Luc answered succinctly, “Silence.”
That prompted numerous questions, to which all parties remained mum. There were at least ten more minutes of interrogation, with everyone on the panel getting a turn. Sylvie was so proud of Luc and the way he handled himself. When push came to shove, The Swamp Solicitor was no slouch, that was for sure.
But then Sylvie’s attention was caught by a question from Matt Sommese, the Times-Picayune reporter. “Hey, Luc, let’s change the subject for a minute. I hear rumors that you’ve been under the influence of a love potion.”
Luc sat up straighter.
All the Cypress people exhaled with relief that the attention was now off them.
“Is it true?” Sommese persisted.
“Is what true?” Luc shifted uncomfortably.
“That you accidentally swallowed some love-potion jelly beans.”
Luc nodded slowly. “Yep.”
“Yep?” Matt and all the reporters stiffened, like hounds sniffing up the scent of fresh game. “Are you saying there’s such a thing as a real love potion?”
“Damn straight.”
“Oh, no, Luc. Please, just be quiet,” Sylvie pleaded to the TV screen.
No such luck.
As if on cue, Luc picked up a handheld microphone and stood, walking to the podium.
“You’d think he was going to give a bloody lecture,” she murmured. Which was exactly what he proceeded to do. And it was her lecture he was repeating. The louse!
“Sylvie Fontaine is a chemist at Terrebonne Pharmaceuticals who has invented an honest-to-God love potion called JBX, for you folks out there who don’t know about this.” She could tell by the ease with which he spoke that this was no impromptu announcement. He had intended to end the press conference in this way from the beginning.
“Oh, my God, Sylv! I thought you were putting a halt on JBX for the time being.” Blanche was clearly confused and dismayed.
“I am,” Sylvie cried. “Luc is ruining it all.”
“Now I see some of you guys smirking,” Luc told the reporters, as he leaned casually against the podium, “but really, think about it. If there can be a Viagra, why not a love potion?”
The reporters were nodding.
Sylvie put a palm to her forehead. She felt the birth of a world-class migraine, the kind that felt like razors across the back of the eyeballs.
“And there are lots of legitimate uses for a love potion, not just turning someone on… though that’s nice, too,” the Cajun fool continued, this time accompanied by a waggle of the eyebrows. “Like in marriage counseling. Or with people that have low sex drives, and stuff like that. The world needs to know more about male/female relationships.”
Sylvie felt like crying. Why was Luc doing this? To embarrass her? She’d told him over and over that she didn’t want to take the spotlight over JBX, that all she’d wanted was peer recognition. She would never live this down. Never.
“Let’s cut to the chase, LeDeux,” Matt Sommese called out with a laugh. “Did you get turned on by Sylvie’s love potion?”
Luc just grinned. The camera cut in close, and the last thing viewers saw before the commercial was that devilish grin, which said it all: Boy, was I turned on!
Snickers and guffawing provided the background noise to the fade-out.
“Exactly what did you two do when you were gone?” Blanche wanted to know. “I mean, if you say that there was no love potion, and Luc is swearing that there is, well, something weird is going on. Are you sure he didn’t take the love potion?”
“I’m sure. He’s just repeating stuff I told him about the love potion.”
“But why?”
“I have no idea. To tease me like he’s been doing all my life. To put himself in the spotlight as some kind of lover boy. To cash in somehow if JBX ever takes off. To mortify me to death.” She threw her arms up in the air. “He’ll probably be filing one of his crazy lawsuits against me and Terrebonne Pharmaceuticals.”
“For not ingesting the love potion?”
“Oh, stop being so logical, Blanche. For making him think he took a love potion when he didn’t.”
“Is that illegal?”
“I don’t know,” Sylvie wailed, pulling at her own hair in frustration. “All I know is I’m gonna kill him. I swear, I’m gonna kill him.”