Jada took a lap around the store to check on the customers. Mr. Till was happily munching away on his cupcake. Everyone else was doing good and didn’t need anything. Too bad. She meandered as much as she could, swiping the crumbs off one table, picking up an errant wrapper, bringing extra napkins to an excited four-year-old, but finally she admitted there was nothing else she could pretend held her attention. She forced herself to stop at Staring Lady’s table. “Are you finding everything okay? Can I get you anything?”
“No, but I do have a question. Are you Jada Townsend-Matthews?”
Jada nodded slowly. Her shoulders tensed. She deliberately relaxed them. She had nothing to be ashamed of, and if this lady started giving her crap, she would handle it. Somehow.
Staring Lady’s eyes widened. “Oh, wow. I heard the rumors you were working here, but I had to see it for myself. I couldn’t believe it.”
Jada shrugged. “Well, I am.”
“I just thought with your family connections you’d be working somewhere…”
“Somewhere what?” Jada was just about tired of the bullshit. No, this wasn’t her dream job—not that she had any clue what her dream job was—but this was a more than decent place to work. She was annoyed Grams had orchestrated this work assignment for her, but she wasn’t embarrassed to be here.
The woman paused, clearly sensing she was treading on thin ice. “My name is Tamara McCarthy. I work for celebinfo.com. We should do an interview. Get your side of the story.”
Oh, crap. She should have ignored her. Great move, Jada. Again. “I’m not really doing press.” Even if she did have to continuously ignore the calls and emails from Lila, My One and Only’s executive producer, asking, then demanding she reconsider. She wanted the story and her involvement with the show to go away as soon as possible. Her fifteen minutes of fame wasn’t worth it.
“That was such an interesting decision you made,” Tamara continued like Jada hadn’t spoken.
“Thanks. Did you need anything?”
“Did you know you were going to turn Dr. John down before that last ring ceremony? Was that your plan the entire time?”
“Nope. I gotta go.” Jada about-faced and headed back to the sanctity of the front counter. Surely that waist-high barrier would protect her. The screech of what sounded like chair legs sliding against the floor filled the air behind her. Jada didn’t turn back to see what was going on. The clattering of heels on the concrete floor behind her confirmed her suspicion anyway. She quickened her stride instead. Almost there. A strong hand on her arm stopped her. She wanted to fling the woman’s hand with her perfectly manicured fingers off, but that definitely wasn’t in the good customer service handbook, and she’d promised Donovan and herself that she would do a good job. She turned and forced her lips upward. “Can I get you something?”
“Yes. Tell me everything.” The blonde’s eyes were gleaming. She was a vampire ready to suck the life out of Jada. Terrific.
“Nothing to say.”
Tamara gave her a get-real look. “You’ve got to give me something. I’m the first person to make contact with the most notorious woman in America.”
“That’s a bit of an exaggeration, don’t you think?”
Tamara shook her head. “No, not really. My One and Only is the number one show among women aged eighteen to thirty-five in America. There aren’t any current celebrity scandals to divert attention away from you. You’re it, kid.”
Effing great. Would she ever stop making mistakes that led to nowhere good? “Well, I don’t really have anything to say.”
“Everyone is caught up in how you turned down his proposal, but I’m much more interested in your side of the story.”
Jada just stared at her. She refused to give the intrepid reporter any encouragement.
“You said you turned him down because there was someone else you couldn’t stop thinking about and you were hoping to reconnect with him when you got home.”
Jada ignored the way the bottom fell out of her stomach. “Right.”
“The internet has been abuzz with speculation about who this mystery man is.”
“Has it? I hadn’t noticed.”
“Only because your social media accounts have been strangely quiet. People have scoured your accounts to see if they could figure out who this mystery man is.” Tamara’s eyes gleamed with that vampire look. Pretty soon, her bloodthirsty grin would spread too far, revealing sharp bicuspids. “So who is it? He does exist, doesn’t he?”