Chapter 86: The Paparazzi Problem
June. Morning.
My phone's exploding.
Twenty texts. Fifteen Twitter mentions. Three emails from customers.
I open one. It's a link.
Celebrity Gossip Daily: "Who's Katie Stevens' Mystery Man?"
Photos. Me and Katie leaving a restaurant last night. Her laughing. Me holding her hand.
The article:
"Katie Stevens, star of hit medical drama 'Mercy General,' was spotted with an unidentified man in Los Angeles last night. Sources identify him as Stuart Bloom, owner of comic book shops in Pasadena and Burbank. The couple appeared affectionate, with Stevens, 26, clearly smitten with her mystery businessman..."
I'm reading it three times.
Mystery businessman.
Semi-public figure.
Katie's boyfriend.
My shops are name-checked. With addresses.
"Shit."
Katie calls at noon.
"You saw?"
"I saw."
"I'm so sorry. I thought we'd have more time before—"
"Before paparazzi found us?"
"Yeah."
"It's fine."
"It's not fine. You hate attention. And now you're in tabloids."
"Katie. You're on a TV show. This was inevitable."
"But—"
"But nothing. I knew what I was signing up for."
She's quiet. Then: "We need to talk. In person. Can you come to my place?"
"On my way."
Her apartment's in West Hollywood. Nice building. Doorman. Secure parking.
She lets me in. Coffee's already made.
"So," she starts. "This is my life. Paparazzi. Tabloids. Privacy invasion. It gets worse as the show gets bigger."
"Okay."
"And I can't—" She's pacing. "I can't hide relationships. That makes it worse. Gives them more to hunt for."
"So we're public."
"If you're okay with that."
"I'm okay with that."
"Really?"
"Katie. I'm not ashamed of dating you. And I'm not going to hide because cameras exist."
"The shops will get attention."
"Good. Free publicity."
"People will have opinions about us. About you."
"People always have opinions. Now they'll just be public."
She stops pacing. "You're really okay with this?"
"I'm really okay with this. As long as you are."
"I am. I just—didn't want to force this on you."
"You're not forcing anything. We're dating. That's public now. So what?"
She kisses me. Hard.
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"For not being weird about this. Most guys either love the attention too much or hate it and bail."
"I'm neither."
"I noticed."
That evening. Game night at 4A.
They're all on their phones when I arrive.
"There he is," Howard announces. "Mystery businessman."
"Don't start."
"Stuart's famous," Raj says. "Dating an actress. In tabloids. This is huge."
"This is annoying."
Leonard's laptop is open. The article's on screen.
"They listed your shops. With addresses. You're going to get tourists."
"Great. More customers."
Sheldon's taking notes. "Your social trajectory has increased 47% in six months. First Penny, now Katie. Both objectively attractive. There's a pattern."
"There's no pattern."
"There's definitely a pattern. I'm documenting it for analysis."
"Please don't."
Bernadette's the only reasonable one. "How's Katie handling it?"
"Fine. This is normal for her."
"And you're really okay with it?"
"Why does everyone keep asking that?"
"Because you're private," Leonard says. "And now you're in gossip blogs."
"I'm adapting."
Howard's still grinning. "Seriously though. How did you—"
"If you finish that sentence, I'm leaving."
"How did you," he continues, "manage to date two different women who are both way out of your league?"
"Charm. Wit. Business success."
"That's not—"
"That's exactly it. Now can we play Halo?"
They let it go. Mostly.
But Sheldon keeps taking notes.
And Leonard keeps glancing at the article.
And I keep thinking about how different this is from Penny.
With Penny, we were private. Personal. Just us.
With Katie, we're semi-public. Her career makes it impossible to hide.
Different.
Not worse. Just different.
Another adjustment.
Another consequence of the powers creating opportunities.
Success breeds attention.
Attention breeds scrutiny.
Scrutiny is the price of visibility.
And Katie's worth the price.
For now.
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