Chapter 62: In the Headlines Again

Alice came into my office and dropped a copy of American Inquirer on my desk. I wasn’t sure that I’d ever had a copy of the scandal rag in my possession before. Usually, the cover stories talked about being abducted by aliens, or how Yeti was seen in New York’s Central Park.

This time, however, the cover featured a grainy photograph of me fucking Tracy three nights earlier. An obvious black box covered the area where our genitals were coupled together or her large breasts showed.

The associated headline read in large bold letters: ‘CEO and Porn Star Cavorts With Tracy Belle – Porn Star.’ I rolled my eyes and looked at Alice. She was trying to suppress a laugh.

“Okay, how bad is it?”

“Pretty bad. They didn’t mention that Cory, Heather, and I were fucking on the other side of the patio, and they only alluded to the swap with Matt and your wives. The text says that your wives were similarly engaged.

I picked up my phone and called Crystal and Carol. She logged in the publication online and moaned. She said, “I gotta call Matt and Tracy. Be in touch.” She rang off.

“Do I have a press agent – a PR person?”

“Yes, kind of. Cyber Solutions has a public relations person, ergo you have a press agent.”

“Get him up here.”

“It’s a her and she’s right outside your office door. She brought this to me.” She pointed at the scandal sheet.

Alice went to the door and a pretty middle-aged woman appeared wearing a pants suit. The pants were a splendid fit, and revealed a rather perfect snug butt on the woman, as well as great legs. She was also ... I squeezed my eyes shut and refocused on the issue at hand. This was no time to get horny again.

Alice said, “Dave, this is June Vega. She heads our one-man public relations department. She reports to the head of marketing.”

“What does the head of marketing think about THAT?” I picked up and tossed the periodical onto the coffee table next to us. My tone of voice showed my displeasure.

June winced. “Well, Michael said that in the long run there’s no such thing as bad publicity. People will remember your name and the company affiliation, but forget why. In the short run he thinks we should just hunker down.”

I said, “I tend to think that’s true at the corporate level, but I’m not sure that works on a personal level.”

“Nonsense. When people see you today, they still see the hero that saved the world from the Satanic Virus. They already know from other articles that you have a flaky home life with multiples wives, fiancées, friends, and so on.”

I speculated, “And they take the good with the bad, because they also know I live in polyamorous family that’s oversexed and even holds periodic sex parties.”

“The press never reported things that specifically. I know because I’ve read every article about you that could be found.”

“Until that article,” I pointed at the newspaper. “You have to read the whole article. At least we don’t have underage girls at our gatherings, otherwise I’d be strung up there next to an effigy of Jeffery Epstein.”

“I did read the whole article. If anything, it makes you look like a Sex God capable of rendering females comatose with orgasms because you’re some kind of superman lover.”

I rolled my eyes and started pacing again. “What should I do?”

“Nothing,” June persisted. “Hunker down. If you say ANYTHING people will think you’re either lying or bragging. You can’t deny the truth of the article without lying. Never do that because, especially in this case, it’s too easy to prove the truth. Your favorite expression about ANY of this should be ‘No Comment!’.

“Further, saying anything to the magazine will basically give them the opportunity to talk about what you said, how you said, and what it implied. They don’t even have to be right, because they reach several million people with their publication.

“So, ignore it. If a more legitimate publication asks you about it, shrug and say something like, ‘Well, there are truths and exaggerations in everything we read.’ Don’t let them drill deeper; force a question in a different area of your work or life. Keep it all at the ‘No Comment’ level.”

I sighed. I knew June was right.

I asked, “What about Crystal’s business? That’s also mentioned in the article with the reminder that I did ‘private porn’ and some commercial stuff. Reading the article, everybody will think I’m still cranking out a film a week. Oh, and then there’s Tracy Belle. She’s trying to establish herself as a credible lawyer and no longer a porn star.”

“This is good for Crystal Blue Photography. The demand for ‘private porn’ from her with you as the star will go up, of course. That’ll taper off as people forget the article.

“I’d give the same advice to Tracy as I do to you: hunker down. Keep your mouth shut and don’t do anything. Her old videos will command a greater following for a while.”

“How do you know that?”

She laughed, “When Stormy Daniels sued then President Trump, every red-blooded American man ran to the Internet and searched for sex videos of her. Sales rose exponentially for weeks after that. The videos were even shown at what would have been normally tame cocktail parties, so everybody – EVERYBODY – got to see the hot porn star that the president fucked. She made millions. Hell, even the president’s approval ratings went ‘up’.”

“And Tracy’s lawyering?”

“Cross your fingers, but I think this’ll pass. I doubt she’ll be disbarred. She didn’t lie to the FBI or Congress the way Michael Cohen did. He really took one for the team. If she’s employed, her employer may discharge her, but even that’s doubtful.” June thought a moment and added, “And if she does get dismissed, have Cyber Solutions hire her; we need another lawyer in our general counsels’ office.”

“What about the grainy photo of me and Tracy in our compromised position?”

“Keep it as a souvenir. It’s already on record from a year or so ago that you screw around and have sex parties, and even swap partners. This is like trying to rekindle a dying fire. Let it die out.”

“Would you talk to Tracy? You have such a strong grasp on all this.”

“I’d be delighted.”

“Alice will get the two of you in touch. Thank you.”

I grumbled around the rest of the day.

I had my martial arts class at the end of the next day, and bitched to Russ and Deke about what had happened. They laughed. Russ said that he knew how to take care of drones. He’d be out that evening to be sure there weren’t any further photographic missions over the patio.

At dinner, we all talked about the article and ‘hunkering down’. Crystal had received two calls each begging for me to appear in a ‘private porn’ video with the woman that called. CBP now required pictures in addition to the health check before we’d even entertain the idea. Further, being a celebrity of sorts, my price for participating in a video had gone up ten-fold from what she’d charged before the silent auction or the Satanic Virus.

Tracy was also feeling ‘down’ from the news article. None of her clients had cut and run, and the California Bar Association hadn’t called, so she was hopeful her position would emerge relatively unscathed.

Russ and Deke were in a buoyant mood, almost looking forward to a little action of some kind regarding a drone attack. Russ said, “I want you and some of the women to appear on the patio naked and even smooching a little. Let’s see what happens.”

After dinner, everyone stripped down and we went out to the patio bar. I circulated and then realized that Deke and Russ were no longer hanging out with us.

After a half-hour, I was again getting romantic with Tracy. We were just making out in a serious way. Matt was similarly engaged with Heather and Crystal. Carol and Cory had decided they had nothing to lose, so they started to fuck on one of the air mattresses.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

I about leapt out of my skin and so did Tracy. We all looked towards the sea wall. A large sprawling sea grape tree draped over the edge of the wall into the bay. Russ appeared from one side of the sprawling tree and Deke from the other. Both were carrying large shotguns, either of which would have stopped a herd of charging rhinos. Both men also had a pair of night goggles around their neck.

They came up to us. “Got one!” Russ pumped his fist in the air. “One dead drone now at the bottom of the bay just offshore. I think it was an expensive one, too. That’ll sure send a message to whoever was harassing you.”

“You shot it down?”

“It was a cake walk. The thing was only twenty feet in the air. We both got it at just about point blank range.”

“Won’t the police worry about a gun discharge in this area?”

Russ shrugged. “Did you hear a gun discharge? Could you really tell where it came from? What were YOU doing when it went off? Could it have been a car backfiring?” He laughed.