Page 99 of Home Grown Talent

Feeling his balance somewhat restored, he headed back to the office through the rush hour traffic and pulled up outside the Hunter Gardens unit just after six-thirty. He was surprised to see Mac’s bike still outside. She was allergic to paperwork so didn’t usually hang around once she’d finished working for the day.

Heading inside, he was even more surprised to see her sitting at his desk with her gaze locked on the computer screen.

“Don’t tell me you’re logging invoices,” he said as he stepped inside.

Mac jumped, and in anyone else he might have described her expression as guilty. It changed immediately, though, to a grim distress that dropped a rock into the pit of his stomach.

“What's happened?”

“Shit, Owen.”

“What is it?” His heart was thundering stupidly. “Mac—”

“You need to see this,” she said, turning the computer screen towards him.

He couldn’t make sense of the screen at first, expecting to see some horrible news of a disaster, someone hurt—but all he saw was the familiar banner of one of the biggest trade review sites and his own company’s logo. Then he saw that the star rating, which had always been a healthy five, had dropped to an average of three and a half.

“What the hell?” Relief that nothing life-altering had happened was swamped by confusion, anger, and a little fear. “How the hell could it drop so fast…?”

“Naaz told me this afternoon that you were getting abuse online over that fucking pineapple bollocks. Apparently, some people were posting our listing and… well, we’ve had a lot of new ratings this weekend,” Mac said grimly. “All one star. You have to read the comments…”

Scrolling down, he felt his heart sink as fast as his company’s reputation.

One star. Show me the pineapples!!!!!

One star. Owen Hunter is a bully and a fraud. He’s not even gay.

One star. DO NOT HIRE THIS MAN! He’s a liar! #pineapplegate

“For fuck’s sake,” he said, reeling back from the screen to stare at Mac over the empty expanse of his desk.

“Apparently it’s all over social media,” she said. “Naaz showed me some of it, and it was bloody nasty, Owen. They dug up some photo of you with Michelle. They’re saying you’re not really a gardener, that you’re not really gay—”

“I’m bi,” Owen croaked.

“I know,” Mac said gently. Then she swallowed and added. “They’re even saying that you bullied someone.”

He stared, unbelieving. “Bullied someone? Who?” He felt sick, a churning nausea rising in his throat. “Not Mason. Did he say that?”

Shaking her head, Mac pulled the screen back around. “No, but it was some kind of official post… Let me find it.” She scrolled for a minute. “Right, here we go, it’s from someone called Misty Watson-King? She said—”

“Jesus.” Owen pressed a hand to his eyes. Of course it would be Misty.

“She says…” Mac let out a breath and turned the screen back to him. “Well, read it for yourself. Obviously, we know it’s total bollocks.”

He looked closer, heart sinking deeper and deeper. It was an Instagram post, and over the faint image of a pineapple, there was a block of text in a scrawly font.

I’m mortified that Owen Hunter misrepresented the truth on Weekend Wellness. Authenticity is the bedrock of our show, and this incident has caused me physical pain. Following these upsetting revelations, a junior member of our close-knit team came forward to tell me that they had been bullied by Hunter. I was shocked that this could happen under my nose without me noticing. I hold myself responsible for failing to protect my WW family from Hunter’s bullying and lies.

Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa. #pineapplegate

Owen went cold to the bone, a fusion of fury and terror turning him rigid. How could she do this? How could she just straight-out lie?

“You should sue her,” Mac said. “Sue her for libel.”

Owen’s head spun. He didn’t give a crap about Misty, or what she said about him, but his thoughts kept returning to those bloody one-star reviews on the trade website. That was his livelihood, the future of his business, Mac’s job and Naaz’s apprenticeship. Kyle and Dave and Tommy. For their sakes, should he counter Misty’s lies somehow? Reply to her post? Or would that just make it worse? He had no idea what to do.

Mason would know, he thought with a gut-wrenching lurch. Mason would know what to do.