Page 105 of Bad Reputation

They better still be a package deal.

But honestly, even if she was going to dump his ass, Cole would still make sure that his team erased these false rumors. It would be absolutely wrong to let that stuff stand, and it was his fault that anyone had smeared her in the first place.

“And we need to put that gossip about me and Tasha to bed.” Maybe it’d served him at one point, but that was over. For Tasha andRyan’s sake, and for Maggie and Cole’s, that part of the story needed to die.

“I get it, Cole,” Brett said. “And I’m working on it, I promise. Right now, you’ve got to lay low.”

“I know, and we have been. I have no idea how this got out.” And why it was sowrong. It would be one thing for news of his and Maggie’s relationship to get leaked. They had been together in public a few times. But where did all the poison come from?

Something about this just didn’t add up.

“Quinn, do you think there’s a slander angle?” he asked.

“I doubt it. Whoever gave the quotes would have to know they were false. More than likely, it’s just someone shooting their mouth off. You know how much people like showing off for reporters, trying to make themselves sound cooler than they are.”

Many of the worst stories that had leaked about Cole’s past bad behavior had been exactly that. No one had been trying to hurt him, but they had wanted to brag about knowing him, unaware of how proving that they did might spray mud all over him.

“Understood. There’s just something so ... cruel about this, I guess. It feels meaner than regular bragging or gossip.”

“Let’s see what Brett finds out,” Drew said. “And while he’s working on that, he can draft a statement.”

“I’ve already started,” Brett said. “It’ll be ready within the hour.”

Cole released a windy sigh. “Okay, okay, fair enough. Thanks for helping me out with this.”

“Of course.”

After the call, he almost knocked on the guest room door, but wanting to respect the line Maggie had drawn, he opted for a micro training session instead, where he pummeled the bag three times harder than he had yesterday.

Chapter 25

INT. A GUEST ROOM IN COLE’S HOUSE

Maggie hadn’t cried when she was fired from her teaching job. That was confusing and humiliating and enraging, but it happened so fast and had been so shocking, she didn’t have time to sob about it. She’d had to act.

But somewhere along the way, she’d processed the pain of losing her teaching career. Add in the emotions Cole had grown in her and the fact that she’d started to enjoy working in Hollywood and feeling competent again, and it all mixed together, overwhelming her tear ducts.

Today, Maggie cried like she hadn’t cried in years.

She cried because the situation was embarrassing. She didn’t like thinking of herself as being proud, but it turned out being fired twice in two years was mortifying.You suck inallindustries: that was the message. And she was going to have to tell her parents—herparents—about it. Yet again, she’d let them down, and now she could add Zoya and Bernard to the list of people she’d disappointed.

She cried because she didn’t know what she was going to do now. To stave off financial ruin, yes, but also just ... generally. What else did she like? What else was she good at?

Nothing. The universe was strongly suggesting she was good at nothing.

She cried because she’d messed up and couldn’t blame anyone but herself. Falling for someone she’d directed was a bad, bad idea. She hadn’t been confused about that. She hadn’t even thought she was going to get away with it, not really. Maybe this blowing up in her face wasn’t that surprising. The world had sucked so much the last few years. Of course this had gone wrong too.

But mostly, she cried because she loved Cole. She loved him so damn much.

This situation would’ve been easier, maybe, if their relationship had simply been lust. But it wasn’t. They had been good together.Weregood together.

Stupid as it was, this story was going to hurt him, and it was going to drag down the show. Maggie believed so much in the work they’d done onWaverley. And Zoya ... she must be livid at them for endangering all that. As well she should be.

When at last Maggie’s tear ducts had run out of cry juice and she felt as dried out as beef jerky, she stumbled into the shower. The guest bathroom was less impressive than Cole’s. It only had one showerhead, which honestly seemed kind of unfair now that she’d gotten used to luxury.

After her shower, Maggie had to face another problem: all her clean clothes were in Cole’s room. The room she’d begun to think might beherroom too. Because if she’d been able to keep the intimacy-coordinator job, it would’ve made sense to sell her condo in Eugene and move to LA. And if she was going to be with Cole most of the time anyhow, it would make sense to move in with him.

The funny part—funny in a way that made Maggie sick—was that she didn’t doubt that Cole loved her. She didn’t doubt that she loved him. She didn’t doubt that they could’ve made it work.

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