Page 15 of Is It Casual Now?

It wasn’t as though she hadn’t had to run it before, but usually she knew what the hell the soon-to-be ass chewing was all about. Right now, she didn’t have a clue. In fact, she had even gotten an almost-grin and nod in relation to her last story.

The eyes that watched her as she passed bored into the back of her head. She’d been on the other end of this situation, so she understood the desire to stare. It had always been aschadenfreude deal—that complete relief it wasn’t her in trouble.

But still, couldn’t they at least pretend like they were too busy to want to know what was going on?

“Shut the door.” He didn’t look up as she stepped over the threshold.

She let the door fall closed behind her with a loud click. What was the point of trying to close it gently? The entire office knew she was in trouble.

“What’s up, boss?”

“What’s up?” Now he did look up, and how she wished he hadn’t. His eyes were filled with complete fury. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Ah.” She couldn’t keep her eyes on his as she tried again to work out what was going on. “No.”

“I’ve had call after call about you and your blog.”

“Myblog?” That was the last thing Jamie had expected him to say. Sure, she hadn’t any clue what the problem was, but it never crossed her mind that it might have anything to do with her blog. “What about my blog?”

“You’ve really put me in the shitter now, Kettlehouse.”

Damn, that was twice he’d used her last name. That didn’t bode well at all. She had to figure out the issue and find a resolution immediately.

“I told you about my blog when I first started it. You didn’t have a problem with it then. What’s happened to make it an issue now?”

“This happened.” He held up a stack of phone messages and flicked them across the desk. Some fell to the floor but most scattered over the surface in front of Jamie.

Tilting her head, she picked up some of the names. Her blood ran cold.

“How did they know to call here?”

“For a journalist, you can be a real dumbass sometimes.”He growled. “You’ve got a unique voice, kid.” Kid? Kid was a good sign. Now she just had to get him further away from Kettlehouse so she could feel like breathing easy might be possible again.

“They figured out it was me, I get that. But why bother harassing you? I’ve got all the right disclaimers on there, stating that the opinions and facts were on me and me alone. That I wasn’t associated with any paper or publication in relation to what’s written on my blog.”

“Come on, Jamie.”Jamiewas good as well. This could be okay. “You aren’t that stupid. Yeah, I know you have all the right disclaimers, but that isn’t how the world works.”

“Yeah.” She rubbed her palm against the back of her neck, beneath her hair. “I know. But what are they hoping to achieve by harassing you?”

“What do you think?” His eyes met hers, and what little relief she had been clinging to fled away.

She swallowed the lump in her throat but couldn’t answer.

“Siena Frazee isn’t the kind of person to let herself be smeared and turn a blind eye.”

“Siena?” The lump hadn’t completely been swallowed, and her voice came out in a croak.

Her boss snorted. “Do you really think anyone in the industry didn’t know exactly who you were talking about?”

“I was talking about the entertainment industry as a whole.” Her defenses were up, and it was going to take some work to get them back down.

“And how the managers were the secret faces behind the stars, keeping the truth from the public while doing things like lining their pockets and taking advantage of their clients.”

Fuck.She had said that. The article had been well-researched and all the information she cited was accurate.

However…

Shit.

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