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“Please? I got here late, and my boss will kill me if I don’t find someone to help with the article.” She brushes strands of ebony hair behind her ear and begs me with her round eyes.
Shit. How am I supposed to say no to that? “Sure. What questions do you have?”
She perks up quickly and pulls out a recorder. I want to ask why she needs that, but my exhaustion is setting further in. Instead of prolonging the inevitable, I lean against the table behind me and use it to help keep me on my feet.
“How long have you been a volunteer for Resolutions?” she asks first.
“Only a couple months, but it’s been a great experience so far. The owner Joyce really cares for all of these animals,” I say.
What seems like a forced smile rises on her face. “Great. What about the other volunteers? Do you work closely with them?”
That’s a weird fucking question, so I shrug. “When necessary.”
“I see. What about Bentley Abbott? I hear he’s a big contributor to the shelter.” Her tone is tightening and I’m not liking the direction of this conversation. The thought occurs to me that this one might not be a local reporter. She very well could be from that damned online magazine.
Damn it. They just couldn’t leave well enough alone. Well, maybe I could make Bentley sound like the least interesting person ever and they’ll finally leave him alone.
“He’s on the board. Pretty quiet and only focuses on his work. Donates money when needed. Nothing exciting there,” I say, meeting her stare while keeping my face neutral.
Her lips thin and she grips the recorder tighter. “I see. So, you don’t interact with him often?”
“Not really,” I answer then yawn. “I really should be going.”
She pulls a pen and paper from her pocket. “Would you mind writing your information down for me in case I have any follow up questions?”
I want to tell her to fuck off, but instead, I accept the offered items and turn toward the table to write down fake information.
As I’m making up a phone number, she continues with her questions. “Are you sure there’s nothing between you and Bentley? I swear I saw the two of you together before.”
I hold in the profanity and words I really want to sling at the intrusive woman and lie again.
“Maybe, but Bentley’s nothing to me. I prefer my men more rugged, if you know what I mean?” I let out a nervous laugh. I really should have thought through my responses better, but I’m so fucking tired and I just want her to leave me alone.
“Interesting. I don’t actually know what you mean,” the reporter replies, still holding her recorder out. It seems even closer to me than before.
I hand the paper back to her. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, he’s nice on the eyes, but he’s not my kind of boyfriend material or anything noteworthy. Just another suit with a big bank account. I really only got to know him because of this event.”
Oh, God. Now, I’m just blabbering nonsense, and this causes the woman to smile, which makes me want to punch her in the face.
I’m one second from telling her to fuck off when I hear Bentley start to speak.
“Glad to know what you actually think of me, McKenzie.” His chest is heaving and hands are balled into fists at his sides as he sneers at me.
I open my mouth to say anything that will fix this fucked situation, but he swivels around to leave before I can.
Forgetting about the reporter, I jog to catch up to him and snag his wrist to stop his forward movements. “That wasn’t what it sounded like. She’s a—"
His eyes narrow and darken when he finally glances at me. His head lowers, and his voice is menacing. “I don’t give a single fuck who that woman is. I only cared who you were, and clearly, I was wrong about who I thought that was. Now, you can go fuck yourself and leave me alone.”
Shock cuts me to the core, and tears well in my eyes. He can’t be serious. Hell, this can’t be happening.
By the time I’m capable of functioning again, I shove my tears down and turn back to the reporter to take my aggressions out on her, but she’s gone. Then, I see Celia heading my way with a confused look on her face.
“What’s going on? Why was Bentley storming off?” she asks quickly.
I put my head in my hands and mutter, “Everything just went really wrong, really fucking quickly.”
She grabs my elbows and tugs on them until I look at her. “Where is Bentley going?”
