Page 16 of Mic Drop (Passionate Beats #3)

Jeremy does a double take, his piercing hazel eyes burning into me.

He flicks his head, causing his short blond hair to move across his face.

Instead of clinging to muscles upon muscles like with Bennett, though, his clothes simply cover his rather thin body.

Still, he’s an attractive guy. “Do tell.”

“It was here. In Aroostook. She told Bennett she’d been watching his success for years and was grateful for media reports putting him in town for longer than a day or two. Apparently, she was following him for years but never met up with him.”

“She’s a determined young woman.”

Or desperate. “Don’t you think if she really miscarried his baby, she would’ve found a way to reach him before his band became popular? I mean, wouldn’t there have been urgent messages when it happened?” If it happened at all .

He flips through the pages in his notebook. “In one interview, she said she did try to reach out through Darren, but was unsuccessful.”

I yank on my ponytail. “That doesn’t ring true to me. If someone contacts your, say, brother, asking for you to get in touch, what do you think would happen?”

“I presume he would text me or something.”

“Right. All we have is her side of the story claiming she got in touch with Darren. Bennett doesn’t remember Darren ever mentioning Lissa to him.”

“Really?”

“Nor do I.” He scribbles something in his notebook. I hope he’ll run down this line of questioning. However, Darren’s no longer here to refute Lissa’s story. We’re back to the he said, she said stalemate.

Jeremy snaps his notebook closed. “I want to be upfront with you, Jenna. I believe you. I don’t think this Lissa person is on the up and up. If only Bennett had some real corroboration, I could put the story out there. Without that, though, all I can do is print his denial.”

I complete his sentence. “And we all know how much a denial is worth.”

“Exactly.”

I allow myself to wallow in this mess for a minute, then shake my head. “I promise to contact you if something else comes up.”

Jeremy stands. “Thank you for your time. I know the readers of Record News are interested in hearing about this web you’re caught up in, no pun intended.”

I half smile. “Please keep in touch. ”

After escorting Jeremy to the door, I return to Court’s office and open a text from Kara.

Back from taking Ma to the grocery store, and now she’s resting. Please call me if anything changes.

Will do. Thanks.

Kara and I have become a lot closer since this ordeal with Ma started.

We’re still not what I would call “close,” but we’ve graduated to texting every few days, with sporadic phone calls in between.

I appreciate the fact she took on the brunt of Ma’s early diagnosis, but I’m not leaving Aroostook anytime soon.

I plan on being here for Ma. Until she won’t need me.

Court walks into the office. “How’d it go with the reporter?”

“Jeremy was nice. Pretty thorough. He seemed to understand Lissa is lying, but without any proof, his hands are tied.”

“What about the graffiti?”

“On that, we’re in total alignment. I’m not a ‘Black Widow,’ and I’m not trying to break up the band. I told him all about Michelle and how we think she’s behind it. Let’s see what he publishes about it.”

“With any luck, he’ll out her and she’ll lose her pathetic job.”

“Amen.” My conscience pings. “If only she would go away and leave me in peace. I didn’t set out to hurt her. I don’t know why she has her sights set on me.”

“Well, maybe because you’re a successful businesswoman and she’s not. Then there’s the fact you’re dating a famous rock star who wouldn’t give her the time of day.”

I rub the naked ring finger on my left hand. I’ve known Court for years, and I trust her. I need to share my secret with someone who isn’t related to me. “We’re more than dating. ”

“What do you mean?” She pulls back, notices my hand movements, and her eyes round. “No way! Are you?”

“I am.”

She screams and rushes to me, pulling me up to my feet as she hugs me. “You lucky bitch! I’ve only glimpsed the man a couple of times in here for therapy, and he is one fine gift to the world.”

I giggle at her description of my fiancé. “He sure is.”

“When’s the big day?”

I hold up my left hand. “Getting ahead of yourself? I need a ring first, don’t you think?”

“That can be fixed in an afternoon.” She beams at me, and I absorb the happy vibes. They’re so far and few between these days.

“Besides,” I sigh. “Nothing can happen for a while. I have to spend time with Ma.” Despite Bennett saying she could celebrate with us.

Court directs me toward the sofa and we sit. “I’m sure you’ll know when the time is right. Oh Jenna, you’re either on a high or a low. I’m so sorry things are like this.”

