I recoiled, sitting back in my chair with such a start it almost tipped backward. “He didn’t take advantage of me. I would never say that.” That would destroy him.
Natalie held up a hand. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Is there anything else I need to know?”
I opened my mouth to talk, unsure what else I should tell her, but Natalie was already speaking. Well, not so much speaking as cursing.
“Of-fucking-course.” She stared at her monitor.
“What?”
Natalie’s eyes were wide. Her voice boomed and bounced off the walls of her office “He’s the damn CEO!?” She shook her head at me and picked up the phone without another word. “You didn’t think to tell me your guy runs the damn company, Mason? Someone just posted his name and photo, and this shitstorm just got monumentally worse.”
I buried my face in my hands, willing this day to start over again, for me to be back in Wes’s bed under the warm covers with his lips on me. This is a complete nightmare.
“I’ll be back.” I needed to check in with Wes; we needed a plan. As I hurried to my cubicle, eyes darted to me and then away: a few sympathetic glances, a few curious ones, and a lot that looked judgmental as hell. Slinking to my desk, I dug a charger from my drawer and plugged in the device. I was tapping my foot, waiting for it to boot up, when Claire walked up to my desk. “I heard—”
“How could you?” I hissed at her through gritted teeth. “I told you all of that in confidence and you pull this? Dropping an anonymous comment that we were sleeping together?”
Her features morphed to disgust. “You think I did this?”
“No one else knew. You had your chance to make it worse for me and you took it.”
Claire stared down at me, gaze cool. “You’re unbelievable.” She walked away, and I turned in my chair, banging my knee into the desk. My phone screen flashed, and hundreds of notifications popped up. I ignored them all and opened my texting app, where I had a new message waiting from Wes.
Wes: Are you okay?
The time stamp was from fifteen minutes earlier.
Wes: I didn’t realize you wrote for Best Life. You’ve known the whole time?
Britta: When I told you I was a journalist, I thought you knew. I don’t know how this happened.
I stared at my phone, hoping he’d say something else while I tried to find the right words. I watched the bouncing dots, but nothing else came through.
Natalie’s voice broke into my thoughts as she invaded my cubicle. “My office—we need a closed door.”
I wanted to send another text, but my phone was at one percent, and it would die if I unplugged it. I glanced at it one more time before following Natalie back to her office. “This is a mess,” she said once the door closed behind us. “FitMi confirmed what you said, that the sexual relationship just started.”
“Well, that’s good, right?” I bit back the concern about exactly how many people were discussing my sex life at that moment.
Her stare was cool. “No one will believe it.”
“But it’s the truth.”
“The truth is subjective.” She pointed at the screen. “Tell me about this photo.”
“We ran in the park, and I was excited because I’d gone longer than I ever had.” I tried to explain it as best I could, but it sounded paltry. I didn’t know how to give that moment—the elation and pride I’d felt—the significance it deserved while still insisting we were just working out together. It had meant so much because Wes was there with me. My voice hitched as I finished the story, my nerves frayed.
Natalie’s tone softened. “Britt, I’m coming down hard on you, but people love Body FTW, and they loved you and Claire. This feels like a betrayal.” She sighed and reread her notes. “Let me call Mason. We’ll figure out something and let it blow over.”
I nodded. People only cared about sex scandals if the details trickled down. Without any, interest would dry up.
“And you need to stay away from him.”
“What?”
“We can’t deny this only to have someone spot you canoodling at the park or buying condoms or something.” She must have read my face, and she softened her tone again. “I guarantee his people are telling him the same thing. This is for the best.”
She tapped at a few things on her screen and grimaced. “And stay off social media today. Just . . . trust me on that one.”
When I returned to my desk, I swiped to dismiss the explosion of notifications on my social media accounts and texts from friends. I ignored all but a few.