PLAYING DIRTY

"Wow, Zevie. This place is amazing!" Gloria whispered as they walked into the restaurant in the lobby of the Shoreline Four Seasons.

"Well, it does come highly recommended. Although that recommendation did come from my eighteen-year-old son," Zevon said with a nervous laugh as they approached the maitre 'd. They were soon seated at a small intimate table in a cozy corner of the restaurant.

"So, you said Zed recommended this place?" Gloria asked as she took a sip of her red wine.

"He sure did. Apparently, the Chief and Mr. Tordjman brought him and Bucky to lunch here before heading over to the Country Club," he said, the amusement clear in his voice. "Who would have thought."

Gloria smiled and reached across the table to hold his hand. "Well, it's lovely. The only place we ever stay in Shoreline is the Marriott... I still can't believe we're actually on a real date."

Zevon smiled as he traced her knuckles with his thumb. "I'm just sorry it took so long."

"Are you sure the kids are okay with this? With me?"

"They are. Zoey thinks it's great to have another female around and Zed...Well, you won him over when you cooked. Thank you for being so patient and understanding."

Gloria smiled wide. "They're great kids, Zevie. I know how hard it can be when a parent dates. Hence the reason I chose to live with my Grandmother." she looked down as her phone started to buzz on the table. "I'm so sorry, I have to take this," she said apologetically.

"It's fine," he told her waving off her apology.

She mouthed "Thank you," as she picked up the phone. "Chuck! Didn't I just give you an interview an hour ago?" She smiled into the phone. As she listened to Chuck from the Seabrook Times Newspaper talk, her smile fell. "Wait...what?….You can't be serious?"

She took another sip of her wine. "Chuck, that's the most ridiculously far-fetched story I could ever imagine….No! That is not an official quote!" she rolled her eyes and let out a small laugh. Suddenly her smile fell again.

"…..What other pictures?" She listened closely, her concerned eyes finding Zevon's. "Chuck...How bad are they?... What do you mean you don't know?" After a moment she let out a small frustrated sigh.

"Listen to me, I will promise you a one on one exclusive with Missy before and after each debate if you can get them and send them to me. Can you tell me who was selling them?... That's what I was afraid of. Thank you, Chuck. I'll have an official quote ready to go when you get me those pictures." She ended the call and calmly set her phone back down on the table.

"We've got a serious problem."

"But it's a four-hour drive! We won't even get there until one o'clock!" Zevon rushed out as they got into his car.

"The original story is running in the morning paper, in Valley Range. By lunch, it's going to be picked up around the state. We were lucky Chuck tipped us off. As stupid of a story as this is. We need to have a statement ready. And heaven help us all if we can't keep those pictures from being released. Chuck didn't know exactly what they showed, but the person shopping them around made it pretty clear that they were racy. I don't care what time we get back to Seabrook. We need to have this straightened out before morning."

"What about the Mayor and Chief?"

"This is what Missy pays me for. If we can't get this sorted out before dawn, I'll call her. Besides, there are some things I'm sure Missy isn't aware of yet if you catch my drift." she quickly dialed Addison's number. "No answer. Can you try Zed?"

Zevon hit a button on the steering wheel. "Call Zed." The sound of a phone ringing filled the car before his voice mail picked up. Zevon hit the button again. "Call Home." The sound of a phone ringing once again filled the car.

"Hello?" Zed growled as he answered.

"Oh, thank goodness. Is Addison with you?"

"Pops, calm down...Yeah. What's going on?"

"Gloria and I are on our way back to Seabrook. We were at dinner when a reporter called. I'll fill you in on the details when we get to the house."

"Why?"

"Zed…" Gloria said speaking up. "There are some compromising photos of you and Addison together yesterday."

"Ztergoge!"

"Watch your language, Son."

"Sorry, Pops. Where are you guys?"

"We're just getting on the interstate."

"Drive safe. We'll see you in a few hours."

Zed hung up the phone and rested his forehead against the wall. As he took a deep steadying breath he felt Addison's hands wrap around his chest.

She placed a soft kiss on his back. "Is everything okay?"

"We'll find out in a few hours. Pops and Gloria are on their way back."

"Why?"

"I don't know, something about a reporter calling during dinner, but..." he turned around and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her as tight as he could. "Somehow there are pictures of us from yesterday."

