Page 617 of Manhattan Bossholes

As I walked through the park, I kept my eyes downcast, forcing my face into a neutral expression. I wondered how long I’d feel like I was being watched. When I did manage to glance up, no one seemed to notice me, which was surprising and comforting at the same time.

Lucy saw me walking toward where we’d set up for the interview and gave me a sad smile and wave. She met me halfway and squeezed my hand gently.

“Hey, I was worried about you. Are you okay?” she asked with concern.

I shrugged. “You tell me. What’s the internet saying about the world’s most humiliating rejection?”

Her mouth turned down briefly. “Ah, well, let’s just say the comments so far aren’t great. But no one is saying anything about you—all the anger is directed toward Cameron.” Lucy widened her eyes. “Obviously, since he turned the moment into a little tantrum. People are confused by what happened, but we can use that to our advantage, I think. Or at least I hope so.”

“Did you rewatch the footage?” I asked with a pit in my stomach. “Was I visible?”

I had been so caught up in Cameron’s freak-out that I hadn’t put on my game face, and there was a chance I was in the video hovering behind him like a teary-eyed loser.

“I rewatched it,” Lucy answered with a nod. “You’re sort of in the background, but the focus of the video is definitely Cameron.”

“Let me see it.” I held out my hand.

“Felicity…I don’t know if that’s a good idea. Give yourself time to get some distance from it.”

I gestured in front of her with a frown, and she tapped the screen, then reluctantly put her sparkly phone in my palm.

The video started off with Lucy chatting to her followers, answering questions about CamLicity as the text popped up on the screen. I glanced at the viewer count and was astounded that even a quick throwaway live was enough to get thousands of eyeballs within seconds. Lucy was good at her job, and that fact was about to bite me in the ass.

She was chatting about which pieces she had on that day, and dozens of people said they were off to the Veritique website to buy the same necklace and bracelet for themselves. Viewers asked about my skirt, my shoes, and who did my hair. It was like every bit of what was happening on screen was for sale.

Which I guess it was.

Then, it started to unravel. It was like watching a car accident unfold. My heart rate ratcheted up like I was waiting for a jump-scare even though I knew exactly what was about to happen.

Lucy looked off at something in the distance and made a little excited eep! noise, and the camera swung around to frame Cameron and me down the lane.

My stomach clenched. The on-screen implosion started with our kiss.

I felt tears welling, because damn it, we looked so real in that moment. I couldn’t help remembering how real it had felt, too.

“Aw,” Lucy said. “Look at those two stealing some alone time! They can’t keep their hands off each other, you guys. I swear, Cameron always finds excuses to touch Felicity. It’s giving ‘addiction’ y’all! How cute are they? Let’s see those hearts!”

I watched as the stars and heart-eye emojis from her followers flooded the screen.

“Is it weird that I’m totally spying on them right now?” she asked her followers in a conspiratorial whisper. “I guess we all are! I love those two so much, and I know all of you do too. Best love story evah! CamLicity in the wild, my babies!”

I let out a humorless snort.

“Give me the phone,” Lucy said in a flat voice that sounded nothing like her on-screen persona. “It only gets worse from this point on. You don’t need to go through that again. Once is enough.”

I shook my head. “Absolutely not. I’m part of this story. I need to see how the world is reacting. Don’t forget, it’s my job.”

Which Cameron had just made abundantly clear to me.

I glanced at the comments as the footage of us chatting played on. People couldn’t get enough of us. The comments were almost universally positive, which was unheard of because internet trolls were real. My stomach twisted into a knot when I reached out to touch his arm. I knew what was coming next.

Then, Cameron dropped to his knee and Lucy started shrieking. “You guys! Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, it’s happening!”

The footage went shaky when Lucy ran closer to us. As Cameron started his little tantrum, I realized Lucy was right. I didn’t want to hear it again. I glanced at the comments before handing her phone back and wasn’t surprised to see vomit emojis and lots of “WTAF?”s

I’d barely even looked to see if I was in the frame as Cameron went off, and most likely, no one else had been looking at me, either. Why watch me when Cameron was the one putting on the show?

“Wow. Okay.” I inhaled a shaky breath and pushed down all thoughts of the way Cameron had crushed my heart, both publicly and privately. “We’ve got our work cut out for us if we want to recover from that.”