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Reese was certain she was in short supply of those now, and it would be nice to meet someone who didn’t hate her for the whole Jennifer situation.
“That’s sweet. And since I’m staying for a few days, is there anything I can bring? I don’t want to show up empty-handed.”
“Just yourself.”
Reese managed to contain her excitement until she got into her condo. She then did a happy dance. She was going to see people, have fun, and spend time with Grady. And if she were honest with herself, it was the last part that excited her the most.
* * *
John, Daria, and Marnie were over the next morning to discuss the next steps. Daria had brought along a few boxes of samples from the men’s line, and another box of samples from the women’s line. The night before, Reese had texted Grady to ask him what size he thought his sister was. In typical guy fashion, he had no idea, and instead sent a picture of his little sister. She and Grady looked a lot alike, with the same dark blond hair and infectious smile. He’d also sent links to Jodi’s TikTok account, and Reese couldn’t deny that Jodi had some great videos.
“Before we start, I had an idea,” Reese said. “Or, rather, Grady Radcliffe’s teammate had an idea. What if I did some workout videos and posted them on YouTube? Grady’s even offered to do one with me. You know, like a way of slowly getting back into the swing of things. And apparently, workout videos are popular.”
John narrowed his eyes, something he did when he was deep in thought. He looked over to Marnie, who made a subtle nod.
“I don’t see why not, but before you post it, let me talk to our PR team.”
“Okay. We’re going to film one this weekend. I’m going out to his family’s cottage. If we don’t use it, then I can keep it for myself, or post it later.”
“It would need to look professional,” Marnie said.
“I have someone who isn’t a professional, but she’s done some creative videos. Like I said, if it’s not good enough, I can keep it for myself.”
“Let’s say it’s a go for now, but I’ll confirm later,” John said. “And this has reminded me of something else we should discuss. Your ex-boyfriend seems to be flapping his gums about you. He hasn’t gone to the press…yet. But he’s telling anyone who will listen that you haven’t been nice to him, so he was forced to break up with you. I suppose he’s alluding to other things. That maybe youwerecruel to Jennifer.”
Reese bit back her rage.
Bastard!
“First of all, I broke up with him. Secondly, if he…” She stopped herself. What was the point of arguing? “What do you we do about this?”
“Let me think about it. We need to come up with something before your ex does any more damage.”
“We’ll have some ideas for you right away,” Marnie added. “Don’t worry about this.”
“Now on to other business,” John said. “It turns out the unexpected publicity from Grady Radcliffe has helped immensely, as has the text messages we were able to obtain from Reese’s old phone. It seems to have silenced Jennifer for now, but she hired representation and a real sleazeball of a lawyer, so we’ll have to see what happens there. More interesting is a gossip blog that seems a little obsessed about the case. What do you know about theLowdownblog?”
“I’ve never heard of it,” Reese said.
Marnie handed over a bunch of papers. They were all stories from the blog, and they were all about her. She skimmed through them and saw that they mostly detailed tidbits about Jennifer’s life. They were not flattering to the other woman.
“Do you know who could be behind it?”
“I don’t,” Reese said. “A guardian angel?”
“Not funny. We don’t know if it’s a problem yet,” John said. “But we need to address it. So read over these blog posts and let me know if you can figure out who is writing them or who is feeding the information to the person writing them. These kinds of things can backfire. The last thing we want to do is gain any sympathy for Jennifer.”
“I’ll read them over today.”
“I’m glad you’re taking my advice and getting out of the city. Just remember to keep a low profile. The furor has died down, but let’s not restart it anytime soon.”
With that, their meeting ended. Daria hung around for Reese to sign more paperwork and to look at some color swatches. Now that the men’s line had been saved, production was going to resume on the new plus-size line although a launch date hadn’t been set.
“What’s the deal with this blog?” Reese asked. “What is John really thinking?”
Daria shrugged. “I think he’s worried that you’re going to be linked to it, and that it will blow up in everyone’s face.”
“What do you think about it?”