"What?!" Addison shouted, pulling away from his embrace enough to look up at him. "What do you mean? Pictures of us from school? Last night? Of us at dinner? On the Boardwalk? Or….?"

"Gloria just said 'compromising'."

He held her tight as he felt her legs go out. "How could we have been so stupid? We knew this could happen!" she whispered as tears began to fill her eyes.

"I know," he whispered, placing a soft kiss on the top of her head.

Shortly after one o'clock in the morning, the front door opened up. "Okay, first things first," Gloria said as she walked in the door and began to remove her coat, startling the two sleeping teens awake. "There's a story running tomorrow morning in the Valley Range newspaper that you two have a secret baby that the Mayor is trying to keep hidden until after the election."

Zed wiped the sleep out of his eyes."Why does everything today keep coming back to babies?"

Gloria gave him a questioning look.

"Sorry," he said waving off his own comment.

"I know there's no secret child, but they have pictures of you two walking in the park holding a baby."

"Really?! That was this afternoon. We were watching Gus and Gabby's daughter Aspen. We brought her, Zoey, and Puppy to the park to play." Addison said as she stretched her back out.

"Gus? As in Captain Gus of the ZPD?"

Addison nodded. "And my best friends brother."

"We can use that..."

"I'm going to put on a pot of coffee," Zevon said as he walked past them into the kitchen.

"Oooh...coffee…." Addison said as she looked towards the kitchen longingly.

"Gloria," Zed almost whispered. "How bad are the other pictures?"

"I don't know yet."

Addison's head snapped back to her direction. "What do you mean?"

"I'm waiting for my connection at the Seabrook Times to acquire them. He was contacted with the story of the non-existent secret baby and when he turned it down, he was offered the pictures from Friday."

"So we don't know what they show?"

Gloria shook her head.

"Is there a chance that pictures could have been taken while we were at school?" Addison asked quietly.

"Anything is possible. I have to ask you two..." she looked over her shoulder towards the kitchen to see if she could see Zevon.

"Zombies have excellent hearing. He's going to hear whatever we're talking about," Zed said with a sigh.

"I heard that," Zevon called from the kitchen.

"What about your sister?"

"She sleeps like the dead."

"Okay, then. I have to ask you two...how bad are these pictures likely to be?"

Zed plopped himself back down onto the couch and ran his hands nervously through his hair. "Depends on when and where they were taken."

"I don't want details, but I need you to be more specific."

Addison sat herself down on the arm of the couch next to Zed. "If they are on the beach or the hallway or gym at school, then they'll just be of us making out...a lot."

"And if they're from the library or guard tower…well, they'll be about as bad as you could imagine," Zed sighed.

Zevon walked back into the room. "Really, Son?!"

"We got carried away! I'm sorry! We just…."

Gloria held up her hand, cutting him off. She pulled out her phone and answered it. "Well?...Thanks, Chuck. I owe you one. I'll send a statement over shortly." She hung the phone up and looked at them. "Pictures are being sent right now. Let's take this into the kitchen," she said as she grabbed her laptop from out of her briefcase.

They all sat around the table as Gloria pulled up her email. She turned the computer around towards Zed and Addison.

"There are certain things that I don't want to see unless I have to."

They both looked at each other and took a deep breath before facing the computer. Addison reached out with a shaking hand and clicked the attachment. Slowly the pictures began to load.

"Can we please do something to improve the Wi-Fi in Zombie-Town?" Zed said impatiently as he waited for the pixels to come into focus.

Slowly, one by one, the pictures appeared. They both held their breath as they scrolled through them.

"Is this all of them?" Addison asked in a whisper.

"Chuck said that was all of them."

They both let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh, thank God." Zed rubbed his eyes before pulling Addison in for a hug.

"Well?" Zevon asked, setting his coffee cup on the table.

"They're just of us standing in the surf. We were just kissing."

Gloria walked around and began to scroll through the pictures. "Thank God is right. These are downright sweet. What Zombiphobic idiot would consider these racy or compromising. I should let these leak."

Gloria's inbox chimed with another email from Chuck. "We may have spoken too soon." She clicked the attachment and waited for the pictures to load. "You weren't kidding about the Wi-Fi." Slowly the new pictures came into focus.

"Awwww. That's a cute picture," Addison said as she smiled at a picture of her holding Aspen as Zed held her hand and kissed the top of her head.

