Page 85 of Fake It For Glory

MERIDA

Crap.

I couldn’t believe my eyes as I stared at the article on Hattie’s phone. “My Month with Jensen Loxley,” blared the headline, and I felt like the world had suddenly gone off its axis. Why had this article been published?

I could feel the anger rolling off Hattie. She was ready to claw my eyes out. My heart pounded in my chest. I was pretty sure I could feel a vein throbbing in the side of my neck. This was exactly what I didn’t want to happen. For a brief moment, I hoped I was in a nightmare. In fact, it was very similar to a nightmare I had the night before.

Jensen was staring at me with a look of horror and hurt. I scrambled to explain, but the words caught in my throat. I was just as confused and shocked as he was, and I didn’t have all the answers. I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t deny it. It was right there in black and white. A photo of me and Jensen at the first tech gala accompanied the article, which pretty much took away any deniability I may have had. Add in the byline and I was convicted of the horrible crime.

My mind raced as I reached for the phone, hoping to make some sense of the situation. There was a tiny little thread of hope there was someone else that wrote the piece. I needed to see if the words were the same as the ones I wrote. I knew it was ridiculous, but I was desperate. Before I admitted to anything, I had to be absolutely certain it was as bad as it looked. But before I could even touch it, Jensen snatched it away from me.

His eyes flew across the screen, and I could see the anger and anguish building in him. “Forces his employees to work under abusive conditions? Belittles me for wearing inexpensive white sneakers? Insists on controlling what I wear?”

His voice cracked with emotion, and his face drained of all color as he looked up at me. The pain and betrayal in his eyes cut deep, and I felt a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. How could this have happened? How could someone I had grown so close to do something like this? Yes, I wrote the article but I didn’t release it. I would never do that. I told Dalton not to do it. There had to be some law against publishing an article without permission.

Unfortunately, Dalton gave me credit for it. I wrote the damn thing, so it wasn’t like I could claim innocence. I was guilty. I was the cause of the pained expression on his face.

“Jensen, I swear, I had no idea this article was going to be published,” I stammered, my own voice trembling with shock and disbelief. “I don’t know what happened. I’m sorry!”

Hattie was seething. Her anger burned just beneath the surface, turning her skin a rosy pink shade. “It’s pretty clear what happened.”

“I didn’t mean for this to happen!” I cried out.

My words seemed inadequate in the face of his anger and hurt. He had every right to feel betrayed, and I couldn’t blame him for it. I reached out to him, my hand trembling as I touched his arm, but he pulled away, his expression a mixture of anger and pain.

I had never seen him like this before, and it tore at my heart. I wanted to explain, to make him understand that I would never intentionally harm him, but the damage was done. The article was out there, and there was no going back.

Tears welled up in my eyes as Jensen’s anger and disappointment washed over me. My throat tightened, and I struggled to find my voice. “Jensen, please,” I whispered his name. “I didn’t. I don’t know how this happened. Let me explain.”

He paced back and forth, his face a storm of emotions. He had every right to be furious, and I couldn’t blame him. But I needed him to understand the truth, to know that I would never intentionally hurt him.

“Hattie, give me the room,” Jensen barked.

“No way,” Hattie said defiantly. “You need a witness in here. Hard telling what she’ll say next.”

“Go, Hattie!” Jensen’s voice boomed around the office. My stomach flip-flopped as the weight of his anger was made clear.

“Fine, but for the record, I think you’re a snake,” Hattie hissed. “Don’t let her get out of this, Jensen. This is inexcusable.” Hattie’s eyes locked on mine. I saw a flash of hurt. “I should have known better. I’ve always been very good at picking out the snakes. I’ll know better next time.”

She walked out of the office, slamming the door behind her. I focused my attention on Jensen. He had stopped pacing and had his back to me. He stared out the window with his hands in his pockets. I could see the tension in his back and shoulders.

I took a shaky breath and started to try and explain things once again. “I went to the Faux agency as a favor to someone else. I had no intention of writing an article about you. But when I ran into you, when I got to know you, I knew there was a real story there. I’m a journalist for Full Disclosure, and I thought I could finally write a meaningful piece, something more than the advice columns my father had me pinned down in. I started the article on you before I ever met you. I didn’t set out to get close to you. I was curious about who you were. It wasn’t supposed to be negative.”

He said nothing. He didn’t look at me. I thought it was safer if I stayed where I was.

My voice cracked, and I wiped away a tear that had escaped my eye. “Jensen, in the beginning, you were just a subject for an article, but as I got to know you, you became more than that. You became someone I cared about. Someone I didn’t want to hurt. That’s why I decided not to run the article.”

I watched as Jensen’s anger seemed to waver. He turned to look at me. The fury I saw minutes ago had been replaced by a mix of confusion and hurt. It was a vulnerable moment for both of us, and I hoped he would see that I was being honest about my intentions.

“I didn’t want any of this to happen,” I whispered. “I never meant to betray your trust. I swear I will fix this. I will put out a statement explaining the article was just a draft idea. I haven’t read it, but I’ll fix this.”

As I looked into his eyes, I prayed that he would find it in his heart to forgive me, to understand that I had never wanted to cause him harm. The weight of my actions hung heavily between us, and I could only hope that he would see the truth in my words and find a way to move past the pain I had unintentionally caused.

Jensen’s laughter cut through me like a knife, and my heart sank as I watched the anger and frustration in his eyes. “Then why the hell is it out there for the world to see?” he demanded, his voice laced with disbelief. “Do you have any idea what this will do to me? To my launch?”

He raked his fingers through his hair, his anguish and anger on full display. I had never seen him like this before, and it was tearing me apart. “I never meant for any of this to happen!”

“It doesn’t matter what you meant to happen! It happened. You wrote it. You smeared me. You used me to get a story! You’re a hell of an actress, Merida. You fooled me. I believed you were a genuine person. I am a fucking idiot. I fell for your bullshit hook, line, and sinker.”