Page 27 of Is It Casual Now?

twenty-seven

“Did you see what JK is up to now?” Ingrid’s voice was so full of energy.

Siena cocked her head to the side, staring at Ingrid as she stood in the doorway to her office. “What are you doing here?”

“I thought you might need two brains to work through this problem.”

Problem? Siena frowned and shook her head slowly. What problem was Ingrid even talking about?

“You don’t know, do you?” Ingrid sauntered into the office, her long legs sliding through the high split in her skirt. Siena’s gaze dropped before picking right back up. “How do you not know?”

“What am I missing?” Siena pressed her lips together hard. She really hadn’t been expecting an impromptu visit today. And the fact that Ingrid looked so perturbed by the fact that Siena hadn’t heard whatever this big news was irked her even more.

“Piper’s engaged.”

Siena frowned. Piper wasn’t engaged. But she and Piper and Jo and Harley were the only ones who knew that. And Jamie.

Shit.

Jamie.

Had she posted it on her blog yet? The small one that no one was supposed to know about?

“Here.” Ingrid walked to Siena’s side and leaned over the desk to pull at the keyboard and the mouse. She typed quickly and pulled up a website. This wasn’t one of the ones that Siena knew was connected with Jamie, but Jamie did have so many that she wasn’t sure she’d tracked them all down.

Siena skimmed the article, which included photos of Piper proposing to Jo. They didn’t have Jo’s name though, just Piper’s. Siena read it again, this time in far more detail. There was very little information actually provided in the post, just the photos, Piper’s name, and when and where everything had happened.

“You better get on top of this before it breaks in the big outlets,” Ingrid murmured in Siena’s ear. “Bunny’s going to flip out.”

“Yeah, she is,” Siena muttered under her breath. She was reading other articles on the website, but they seemed to all be ripped from other places, which meant that Siena had no clue where the original was posted. She was going to have to dive deep into researching that as soon as she had a minute.

Siena pulled open a new search tab and started to look and see where else the information had been leaked. Jamie wasn’t supposed to post about it yet, but the information was already out there. Siena glanced at her phone, trying to figure out what exactly had gone wrong. Had Jamie done this just to piss her off?

Everything had been so odd between them in the last few weeks. Siena wasn’t even sure what to do about it .

“There.” Ingrid leaned over Siena’s shoulder and pointed at the screen.

Siena clicked on another website, finding the original posting of photos. Except it was just a social media page that was fan run. She scrunched her nose up. She wouldn’t put it past Jamie to be in charge of a few of those either.

“This is going to blow up,” Ingrid whispered. “Almost as bad as that thing for me last month.”

Siena couldn’t argue with her. “Give me a second.”

Snagging her cell phone off her desk, Siena walked out of her office. She didn’t need Ingrid overhearing this conversation. She pressed the phone to her ear as she dialed Jamie’s cell and waited as it rang.

And rang.

And rang some more.

Cursing under her breath, she left a voice message. “Jamie. Call me back. I don’t know what you did, but it’s bad. And I need to know.”

Because she didn’t want to believe that Jamie did this on purpose. That she’d taken the information that Siena had given her and leaked it everywhere. Siena had trusted her, and not only was that going to lead to her own demise, she was going to have to deal with the long-lasting consequences of breaking the trust of her clients. Piper had questioned Jamie being there, and Siena assured her it was fine.

But it wasn’t.

This was going to go down in history as one of Siena’s worst mistakes. Bunny would have her head over this. And Siena wouldn’t be surprised if there was at least some threat of a firing. Shit, she’d really fucked this up.

Ingrid was sitting at her desk, still looking at things on her computer when Siena stepped back in. “It’s already been picked up.”

“You’re kidding me.” Siena’s heart dropped .

“I’m not.”

“Fuck me.” Siena ran her fingers into her hair and pulled at the strands until it hurt. She really needed to get hold of Jamie. First, she needed to smoosh out this insane rumor, and then she needed to yell at Jamie, or fuck Jamie. She wasn’t sure which she wanted to do first but both of them were in there.

