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“Yes, because it is completely unprofessional for her to be banging all of her clients.” Amanda’s face is red with anger as she glares at Cece.
I draw in a sharp, angry breath, ready to spew out a retort. “Amanda, I hope you can hear how many things are wrong with everything you just said, starting with the fact that you just admitted to blackmail.”
Amanda’s eyes glitter with angry tears. “I did nothing of the sort.” All of her cold, arrogant composure has vanished. Her sneering superiority is gone. She’s a cornered animal, her movements stiff and jerky, her face thrust forward and her eyes bulging.
Ansley heaves a sigh and shakes her head in disapproval.
“And moving on to the fact that Rowan’s previous two clients were female, heterosexual, and married, and no, she was not sleeping with them,” Cecelia says coolly.
“Oh, whatever.” Amanda’s glossy red lip curls up in a sneer. “Your publicist was screwing her very famous client. She took advantage of a vulnerable man—”
“How many different lies are you going to try on here, Amanda? You worked with a man who was actively trying to ruin the reputation of our client, which goes against our mission, our reason for existence. I know this because I talked to the owner of the Rovers today. We will be lucky if we manage to keep their account after what you pulled.”
Amanda clutches her small black purse defensively and takes a step backwards. “You can’t prove anything.”
“Amanda, you’ve actually violated the law. Blackmail is illegal. You’ve also violated multiple terms of the contract you signed with our agency.” Cecelia shakes her head at her chidingly. “This is going to end up in court. Mr. Talman is going to testify against you, and so will Mason. We’ll have to see who the jury ends up believing, but given that Paul Hartley called you directly from his work phone on multiple occasions, and given that he deposited money into your account, I’m thinking it won’t be you.”
Amanda staggers back several steps. “I’m calling my mother,” she wails. “We have excellent lawyers.”
“Are those the lawyers who failed to win the case against three charities whose boards she sits on? Charities which have been found guilty of misappropriating funds?” Ansley speaks up.
Amanda’s mouth opens and shuts. Her chest heaves. Finally she points at me, her hand shaking with rage. “She fucked her client,” she screams at the top of her lungs.
“You’re really stuck on that, aren’t you?” I interject with a sweet smile. “I dated a client, which was not actually the brightest idea, but we’re both single adults who acted of our own free will, and I am not the first person who developed a romantic relationship in the workplace. We’ve all seen how inappropriatelyyou’veacted with Mason, and he turned you down. So sorry for that.”
Amanda lunges at me and tries to slap me. The security guard springs forward and grabs Amanda. “Assault, assault.” Amanda screams. “Help me.”
“Number one, we’re the only ones in the office today, Amanda. It’s the weekend. Number two, we have security video in this office. You’re pushing your credibility through a paper shredder, dear. I’d say quit while you’re ahead, but that’s no longer even a distant dream.” Cecelia’s voice has gone hard and angry. “I gave you chance after chance. I ignored my instincts because you do have talent and you had a few good campaigns. I was a fool, and I blame myself as much as anyone. Don’t ever set foot in this building again.”
The security guard moves a shrieking, struggling Amanda out of the office. Ansley follows them, hauling Amanda’s belongings and I watch it all go down without so much as a smile on my face. Because at the end of the day, this whole nightmare will impact the agency and I contributed to it.
Cecelia turns to look at me.
“I’m sorry,” I say to her.
“No, I am the owner of this agency and I have to take responsibility for this. I ignored a lot of Amanda’s bad behavior because she did manage to ingratiate herself to a few clients. In all honesty, though, they all had personalities just like her. They were nasty, gossipy little mean girls and the reason they needed their reputations rehabbed is because of their own bitchy behavior.” Cecelia shakes her head. “We don’t actually need clients like that. We are in the enviable position of being able to pick and choose.”
While I appreciate the fact that Cece is focusing on Amanda’s crimes, we both know I played a role in all this.
“I screwed up too, though. I did start having an affair with Mason, and when you asked me about it, I deflected your questions, and it was foolish and irresponsible of me.”
She frowns. “He’s tried to contact you directly a number of times since.”
I nod unhappily. “I know.”
“When I spoke to him, he asked me to tell you that he wants to speak to you, that he made a huge mistake, and that you were an absolutely amazing publicist and he only agreed to let Amanda represent him because he thought he was protecting you.”
“What are you saying?” I look at her in confusion.
Cecelia settles down in a chair, smoothing her skirt. I sit down facing her. “I guess what I’m asking is, what do you really want out of life?”
“I want this.” I wave my hand around the office.
“Be a little more specific, dear.”
“I love being a publicist. This is what I want for my career. The big clients. The big office. The whole darn thing.”
“Why?” she probes.
