I pull my face back, squinting my eyes at my phone as I reread his words. Mass unfollowing? What is he talking about?
I’m about to message him back when another text comes in, but this time it’s from Tessa.
Tessa:Have you seen this?
She sends me a link, and I click on it. It’s a video from You Oughta Know about the dinner at Marlowe’s. Her take is that Bailey must have said something damning about River, because afterward four of the five other attendees unfollowed him on social media. It’s possible the other one did too, but You Oughta Know was unable to identify who it was.
The video has been liked over three thousand times, and it came out only eight minutes ago.
Well, that’s just absolutely fantastic.
This was not part of the plan, and now my “Bailey’s thriving” narrative could be fully undone by what I’m sure was supposed to be a supportive gesture from her friends. Now it’ll look like a move in what’s quickly becoming a game of sympathy chess.
And Luke is definitely going to retaliate.
Chapter 6
PR Tip #29:The formula only gets you so far. After that, you’re on your own.
Iam seething.
I’m also in the bathroom right now, responding to a message from a guy that I matched with, and now we have a coffee date scheduled for next week and all I know about him is that he’s attractive and available and his name is Bryce.
Well, I hope Bryce can handle someone in PR who’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
I’m not really. But I definitely need a break, which is why I’m in this single-stall bathroom, looking at kiss number fifty contenders. To get away from my reality for a moment.
My reality being Luke’s latest move. It took him nearly a week to respond, but boy did he. He got River on a podcast. Not just any podcast, butFull Disclosure. The most popular celebrity interview podcast out there.
Because I did the handover for Luke, I know River’s schedule, and this wasn’t on it. Which means Luke pulled some strings, and it was no small thing considering the host, Carter Voss, has a backlist of A-listers a mile long waiting for an interview.
I also know for a fact that it was orchestrated by Luke because I texted him asking him how he did it, and his response was “I pulled some strings.”
I had half a mind to walk the quarter of a mile to his building and poke him in the eye. But I held myself back.
Up until this point, the collective unfollowing from Bailey’s friends has been trending for the past week, according to Brandwatch. Breakdown videos and entire live Q&As on social media have been dedicated to this supposed stunt. Even though it wasn’t coordinated at all—merely friends supporting each other. But it seemed orchestrated. And because Bailey had been taking the high road previously, this felt out of character for her, which made it all the more interesting.
I expected retaliation from Luke and River, but not at this level. Now, clips of the podcast are being shared everywhere. River never names Bailey or says anything disparaging, but lines from his interview like “learning to trust again” and “realizing some peoplearen’t who you thought they were” are going viral. He sounds wounded and genuine, making Bailey’s accidental stunt seem like a mean-girl pile-on.
I feel like I’m in over my head.
I need help, but help isn’t coming. Simone is probably sitting on her back deck on a lounge chair, a tall glass of ice water in her hand while she gets some sun, her husband standing nearby waving a palm frond to keep her cool. And I’m in a bathroom. Spiraling.
I know I’m not to blame for the unfollowing thing, but part of me can’t help but wonder if it would have happened under Simone’s watch. It’s not like I could have predicted this. It didn’t even occur to me as a possibility. Would it have to Simone?
It doesn’t matter because right now I need to figure out what to do next. But I kind of want to stay in this bathroom awhile longer. Perhaps until next week. Or maybe forever.
I hear a light tapping on the door, interrupting my retirement plans.
“Someone’s in here,” I yell.
“Yes, I know it’s you, Claire,” Tessa says, which means my hiding spot isn’t a secret and probably never has been. “You need to come out. You have a call with Bailey in five minutes.”
What? I pull up my calendar app, wondering if someone added a meeting that I missed, but there’s no recent addition there. Just a block-out of time that says “FIGURE THIS OUT” in all caps that I added this morning.
I open the door and peek my head out to find Tessa pacing back and forth, her trusty notepad tucked under her arm.
“I don’t have a call on my schedule,” I tell her.
