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Then I blinked, and the vision was gone.
“What are you doing here?” I gasped.
His brow furrowed, and he stilled, as if struck. “What? What do you mean? You invited me over.”
“I did no such thing.”
Campbell’s eyes darted away and then back to me. “I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t responded to my email.”
“What email?” I asked, dumbfounded.
Now, he looked thoroughly perplexed. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “You really have no idea what I’m talking about.”
“No, I don’t. I don’t even check my emails. I…”
Then, the thought occurred to me. I don’t even check my emails. But someone else did.
I saw red.
“Honey!” I yelled, whirling around.
Honey jumped out of her seat and came running. She was chewing on a lock of her long blonde hair. A sure sign that she was in distress. “Hey, boss. Gah, I meant to tell you.”
“That you emailed Campbell?”
“He emailed me!” she cried. “Um, you. He emailed you.”
Campbell’s jaw dropped open as he came to the same realization that I had. Honey had invited him over to the house at four o’clock when she knew we’d be wrapping up for the day.
Fuck. What else had she learned by pretending to be me?
“Did you email me?” I asked him.
He nodded. “Yeah, I did.”
I exhaled slowly, trying not to rise to the anger boiling up in my chest. “Could you wait here a minute?”
“Uh, sure.”
Then, I latched on to Honey’s arm and dragged her away from the front door. I didn’t stop until we were out of range for Campbell to hear what was about to come out of my mouth.
“What were you thinking?” I hissed.
“I know. I’m so sorry. I should have told you. But you hired me to help grow your business, and this will help you grow your business.”
“Campbell?”
“Yes. He agreed to do the ‘I See the Real You’ challenge with you.”
I nearly blew a gasket. “I’m not doing that challenge. And Campbell would never agree to do it with me. He doesn’t even get on social media. He barely knows me.”
Honey shrugged. “He said he’d do it.”
“And what else did he say?”
“Nothing. Just that he wanted to talk to you. And then…I asked if he’d do the challenge.”
“Honey,” I said, squeezing the bridge of my nose.
“He said yes though.”
Well, at least it hadn’t been anything personal. I’d have to read the entire exchange to make sure she didn’t know anything more private. But, Jesus Christ, I’d thought it would be a blessing to get Honey to take over my always-inundated inbox. Now, I was wondering if it was a nightmare.
“This is crossing a boundary, Honey,” I said, looking her in the eye. “You know that any personal emails that come through are to be flagged for me, unopened. You know that it’s an invasion of my privacy to talk to my friends on that account as me.”
“I know but—”
“And furthermore, all decisions about the business go through me. I have the last say on what videos we’re making, what pictures we’re using, what questions I’m answering. I’m Blaire Blush. You don’t get to unilaterally decide what I am doing.”
“You’re right,” she said automatically. “I just did it for you. I see now that it was too much.”
I exhaled. “You should go home.”
Tears welled in her big brown eyes. “Are you firing me?”
“No,” I said. “But you can’t do anything like this ever again.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
“I’m giving you the rest of the week off. We’ll start again on Monday.”
She nodded, mollified by my words. “Okay. I am so sorry, Blaire. You know that I’d never do anything to hurt you. I only want what’s best for you and the company.”
“I know.”
She gulped and then slunk out of the room. I braced an arm against the door when she was gone. Because this wasn’t over. I still had to face Campbell.
And the worst part of all of it was that Honey was right. As mad as I was with her for how she had gone about it, Campbell was exponentially more famous than me. We knew each other. As far as Honey knew, we were even friends on speaking terms. A guy who could joke about asking me out. From her perspective, why wouldn’t I film a video with him?
If only it were that simple.
I tucked my hair behind my ears, mussed my bangs, and then headed back toward the door. Campbell still hadn’t come inside. He was leaning back against the doorframe, staring down at his phone.
“Hey,” I said. “Sorry about that.”
“Did you fire your minion?”
“I didn’t. This is the first time anything like this has happened. So, I’m giving her another chance. You have no idea how hard it is to find good employees.”
“I thought the emails were suspicious,” he admitted. “I guess I just wanted to believe that you were that comfortable with seeing me again.”
