AllFreeNovel
Share Us
All he cares about is that he couldn’t break the story himself!
“So how long has this been going on?” He sits on the edge of his table and gives me a serious, judgmental look. As nervous as I had felt when I stepped inside of Max’s office, something snaps inside of me at the way he looks at me and I decide to stand up for myself.
“My personal life is none of your business,” I snap. Enough is enough.
“So it’s gonna be like this now on, is it?” Max smirks. How did I ever fall for this man and his charade? Max is not at all bothered by the fact that I kissed another man. There is no doubt left in my mind that all the attraction and the admiration I had for him was an illusion, an image of him that I merely wanted to believe in.
“Well your personal life is none of my business. I couldn’t care less.” He shrugs. “But we do want to run a story on this. Our rivals already broken it first, the least we can do is get whatever mileage out of it that we can.”
“You bastard!” The words slip out of my mouth before I can stop them.
“Phil, would you excuse us. Shut the door behind you.” Max nods to the paparazzo, who leaves immediately.
“Look, there is no need to get agitated. It's just a story. If you give us some juicy details, who knows, we may even put you on the cover. Now wouldn’t that be nice? Even in your wildest dreams you couldn’t have imagined yourself on a cover, eh?”
Max’s words are alien to me. I can’t even understand what he’s trying to say. Cover? Who gives a damn about a cover? Did this man not see the hurt he had caused me?
It’s time to confront him.
“You had a girlfriend all this time and yet you led me on. You used me and played with my emotions. Do you've no shame?” I look at him with all the disgust in the world.
To my shock, Max actually chuckles.
“And you find this funny?”
“Of course It's funny. Where do you think we are Carrie? This is L.A.! Stop being so naive!”
“Naive? Do you have no honor?”
“Honor is for suckers. Can we get back to the matter at hand? Are you gonna do this story or not. For once you don’t have to write it, you just have to feature in it.”
“No,” I cross my arms. Max looks at me thoughtfully for a moment before he speaks.
“Maybe you’re smitten with David. Maybe you think you've found ‘true love’,” he said sarcastically, “but don’t forget he is a worse hound than I ever was. You can play Florence Nightingale all you want but he will use you and throw you away.”
“That’s all you think about don’t you? Using people?”
“All right, enough of this nonsense. You've got two choices. One: do this interview, dish out the dirty on David and help us run this piece. I will even give you some extra money for that, for God knows you can use some cash. Do that and you can keep your job, or else…” He doesn’t have to complete his sentence—I know what he means.
A hundred scenarios play in my head. Nothing would please me more than leaving this office and being away from this man’s influence forever. But there are bills to be paid, pending bank loans and my father’s bar to be saved.
I can’t.
I’m desperate and like anyone else in my position, I have no choice.
“What about the piece I'm already writing on David?” I ask.
“Forget about that bullshit,” he scowls.
“But you told Shauna…”
“Shauna can go to hell. I don’t care about what she or anyone else has to say anymore.”
Why this sudden change in his stance? Last I saw him, he was deathly scared of her. I wonder if I should voice my thoughts aloud but Max speaks on his own.
“You must’ve heard the news,” he gloats. “I'm going to be one of the Griswolds soon. I will have more power and more money in my lap than I’ll know what to do with. Do you think Shauna or anyone else in this town can ever do anything to me again? Please. Just wait and watch. Max Jefferson has big things lined up,” he says with his chin high.
The more he speaks, the lower he falls in my eyes. I want to throw up when I think about how highly I thought of him earlier, how I gave myself to him. Anguish turns into anger, my nostrils flare and I want to throw something at this despicable man.
