Page 24 of 7 Nights of Sin

He nodded, rolling his eyes. "Yes, Mother. You and Kath have drilled it into my head a hundred thousand times. I won't embarrass you."

"You should be more worried about embarrassing yourself," I pointed out.

And then it was time to go live.

Casey and Tiffany sat in their chairs, laughing at some joke that wasn't even remotely funny when they came back from commercial break.

"And now we're so pleased to welcome our special guest, third baseman for the New York Empires, Kevin Porter!"

The studio audience erupted into applause, and it was clear that even if some of them had issues with his behavior, his talent in the sport was enough to keep fans happy with him for the moment.

Kevin walked out, waving to the crowd, grinning brightly and flashing white teeth and dimples. Casey and Tiffany looked like they were ready to swoon.

He hugged them both, but refrained from kissing them on the cheek, which was a nice touch. Once he was settled in his seat across from them, they launched in.

"It's so great to have you here, Kevin," Tiffany said. "For those of us who have followed your career, getting to sit down with you is an honor."

He grinned broadly. "Thank you. I've always given my all for the team and my fans, and I'm always happy to do it."

The audience clapped again.

Once they had settled down, Casey launched in, rattling off a list of Kevin's achievements and accolades, pointing out how he was one of the youngest players to ever have so many.

The baseball talk was easy, and Kevin was relaxed and in his element, but we both knew it was going to take a turn soon enough.

"Now," Tiffany said after coming back from another commercial break. "We're all familiar with how good you are at baseball, but it seems like things might be rocky in other aspects of your life."

On the little screen behind them, a picture of the cover of the magazine that had started this whole mess popped up. Christine Williams' smiling face was right there, and I was going to be so happy when I never had to see it again.

"Do you have anything to say about what Ms. Williams had to say about you?" Tiffany asked.

Kevin's jaw clenched for a second, but he covered it with a smile. "Christine and I didn't part on the best of terms," he said. "I'm sure anyone who's been divorced knows what I'm talking about."

There was a ripple of laughter from the audience, and Casey and Tiffany giggled as well.

"True. But her accusations were pretty harsh," Casey jumped in. "Anything to say about that?"

That was the part we'd gone over time and time again. His job wasn't to discredit Christine or call her a liar. It was to bring attention to him being reformed.

"I can definitely say I've made some mistakes in my life," he answered, and I nodded along. "When you're in the public eye, the opportunity for partying and other activities is always right there, and it's hard to turn it down sometimes. I've gotten caught up in it more times than I should, for sure. But what I'd really like to say is that I'm sorry to my fans. I know they expect better of me, and I don't want them to feel like I've let them down."

The audience was right there, erupting into cheers for him, and Kevin smiled and waved, and for a moment he looked genuinely touched.

"I'm sure your supporters know you're more than your mistakes," Casey said, smiling. "And it's clear you really care about the people who support you."

The picture of the magazine cover was replaced by pictures of Kevin's philanthropic work over the years. Pictures of him doing Habitat for Humanity with his teammates, the team serving at a soup kitchen, the more recent pictures of him reading to kids at a shelter and then helping change a lightbulb in the front room.

Those were supposed to be 'candid', but we'd staged them all, of course.

And the audience was loving it. They oohed and ahhed at the pictures, and I patted myself on the back for a job well done.

The rest of the interview went off without a hitch, and by the time they were signing off, it was clear that the plan had worked.

News and quotes from the interview would get spread around quickly, and it would work to combat the negative press.

We were taking steps in the right direction.

Sometime that afternoon an article was going to appear with the rest of the pictures from Kevin's trip to the shelter, all of them taken “without his knowledge” except for a few posed shots with him and the kids playing baseball outside even though it was cold outside.