Walking out of her office again, she turned and looked at Paula. “If Jamie calls, put it through. She’s going to get a piece of my mind.”

“Oh okay.” Paula furrowed her brow. “Is something wrong?”

“She leaked something she shouldn’t have. I need you to put in a call to Diamond Enterprises so we can run a counter article that we can control. And when Bunny calls, because she will call, it’s not going to be pretty. I promise you donuts afterward.”

“That bad?”

“That bad.” Siena stalked back into her office and threw her hands up in the air. “Where do we start?”

“Diamond.” Ingrid grinned at her. “I already started drafting an oppositional article.”

Except they couldn’t really do that either, but only Siena knew that. The photos weren’t faked, but she was going to have to figure out a really good spin on why Piper was down on one knee in front of another woman and then it looked like they were happily kissing afterward.

Fuck.

She really needed to think this one through faster. Not only was she potentially going to lose Bunny and Piper, but she had to deal with the fact that they’d dragged Jo and Bea into this mess too. Two up-and-coming stars that Siena hadn’t even officially signed yet, though she wanted to. She was working up the contract that morning to present it to them as a possibility, but like hell would they want to sign with her now .

Siena typed furiously on the computer, listing bullet points of how she could potentially spin this.

Practice for a friend.

Fake engagement all around.

Not actually Piper and Jo—mistaken identity.

Ignore it and say nothing and it’ll go away.

Siena snorted at that last one. Jamie would never let this go. She had the power now, and she was going to ride it out for as long as it was useful to her. That’s what all the gossip columnists did. They never thought about the damage that they could do to the celebrities they were writing about or the people behind the scenes. The ones who would get fired, the ones who the rumors actually hurt. There was a value in the gossip writers when it came to drumming up business and support and sales, but beyond that, Siena didn’t see very much worth in their jobs.

And Bunny hated them.

Bea and Jo at least seemed to handle them a bit better.

Siena winced again.

“You’re going a mile a minute,” Ingrid commented. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this flustered before.”

“This is personal.” Siena bit the inside of her cheek, already knowing that she said too much.

“I can call her boss again and make another complaint, but if he hasn’t fired her already, I’m not sure that he will.”

Siena’s stomach twisted hard. The last thing she wanted was to be the direct cause of Jamie’s termination. Especially when it was because she was technically only doing her job. “No, don’t call.”

That also answered the question about who kept calling and threatening Jamie’s job. But Siena wasn’t ready to start that conversation with Ingrid, not right now anyway. She had bigger fish to fry at the moment, starting with protecting her client’s privacy .

She called Piper, trying to give her a heads up about the leak, and so that she could get an opinion on which direction Piper wanted her to take it. Because like Jamie had said, the two of them certainly didn’t seem like they were in a fake relationship. It had felt so real. Even Harley had commented on it.

“Ms. Frazee, there’s a call for you on line one.”

“Who is it?”

“Jamie Kettlehouse.” Paula gave Siena a serious look.

Siena’s lips parted in surprise, and she looked to Ingrid who had now been there for several hours helping sort things. “Is she…” Siena trailed off. She wasn’t quite sure what she’d wanted to ask. “Did she say anything relevant?”

“No,” Paula said, shaking her head.

“Ingrid, give me the room, will you?”

“Oh, but I want the juicy drama.” Ingrid frowned, lines forming right around her mouth and by the corners of her eyes.

“Not this time.” Siena was going to stay firm on this. What she had to say to Jamie couldn’t leave these walls. Except the fact that Jamie, for some god-awful reason, had called on the office number instead of Siena’s cell. So she’d have a recording to listen to for the rest of her life if she wanted to. She’d label it Siena’s Downfall.

Jamie would get a kick out of that, wouldn’t she?

“Just give me a few minutes.”