“Me, too.” I shake my head to clear it. “Enough about all this. How are our numbers doing?”

Court glances out the window. “Still about the same.”

“Meaning way too many cancellations. I think we need to do something bigger. After all, Bennett has this massive Lissa problem, and Ma’s holding her own for the moment. What do you say we contact UC’s PR team and get them on it?”

“I say we can use all the help possible.”

“No time like the present.” I pull up Luke’s text with the contact card. Patting the sofa, I say, “Stay with me. My mind’s too scattered. In this case, I’m thinking the more help I can get, the better.”

A few minutes later we’re talking with Hayden Vaughn, the PR person assigned to help us. We fill her in on the graffiti on the building and the sidewalks. “Are these spiders cartoon-like, or more realistic?”

Court pipes up. “They’re pretty lifelike. I’ll text you a photo. ”

“Got it. Wow. Yeah, I’d say this doesn’t really fit the mold for regular graffiti. They’ re definitely there to taunt you, Jenna. After you repainted, there haven’t been any more?”

“So far, so good,” Court replies. “After Jenna came up with the contest, they stopped.”

“Can you tell me about the contest, Jenna?” I fill her in, and Court gives the stats of the number of entries. “This is a fabulous idea.”

I puff up at her praise.

“I think we can do more with it, though. I know you were trying to take control of the narrative surrounding you and Bennett, but it’s obviously not breaking through. What do you think if we turn it on its head?”

I reply, “That’s what I was trying to do.”

“We need to think bigger. A T-shirt slogan is catchy and fun, but we need to find your business a way to corral word-of-mouth advertising. Tell me, when someone mentions At Your Service PT, what does the general public associate with your clinic?”

“Great physical therapy,” Court responds.

I nod. “Exactly.”

“That’s what’s expected when you go to a clinic. I’m talking bigger, a more generalized idea. I’m sorry to tell you, right now, when your company is mentioned, people probably say, ‘Oh, the place with the Black Widow?’”

Hayden’s a “rip the bandage off” type of gal. While I appreciate how blunt she is, I can’t say it doesn’t sting.

She continues, “I don’t say this to make you upset. I’m stating a fact so we know where we are and how we can return the focus to your excellent therapists.”

“You’re probably not wrong.” Why is everything so hard? “If only the damn spiders had hip and knee replacements and we were making them feel better.”

Next to me, Court sits taller. “You might be on to something here, Jenna. ”

“Now I know why you’re the brains behind this operation,” Hayden concurs. “I love it!”

I stare from my phone to Court. “Uh, happy to make your day, but care to clue me in? What exactly do you love?”

“Give me a second.”

Court leans over to me. “We can use your idea to make every spider want to come here. Make it cool.” She pauses. “I think.”

A text comes in and I open it. Hayden sent a very rough mockup of a spider, with its eight legs, all being worked on by therapists. The slogan underneath reads, “If we can fix a black widow, imagine what we can do for you.”

“It’s a rough idea,” Hayden says.

“It’s cute. I love the spider, just not the black widow saying. I hate that term.” Even though she can’t see me, I shudder.

“Give me a little while. I’ll shoot you over some ideas. But do you like the direction this is going?”

I stare at her text once more. “I do. But what if instead of T-shirts, we have bumper stickers printed and give them away everywhere in the Hamptons?”

“Oh, I love that idea,” Court agrees. “We can put them out at our tables when we attend various fairs in town. I guess we could also put them on T-shirts too.”

Hayden says, “Now we’re getting somewhere. If you help an insect with eight legs, imagine what you could do to a person with only four limbs?”

Court joins in, “Exactly!”

Our conversation finishes with Hayden promising to get us something more finished, with a bunch of tag lines, soon. When we disconnect, Court says, “Michelle messed with the wrong clinic.”

She sure did. I stand. “I’m going to let this percolate for now. I better get home to Ma. See you tomorrow.”

After hugging my bestie, I slide into my car for the return trip to Ma’s house. Before I even leave the parking lot, I get another text. Expecting it to be Hayden with a follow-up, I’m more than delighted to see Bennett’s name.

He’s only been gone for a few hours, and I miss him like crazy.

His fans at the concert are lucky. They get to see my man in living color.

I rub my bare left hand. Yeah, but I’m the only one who can call him mine. I click to open my text app.