For the Record (Record #3)(72)
Author: K.A. Linde

Sometimes as she was writing a new article, she found that she actually wished that she could be interacting on the blog. It was a strange new dynamic. Her journalism work still had followers, but it was hardly as interactive as Justin’s blog. She worked more or less as a moderator for the social media rating platform, which was Pinterest meets Goodreads for movie and YouTube addicts. She would start topics and write posts based on her conversations with others on the site. It was . . . fun. A good hobby that paid well without the stress of her career.

But she was determined to be dedicated to both as best she could without stretching herself too thin with the campaign, the engagement, graduate school, and her charity work with Barbara. Her nerves were shot just thinking about it. And two weeks after school started, when she was overwhelmed with a pile of work, Brady dragged her away.

“Come with me to New York this weekend.”

“What?” she asked, glancing back at her work.

“Just for Saturday. We’re shooting the commercial and I’d like to celebrate the engagement with Chris. Better yet, bring Victoria. Then we’ll have the maid of honor and the best man all in one place.”

“Brady . . . I have so much work.”

He stroked a hand back through her hair. “You’ll get it all done, but stressing about it every second of every day isn’t productive.”

“Kind of like you and the campaign.”

“The campaign has an expiration date.”

“A new one every two years,” she teased.

“You’re frazzled. There’s so much you want to do and not enough hours to do it all. It’s making you be less productive. Take a day off. Come with me,” he pleaded. “I want my fiancé at my side.”

God, the way he said that word. Fiancé. It rolled off the tip of his tongue, circled around her, and drew her toward him. She just wanted to sink herself into the word.

Brady, Liz, and Victoria arrived in New York City at an ungodly early hour on Saturday morning. Liz had dozed on the plane, but Brady, as usual, was unable to relax for much of the flight. A town car carried them across town to Chris’s apartment. He slid into the car with them with a yawn as a greeting.

The car pulled away from the curb and started driving them toward the studio where Brady was filming his campaign spot today.

“So, you’re finally getting hitched,” Chris said.

“One of us had to,” Brady said. He was rubbing circles into Liz’s hand, which he held in his lap.

“Well, if you knew Liz then you wouldn’t be surprised,” Victoria said. “She’s a long-term-commitment kind of person.”

“Am I?” she asked, arching an eyebrow.

“You are.”

“I’m glad for that,” Brady said.

“My bestie is a keeper,” Victoria said, patting her arm. “She didn’t do any of the wild and crazy things I did. Though she did fuck a senator once.”

Everyone in the car started laughing.

“More than once, I’ve heard,” Chris said.

“Oh, don’t y’all know the gossip? I’m a slutty home wrecker who caught the guy by getting pregnant.” She placed her hand on her stomach. “I’m at least six months now and not even showing. Such a mystery.”

“Well, obviously you got rid of it once you trapped him. That’s a thing,” Victoria said dismissively.

“That’s how I trapped him, after all,” Chris said, fluttering his eyelashes.

“Getting you pregnant was the most awkward experience of my life,” Brady joked.

“If only the reporters could hear you now,” Liz said.

“Let’s thank God that they cannot.”

They arrived at the building just on time. Brady was rushed away by the hair and makeup team. Chris teased him incessantly about it until the door closed behind him. They were given a brief tour of the studio Brady was using, which wasn’t much more than a few workrooms, a changing area, wardrobe, and then the main set with a green screen and very expensive camera equipment. Their escort left them to sit on a couch where they could see what was being filmed, but not interfere. Plus, there were doughnuts!

Thirty minutes later, Brady appeared from makeup. He looked like himself and not. An even more perfect version of himself.

“His flawless face has to withstand the high-definition lighting and camera work,” a man explained when Chris started to make fun of him again.

“You look great,” she encouraged.

“I would kiss you right now, if it didn’t mean I would have to spend another thirty minutes in makeup.” He looked weary of the chore, and it made her giggle. Served men right to see what women had to go through on a regular basis.

Liz had heard Brady memorizing lines for the commercial earlier this week. She hadn’t had time to work with him on what he was saying, but she knew that he would be brilliant. Also, in film there were dozens of takes, so they could get it perfect.

Brady thumbed through a stack of note cards and turned the phrases over in his mouth before the director walked him over to the comfortable brown chair. They had a couple different furniture pieces, from the chair to a podium to a large presidential-looking desk. They wanted to see which one suited him best with the lines delivered. The backdrop would be chosen from a computer screen, likely an American flag or a cozy study.

And so they began. The first thirty minutes it was interesting to watch the new experience. Brady had done ad spots before, so he knew the drill, but Liz had never seen any of this. Victoria, however, got bored very easily and ended up spending much of the time texting with Daniel on her phone.

“You know,” she said, “we should have dropped him off and went and looked at wedding dresses.”

“You’re probably right.”

“How much longer do we have? We could still go,” she offered, looking up.

“I have no idea. I wouldn’t even know where to begin with dresses, though. Plus, you know I’m not really getting started with that stuff until after the campaign.”

Victoria sighed heavily and sank back into her seat. “I know. Have you decided anything, though? Fill me in! I miss you! I’m stuck in school all damn day and I need something lavish and entertaining to fill my travel-deprived mind.”

Liz laughed lightly at her dramatic friend, but told her everything they had decided in the three weeks since Brady had proposed. “Brady wants to do a Biltmore wedding in Asheville.”