Paula held the door open for Ingrid, who finally decided to follow without throwing around more of an argument. Once the door was closed, Siena slowed her breathing and centered herself. She had no clue what she was planning on saying to Jamie, but she did know that she wasn’t happy with the situation .

Picking up the phone, she put the receiver to her ear and clenched her jaw. “Jamie.”

“You called?” Jamie sounded so fucking cocky, and Siena wished they were in the same room so that she could wipe the look off her face.

Perhaps the switch to the office number had been intentional on Jamie’s part. This would just be the picture-perfect moment to break everything off completely, wouldn’t it? Siena tried to find that calm center again.

“You leaked it.”

“If you’re referring to the fake-engagement photo shoot and exclusive interview that you took me on for Piper and Jo, I did see that it has hit the world wide web and that there are two media outlets that have picked it up.”

“Including yours?” Siena wanted to know. Would she be staring at those grainy images on the front page of the newspaper and plastered all over their website in the next day or two? Or would she be spared that added embarrassment?

“Yes, including mine.”

Siena’s heart clenched hard. All along she had hoped that Jamie wasn’t going to do this, that she wouldn’t betray Siena like this. She fought the tears as they rushed to her eyes. Because she honestly didn’t even have time for that. “This wasn’t supposed to get out into the world.”

“Then you shouldn’t have picked such a public place.”

“You’re blaming this on location?” Siena’s voice rose, anger pulsing through her words. “Like if we’d done it at my house with just the five of us there, you never would have posted it? Where do you get off thinking that you have the right to their personal lives? They’re human.”

“I’m human!” Jamie shouted back.

Siena pulled the phone away from her ear slightly at just how loud Jamie had gotten. “You’re not famous. ”

“Famous people are famous for a reason. They wouldn’t be there without people like me.”

Siena couldn’t refute that. She’d had the thought so many times and it was such a part of her job. But that didn’t mean that she liked it. Bunny and Piper and Jo and Bea, hell, every single person on the planet deserved to keep some of themselves just for them. And that was a truth Siena refused to compromise on. Ever.

“Stop trying to ruin my career,” Siena muttered.

“Me? Why not you? You stop trying to ruin mine. All you’ve done from the beginning is jerk me around, toss me bones, make promises, and never deliver. Fuck you, Siena. You deserve the bed you make.”

Siena dropped the phone. She thought about picking up the receiver and finishing the call with Jamie, but she just couldn’t handle it anymore. She hadn’t signed up for this. And she wouldn’t stand for it. Picking up the receiver, Siena hung up.

Her priority had to be her clients, and not some journalist with a vendetta against her. She’d thought Jamie was different, she’d thought that she’d seen under the hard shell that Jamie seemed to wear everywhere she went, but she was wrong.

“That didn’t seem to go well,” Ingrid said, coming back into the room.

“Jesus.” Siena scrubbed her face, finding tears on her cheeks. “Were you listening in at the door?”

Ingrid shrugged. “I don’t trust her.”

“Yeah, well, that makes two of us.” Siena had had enough of her trust being broken. She wasn’t going to let it happen again.

Ingrid softened her tone as she stepped back over to Siena’s desk. “Was it more than just a quickie?”

“Yeah. Yeah, it was. ”

“Was it love?” Ingrid said the words slowly but honestly, no judgement in her tone.

“No. It clearly wasn’t.” Because if it hadn’t been love, then this wouldn’t hurt so damn much. Siena wouldn’t have to face the fact that Jamie had willingly gone behind her back and done something as egregious as this. “Come on. We’ve got some press releases to write.”

“You sure you don’t want to talk about it?”

“I don’t.” Siena squared her shoulders. “Right now I want to make sure that I still have a job at the end of tomorrow.”

“Deal. You saved my ass. I’ll save yours.”

“Thanks. What would I do without you?” Siena smiled. She’d forgotten just how brilliant Ingrid could be, and that she really needed to rely on her as a friend more often.

“Cry alone in your office.”

“Oh, fuck off,” Siena said with a laugh and a roll of her eyes.