Page 13 of Rival Hearts

It was the most cliché thing out there.

I shook off the thoughts. He didn’t deserve to run around in my mind all day. I had to do something to get rid of him.

“Okay, what do we have so far?” I asked, forcing myself to focus on work. One of the steps I wanted to take to get this campaign rolling was awareness. People couldn’t rally behind me if they didn’t know that there was a problem to begin with, and I needed enough people to know about this problem so that we could really turn up the pressure.

“I’m doing articles on ocean life and how the manufacturing affects the sea creatures,” Maya said. “I told Sean over there to do an exposé on habitat disruptions, and Clara”—she pointed—“is taking care of fuel emissions.”

I thought about Alex, who’d asked me if I’d had an issue with his car’s fuel emissions. The truth was, I hadn’t at the time, butnow I wished I’d had a different answer. How could I have let a handsome face distract me from what I was trying to do?

“That sounds really good,” I said.

“Yeah, I think this is a good first step.”

“As soon as we get enough pressure on the big fish, then we can get them to start thinking about what they’re doing.”

Maya laughed. “Did you just call thembig fish?”

“Yeah,” I said. “An oceanic metaphor.” I grinned.

“Very poetic.” Maya chuckled.

I see what you did there, Alex had said when I’d said there were bigger fish to fry.

“I’m going to schedule the cleanup for next week,” I said, forcing myself to focus on the calendar I’d pulled up. “Next Friday work for everyone?”

The group of people, all happily typing away at their laptops they’d brought along for the initiative, nodded, and I locked it in.

This was it—my campaign was finally underway, and I was going to make a difference. This plan had been a long time in the making.

The beach cleanup was supposed to be symbolic. If we all did our part, worked together, then we didn’t need to do anything crazy to make a difference.

If a hundred people each picked up one piece of paper, we would have gotten rid of a hundred pieces of paper. I wanted the world to know that getting involved with this initiative didn’t have to be hard work or a huge dedication, we all just had to do something small for the greater good.

When I’d gotten my scholarship to the University of Miami, this had been the endgame. I’d always wanted to make a difference. I’d studied a degree in social sciences, followed by a degree in marine biology for exactly this reason.

So thatsomeonecould make a change to what happened to the ocean life. People were so quick to invent wonderful things, but they didn’t think about the consequences.

My dad had been a great example of whatnotto do. He’d had the money to make a difference, but he’d wanted more instead of doing the right thing.

I wouldn’t be like that.

Do you want to talk about it?

A private message from Maya over our chat program popped up.

I blinked at her over my laptop screen. She focused on what she was doing, her face betraying nothing.

Talk about what?

She glanced up at me, her fingers still moving on the keyboard a little longer before she glanced back.

You’re never late. You knew Gabe would be indisposed. What happened last night?

I groaned inwardly. Maya and I had been friends since college—when I’d said I was coming here to start my campaign, she’d packed up her life with me.

I’d been worried about her settling into a new community from scratch when she’d lived in Miami her whole life, but making new friends came to her as easily as breathing and she already knew more of the town and of the people than I ever would.

It also meant after how close we’d been for how long, she knew me inside and out.