Page 43 of Pucked and Pregnant

Sexy Analyst Girlfriend Suspected Of Cooking Stats Instead Of Steaks

I guessI was right about feeling watched lately because every single article has photos of us entering my new apartment with boxes, along with some artistically cropped ones of us at breakfast.

Great. Just fucking great.

12

LIV

It’s barely nine o’clock in the morning and it’s already turning out to be a shitty day.

As soon as I stepped out of my building I got mobbed by a crowd of reporters. I deal with the media all the time so you’d think it couldn’t have been that bad.

It was that bad.

They say you learn something new every day. What I learned was that delivering information during a press conference is an entirely different beast than being the sole focus of their attention.

If it weren’t for my doorman coming out to rescue me, I wouldn’t have been able to make it to my car.

I’m going to have to send him a gift basket or petition the city to give him a monument or something, such was the extent of his heroism today. He even managed to keep them off me long enough so I could make a clean getaway.

It’s definitely going to have to be a monument.

I’m going to have to get ahead of all of this and fast. I’m an analyst who gives them facts to keep fans engaged with the team; I’m not supposed to be their hottest new scoop.

I just hope I can convince my boss not to give me the ax because of this mess. I know I can figure out a way to neutralize this but having the weight of my job behind me is essential to a lot of the ideas I have going right now.

One thing I know for certain is that sitting around panicking isn’t going to do anything other than stress me out. Action needs to be and will be taken as soon as possible, so that’s why as soon as I get in to work, I make a beeline for Scott’s office.

“Hey, Grace. Does he have a free minute?” I greet his secretary.

“He does. Just let me buzz him on the intercom.”

“Thank you.”

Scott doesn’t look to be in a firing type of mood and I decide that’s a good sign.

“Have a seat, Olivia, and tell me what’s on your mind.”

“Sir, I’m sure you’re aware of the articles floating around about my brother and me. Now, normally I don’t pay any mind to such nonsense, but one of the articles…”

I take a breath and try to collect myself. “There is one particular article that makes certain accusations about me. It is important to me that you know there’s absolutely no truth to it. I have not, nor would I ever alter statistics to further someone’s career. I would never compromise my integrity or the integrity of my employer that way. If you need to mount an investigation, I will give you my full cooperation, because I have nothing to hide.”

He takes a long sip from his coffee cup then sets it down with a clink. “I know.”

I’m so surprised at his frank response that I end up blurting out the first thought that pops in my head.

“You know?”

Very sophisticated, Liv. You should teach etiquette classes.

I fight the urge to cringe at my response.

Maybe if I hadn’t been mobbed by a pack of feral paparazzi, I would have been able to come up with something better.

I don’t try to overexplain, I just wait for him to say something.

“Yes, of course I know. I used to work with Caroline once upon a time, and I know she’d never tolerate that type of behavior at her office. She’s got a sixth sense of when someone isn’t being honest.” He laughs. “In hindsight, that’s probably why my ex-wife hated her. Aside from that, your reports and the raw data are triple-checked by a separate team. There are too many eyes on the information for you to get away with anything. Going off the quality of your work alone, you’re the absolute last person in this office I’d suspect dishonesty from.”

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