“Emma?” she inquired, setting the tray of yumminess down on the side. I nodded, not having a clue who this woman was. Her smile grew larger. “Aww, it’s lovely to finally meet you. I’m Gloria, Carson’s housekeeper.” She waved toward one of the stools that sat on the other side of the counter to where she was cooking up a storm. “Sit. Eat, before all those men traipse in and take all the good stuff,” she encouraged, pushing an empty plate toward me and nodding at the array of things she had set on the side. I opened my mouth to speak, but she beat me to it. “So, Carson tells me this morning that you two have a child? A little girl, and she’s coming to live here? I just love children! I can’t wait to meet her. What kind of things does she like to eat? I’m going to make up a little tea for her so she can have all of her favourite things when she comes here. Obviously, it’ll be a bit of a change for her. Where were you living before? Was it far?” She grinned at me expectantly.

I swallowed, blinking at the number of questions being fired at me in one go. If there was a contest for who could say the most words in the space of a minute, this woman would win, hands down. But I actually loved it. Her easy smile and kind eyes made me feel perfectly at ease as I picked up a freshly-baked croissant and set it on my plate.

“Um… well, she likes anything really, so don’t go to any trouble. I mean, I can cook, so you don’t need to.” I chewed on my lip, not used to being waited on.

She made a scoffing noise in the back of her throat and waved a hand dismissively. “It’s my pleasure. Plus, I get paid to cook, so if you take over then you’ll be doing me out of a job,” she chimed in, winking at me playfully. A nervous chuckle escaped my lips. I hadn’t thought of it like that. “So, maybe I should bake a cake or something?” she continued.

I shrugged, picking at the edges of my croissant. “You really don’t have to go to any trouble.”

Before she could answer, I heard someone walk in behind me. Gloria smiled over my shoulder affectionately. “She’s a sweetie pie all right,” she stated to the newcomer.

I flicked my eyes over in time to see Carson walk in and nod at the statement. “Told you she wouldn’t want any fuss,” he replied, pulling out the stool next to mine and sitting down, snagging a plate and quickly filling it with one of everything from the counter. I squirmed in my seat. I had never expected to be sitting next to Carson having breakfast. It was strange, kind of a nice strange, but awkward at the same time because I knew he didn’t truly want me here. I just came as an extra part to my daughter.

He looked up then and caught me staring at him. A sad smile twitched at the corner of his lips. “Don’t go on Twitter today, all right?”

Confused by his words, I recoiled. “Why not?” I didn’t even have a Twitter account, mainly because my cheap-as-they-come phone didn’t even go on the internet.

A frown lined his forehead as he looked down at his plate. His shoulders hunched and a muscle in his jaw twitched before he answered. “The statement has gone out to the press now about us. There’s some stuff on Twitter about… well, it’s not nice stuff.”

‘Not nice stuff’. I had no idea what that would mean. I raised one eyebrow in prompt. “Not nice?”

He sighed and looked up to Gloria who nodded in encouragement. Finally, he turned to face me. “It seems the Twitter-world is under the same impression as my mother. They think you’re after my money. There’s a worldwide trend at the moment of Carson’s gold-digger.”

Anger built in my stomach. Not anger at the people who were trending – whatever that meant – about me being a gold-digger, but anger at Carson. This was his fault. People who had never even met me were now making assumptions about me because of his ridiculous demands. I pushed my plate away from me, no longer hungry.

“That’s just perfect,” I muttered, shaking my head. “I hate this. Seriously, this is your fault, Carson! Why the hell are you making me do this? It’s stupid!”

“Look, this is what happens occasionally. I do something they don’t like, and my Twitter feed blows up with shit and abuse. It’s just part of this life. You’ll get used to it,” he reasoned. He sounded a little exasperated about it, as if maybe he was sick of having to deal with abuse, too. Maybe being a celebrity wasn’t all champagne and roses.

“I won’t get used to it,” I countered.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Just don’t look at it and don’t respond. Rise above it. My stupid little fan-girls are just pissed because they now realise I’m off the market. They’re annoyed at you for ruining their chances.”

Even though I didn’t want it to, a little thrill went through me at the words ‘off the market’. That kind of insinuated he wasn’t going to creep around behind my back with them, didn’t it? A small part of me dared to hope.

“Well, they’re welcome to you,” I retorted, trying to appear aloof when my words had never been more dishonest. “Maybe I should go tell everyone I don’t even want to be here and that you’re forcing me to marry you because you’re scared of your daughter not liking you! Maybe then they’ll stop hating me for taking you off the market, huh?”

Gloria gasped at my outburst. “Carson, but… but… you said this was a mutual thing,” she blurted.

I snorted, pushing myself up from the seat. “It is, if you call mutual blackmail into getting married, otherwise he’ll take me to court and take my daughter away from me!” I ground my teeth, watching as her eyes latched onto Carson who didn’t look so confident about his decision now.