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“I am so upset right now. I can’t believe anyone would do this!”
“I know. It’s terrible,” Daria said sadly.
“Has anyone around the office been gossiping? Trying to find information about me?”
“Not that I know of, but they wouldn’t do it around me. They know we’re pretty close.”
Reese went into her condo. Even though she was several floors up, she trusted no one. She made sure the door was shut behind her before plopping down on her sofa. “Can you do me a favor? I want you to poke around, see if you can find out who has been talking. I know it won’t be easy. I also know that it’s no secret what an awful relationship I have with my parents. But the hoarding? I haven’t told many people about that.”
“That is an excellent clue. Does John even know about that?”
“He’s been to my mother’s house, back when I first signed with him, so he would have seen it. For now, it’s important that we come up with a list. I need to get this sorted.”
“I don’t blame you. But if I can point one thing out?”
Reese paused at that. “Sure.”
“The reaction to the blog has been pretty positive. You’re getting a lot of good attention, people giving you sympathy. I’m not condoning what’s happening, but maybe this rat isn’t really a rat?”
Her cheeks burned. She didn’t want sympathy, but she didn’t want to argue with Daria either. “At least something good is coming of it. We’ll talk more about this on Monday, unless the Semple piece is a hit job. We won’t know that until tomorrow.”
She got off the phone and decided to go for a run. She had too much pent-up energy that needed burning off. She took a route through the park, noticing nothing or no one. She was too tightly wound to think about anything other than running. She’d pushed herself harder than she would have normally, and she was panting when she got home. She hit the shower and as she was making herself another coffee, she noticed a text from Grady.
Come over. I saw the blog.
It felt strange to walk down the hall with her coffee cup, but she didn’t care. She knocked on the door and Grady answered it in seconds.
“Hello, beautiful,” he said, flashing her a warm smile.
She frowned. “I hate people.”
“And a good morning to you too! How about some breakfast? That will cheer you up. I shouldn’t have it, but what about some blueberry pancakes? I can make the blueberries into a smiley face.”
“Okay,” she said. No one had ever made her smiley face pancakes before.
She followed him into the kitchen and sat down on one of the bistro chairs at his island. He pulled out the flour, baking powder, sugar, milk, and an egg. While he whipped up the pancake batter, she sorted through the blueberries. Ten minutes later, he presented her with a stack of pancakes and a bottle of maple syrup. Her pancakes did have smiley faces.
“Thank you for this.”
“I know you’re having a bad day.”
“I’m embarrassed to see my entire life put on display like that. I’m sure my mother is furious and probably blames me about what came out. And I’m no closer to figuring out who is feeding this blog information.”
Grady speared a chunk of pancake and popped it into his mouth. As he chewed he put a finger up. He hopped off his bistro chair and grabbed a pad of paper and pen from a drawer.
“I have an idea,” he said. “Let’s take our list of suspects and figure out their motives. And we can go from there.”
“We’re would-be detectives?”
“Do you have anything else to do? Other than stew?”
“Good point.”
They worked on the list even though Reese couldn’t be certain who knew all the gossip that was being spilled. But she started with the big names and worked out who they may have told.
“Let’s start with John,” Grady said. “What are the chances he would talk toLowdown?”
“Zero. He wouldn’t put his revenue stream in jeopardy, and he certainly wouldn’t go about repairing my image this way. He has no motive.”
