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I flinch under her steady gaze. “I still want that. Nothing’s changed. I’m just trying to find a way to do it without destroying what I have with the guys, and also landing a spot with City Scan. I’m going to have the life I want. I can do it all. I know it.”
“Can you?” Riley can be super-intense when she wants to be. It’s unnerving.
“You’re going to be a great lawyer, you know.” My laugh comes out way more nervous than I thought it would. “You’ve got the interrogation part down.”
“I’m not interrogating you, El. I just don’t recognize my best friend at the moment. What’s so great about this life you’re going after?” Riley asks.
“I’m still your best friend.” I swallow hard. “You know exactly what kind of life I want, because you want it too. The dream. The glam Manhattan lifestyle. Writing a feature for City Scan is going to get my name out there. Everybody will know who I am. As a huge bonus, it happens to include two guys who are really into me as well. Life in Central Park South is going great. In fact, it’s even better than I hoped for.”
Riley leans back and regards me. “So what are you going to do?”
I’m glad she’s dialed back the intensity. “I don’t know. It’s way too late to tell Asher and Logan that I’m writing a feature about them. They’d never forgive me.” I shudder at the idea.
“Stretching the truth won’t help with that. That won’t end well no matter what.”
“I’m going to do everything I can to make this work out. It’ll be fine.” I try to buoy myself up. “Once the feature’s published and they see that it’s only going to raise their profile, I don’t think they’ll mind.”
“That’s not really something you can predict, is it?” Riley asks me.
“It’ll be fine,” I insist again. “Maybe I’ll try to talk to my editor and really sell her on getting away from a personal angle.”
Riley doesn’t look convinced. I can’t say I am either, but I can’t see any other way out.
Sitting down at my laptop, I stare at the screen. Looking blankly at a computer might as well be my actual job description since that’s what I do so often. The writer’s life.
Okay. I’m doing it. I’m going to tell Zan how I’m going to write up my story. It’s the right thing to do. I can’t stand the way Riley was looking at me. She’s not wrong either. I’m slipping into a grey area and no matter what, I can’t take the chance of messing up the guys’ lives or their work.
I construct a careful message to my boss, tweaking it several times before I send it off. When she found one single typo in one of my messages to her, Zan had an absolute fit. She went off about how we’re writers and we can’t ever present anything but our best work.
Not five minutes after I press send, Zan’s calling me. That’s way too fast. I thought she’d take some time and think about it.
“Hi, Zan,” I say brightly, as if I’ve been expecting a call from her all along. “What can I do for you?”
“I got your message. That’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.”
“Really?” My heart beats faster. I knew this would all work out. I can do a feature about the scientific aspects of what they’re working on. I can even ask for Julian to review it for me, to make sure I’ve got it all correct. “So we can go a different direction from the original story angle?”
“Yes, we’ll need to. Although the aspects that you covered in your earlier draft were interesting and useful, they don’t fit the new direction we’re going to have to take.”
“New direction? City Scan’s all about news.”
“We have been,” she says grudgingly. “Up until now. As of this week, not anymore. Our numbers were fine but we’ve heard from the higher-ups that we’re changing the nature of what we publish. From now on, the magazine’s going to cover more popular human interest stories.”
What does that mean? My heart’s starting to sink, but I won’t let my hopes go. Not yet.
“You may have noticed people have shorter attention spans now, far more so than ever before,” Zan says.
I hate it so much when she talks to me like I’m a child. I grit my teeth. “Yes, I’m aware. What does that mean for us? City Scan’s not like that.”
“We are as of right now. In-depth journalism has been in trouble for quite some time. There are places for it, and we are no longer one of them. As much as I want City Scan to remain a serious news magazine, I’ve been told that’s not the case anymore.”
Zan bites off her words. “So I’m not only going to need you to focus on the personal lives of the CEOs of Vivojen, I’m going to need you to completely remove all of the biotech info you’ve written about. The new angle you’ll need to take is to find something that will generate conversation.”
“Do you mean gossip?” I ask.
She winces. “Yes. That’s what we’re going to be about from now on. As far as City Scan’s concerned, we’re going to feature those CEOs as hot single New Yorkers. Those men are known for being private. There must be some secrets there. I’m going to leave it to you to expose them. You can write the fluff that’s supposed to get us more clicks. Lose the serious side of what they do. Find out some dirt on their love lives.”
I’m speechless. “Zan,” I begin carefully. “That’s not what I was wanting to do. I think it’s best that we go in the opposite direction. They’re dedicated, driven men who want to change the world for the better. No one cares about who they’re dating.”