"It is a really cute picture, but look at the difference..." Gloria said comparing the beach

pictures to the new park pictures. "The ones on the beach are clearly amateur cell phone pictures. These...they're professional…." she slammed her fist down on the table before pulling her cell phone out of her pocket and quickly dialing a number.

"Who are you calling at this hour?" Zevon asked.

"This has Collin's campaign written all over it..." she said quietly as she held her hand over the bottom of her phone as she waited for the call to be answered.

"Thomas! I'm going to cut your phony pleasantries off right there. You know damn well why I'm calling. We had a deal. The kids are off limits…Save it! This ends now. You will call off your PI's tailing the Mayor's daughter and boyfriend."

Very calmly she listened as Secretary Collin's campaign manager, Thomas spoke.

"This is not a fight you want to start Thomas. You want to play dirty? I promise you, you will lose. You have no idea what I am capable of. Don't think for a second I don't know what Collin's wife has been doing, not to mention that rather expensive gambling habit his son has picked up in the last six months."

"I'm glad we have an agreement. I look forward to working with you for the remainder of this race...Oh, Thomas. One more thing...Do not cross me again."

Zevon, Zed, and Addison all wore identical looks of shock as Gloria ended the call.

"It's taken care of. Crisis averted….What?" she asked as she looked around the room at their faces.

Zed slowly leaned over to his father. "I would suggest you never piss her off." They all broke into a relieved laugh.

"Seriously Gloria," Addison said as she stood up and hugged her. "That was terrifying. I'm so glad you're on our side."

Gloria hugged her back. "I'm not finished yet," she said pulling back and motioning for Addison to sit back down. Addison took her seat once more next to Zed. "You two..." she said pointing between the two of them. "This is your one. We dodged a major bullet tonight. Look, it's okay to be madly in love, to kiss like nobody is watching, to embrace each other like every time is the last time. Passion is everything. I understand that. But if you two could attempt to not add fuel to this fire, I'd greatly appreciate it. And no more sneaking around...Especially at school!"

"Best behavior. Scouts honor," Zed said holding up his fingers in a scout salute.

Gloria gave him a look at the same time that Zevon reminded him that he was never a scout.

"Fine. I know we have a bad habit of getting carried away. But I promise we will try."

"That's all I'm asking," Gloria said. She turned her attention to Addison. "And you, ma'am...I think you need to have a talk with your mother. What would have happened if those pictures showed more than just the two of you kissing on the beach?"

Addison swallowed loudly. "Gloria, I can't."

"What do you mean you can't?"

"I can't talk to my mom. You know how long it took for us to repair our relationship, and how long it took for her to accept Zed. I can't risk it."

"You're willing to risk her finding out through something like this, though?" Gloria asked motioning towards her laptop.

"No! I just...I can't risk her making me chose again. Gloria, I'll choose him every time." she reached out and pulled Zed to her in a tight hug.

Gloria's face softened. "Fine. But please tell me you listened to me back in January and got on birth control. I can only protect you from so much."

Zed pulled back slightly and looked down to Addison. "You did?"

Addison shook her head and wiped her eyes. "Not yet. I was going to and then I missed my appointment when you were in the hospital."

Gloria threw her hands up in the air. "I'm making you an appointment, Monday."

Addison nodded her head. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." She sat down at the table and rubbed at her eyes. "Okay, I need to send Chuck an official statement and draw up a press release. Oh, and I need to send Missy a text to give her a heads-up."

"Pops, Gloria...I'm sorry we ruined your first real date."

"Zed, you didn't ruin anything. Honestly, this was probably the most exciting date I've ever had," Gloria said reaching out and holding his hand.

Zevon shook his head and smiled. "Alright kids, it's really late, why don't you two go get some sleep."

"Can I borrow the car to bring Addie home?"

He rolled his eyes. "Just go upstairs. I think we need to have a talk in the morning anyway."

"Alright, Pops," Zed said as he stood up and helped Addison up. "Goodnight, Gloria, Pops."

"Goodnight," Gloria smiled up at them.

"Zed..."

"Yeah?"

"Don't forget...excellent hearing, son."

Zed rolled his eyes. "Really Pops, it's after two and I've been up since six."

Zevon gave him a look.

"Fair enough. I promise we're going right to sleep."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I hope you all enjoyed today's update! Leave me a review and let me know!