Tanya knew only too well how Tony reacted to these stories. First he pretended they didn't bother him, then he got increasingly more disagreeable as the plot unfolded, and eventually he put as much pressure on her as the lawyers did to just get out of it, and settle. But through it all he acted like the injured party. And eventually, after he had made her pay for it for a while, he decided to forgive her. It was becoming an old familiar story, and she didn't enjoy it.

“Are you going to pay him off?” Tony asked, looking anxious.

“I haven't even talked to my lawyer yet,” she said, looking annoyed. “I just read it in the paper this morning, like you did.”

“If you'd handled it right a year ago, when you fired him, this would never have happened,” he said, putting a jacket on and looking at her from the doorway.

“That's not true, and you know it. We've been through this before. It just goes with the territory, no matter what you do.” She had always been so careful, and so circumspect, but no one ever gave her credit for it. She had never been promiscuous, behaved badly, used drugs, treated her employees badly, or got drunk in public. But no matter what you did, or didn't do, in her kind of life, people made outrageous claims, and in most cases, the public believed them. And sometimes so did Tony.

“I'm not sure I know what you do anymore,” he said, looking angry. He hated the embarrassment he said she caused him. And then he turned on his heel and left. And a minute later she heard his car speeding down the driveway.

She dialed her attorney, Bennett Pearson, almost as soon as Tony had left, and her attorney apologized. They had received the papers late the day before, and hadn't had time to call her and warn her.

“It sure made a nice surprise this way, over breakfast,” she said, sounding very Texas. “Next time, it might be nice to have a little warning. You know, Tony is not exactly crazy about these things.” Last week the trainer in the Enquirer, now the bodyguard.