked, pulling my attention momentarily from watching Kevin’s struggle and Jules losing her temper.

I shrugged, “I have no idea.”  I shook my head to try and clear it.  “Listen, I don’t know why she’s doing this.  Kristen can say whatever she wants, but she knows the truth as much as Kevin and I do.  She’s not ‘Mrs. Richardson’ anymore and hasn’t been for quite some time.  I’m sure that Mr. Richardson’s lawyer would be happy to provide you proof of that, and when he does, we’ll expect an apology from you immediately.  It’s unfortunate that Kristen has chosen to do this, but it’s even more unfortunate that you would stoop to this level.  I know you’re the new guy around here but I honestly never thought that a respectable program like Today Show would allow you to pull this sensationalistic crap with me.  I’ve always been more than happy to make the Today Show my first stop when I’m promoting my books but it seems that now I may have to reevaluate that decision if this is how I’m going to be treated while I’m here.”  I glanced at Kevin and Jules, they’d stopped what they were doing and were instead listening to me, both of them smiling and urging me on.  That made me smile and I looked back to Mark, “Now, unless you want to talk about my book some more, I think we’re done here.”

Mark stumbled a bit over his words but kept smiling, “Oh come on, Kellie… no hard feelings, I’m just doing my job.  What kind of reporter would I be if I didn’t ask you about this?”

I smiled as well, “Oh I don’t know, maybe one who checks his facts before going on air?”

“Ooh it looks like I’ve ruffled someone’s feathers…” he said with a grin and chuckle. I could see someone off camera motioning to Mark to wrap things up and they began playing the music that designated that it was time for a commercial break.  Some very pissed off suits were also standing off to the side and it looked like Mark was about to get in a boatload of trouble.  He picked up a copy of my book and showed it to the camera, “Well, you can check out Kellie’s newest book in the Lake Pleasanton series in stores now.  If you’re in the City today, she’ll also be doing a book signing at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square at 3 p.m.  We’ll be back in a moment, this is Today, on NBC.”

As soon as we were off the air Kevin pushed his way through onto set and went for Mark who looked like he was about to piss his pants frankly.  “What the fuck was that?”

I stood up and wobbled on my foot without my crutches, “Honey, don’t…” I reached out and grabbed Kevin’s arm, trying to pull him back.  “It’s not worth it, let’s just go.”

“No way…”Kevin said pulling his arm away from my grasp in order to get in Mark’s face.  He stood a good three or four inches over the man and was also much more muscular.  In fact, Mark looked like a little boy playing dress up as he stood there in his expensive suit looking up into Kevin’s angry face.

“I’m just doing my job, man…” Mark said to Kevin and swallowed hard.  I didn’t think Kevin would go as far as to hit Mark, but from the look on his face, Mark wasn’t so sure.  He put his hands up in front of his chest in surrender.  “I didn’t mean any harm…”

“Fuck that…” Kevin said and used his size to further intimidate the younger smaller man.  “You knew exactly what you were doing!”

“Honey…” I said again trying to get Kevin to back down.  My head was spinning and I seriously needed to sit down.  Everything was beginning to hit me all at once and the chaos of the scene in front of me didn’t help.  The suits who’d shown up at the end of my interview were trying to intervene.  Two had managed to get in between Kevin and Mark while the other was pretty much yelling at Mark.  Jules on the other hand was yelling at another suit.  The whole set was a colossal mess.  I looked around and saw my crutches sitting against a wall and I began to hobble over to them. 

Just as I reached the crutches I heard a familiar voice, “Oh, Kellie… I’m so sorry!”

I looked up into Al’s eyes with a sad smile, “It’s not your fault… I need to get out of here.”

“Of course, come on…” he said and walked with me down the hall toward the green room where hopefully no one was yelling and Christian would be waiting to hug me. My hands were shaking so bad I kept stumbling with my crutches.  Al noticed and ran his hand along my back, “You handled him like a pro.”

“I don’t even remember what I said…” I told him quietly.  “I remember him reading the so-called quote and then everything else is a blur.”

“You pretty much handed him his nuts on a plate…” Al said with a chuckle.  “The look on his face when you said that you didn’t expect a respectable show like ours to pull sensationalistic crap like this… Oh he knew he was in trouble then.”  He leaned in to me and whispered, “I honestly can’t stand him… I’m so sorry they made you work with him.”

We stopped walking outside of the green room and I looked up at Al, “I’m never working with anyone else but you.”

“Deal!” he said and smiled.  “I gotta get outside for the next weather segment but I wanted to check on you.”

“Al my pal…” I said with a smile.  “Thanks, honey.”

“Anytime.”

He rushed off and I went into the green room.  Christian jumped up off of the couch he was sitting on and immediately pulled me into a hug.  I closed my eyes and buried myself against his chest.  “Are you okay?” he whispered.  “I mean, of course you’re not okay… but are you okay considering what just happened?  What a freaking ass wipe! I can’t believe he did that, and Kristen! Oh my god! I’ve never wanted to hit a woman but I want to high five her face pretty bad right now.  Stupid Whore.”

That got a slight giggle out of me, “I need to sit…”

He took my crutches and I sat down on the couch.  He joined me and resumed our snuggle-fest.  “You were so good, baby…”

“That’s what Al said too…”

“Where the hell is Kevin?”

I shrugged, “Last I knew he was yelling at Mark looking like they were about to get into a fist fight.  Jules was yelling at someone else and I just left.”

Christian squeezed me tighter then chuckled, “I was on the phone with Mom when you were on the air.  I don’t think I’ve ever heard her swear before but holy crap… she dropped a few f-bombs.  I told her I’d have you call her when you could.”

The thought of my mom made me finally choke up.  “I hate this, Chris…”

“I know you do, Boo…” he said and kissed my forehead.  “Don’t let this ruin your day.”  He pulled back and held my face in his hands, “It’s Book Release Day!  You’ve written another great book and your fans are excited to read it and to see you.  That stupid little wannabe journalist out there is just a blip in the radar.  He’s not important, okay?”  I nodded.  He smiled, “You so didn’t mean that…”

I chuckled and shrugged, “I’m trying.”

“Everything is going to be fine.  I promise.”