Page 86 of Is It Casual Now?

And rang.

And rang some more.

Cursing under her breath, she left a voice message. “Jamie. Call me back. I don’t know what you did, but it’s bad. And I need to know.”

Because she didn’t want to believe that Jamie did this on purpose. That she’d taken the information that Siena had given her and leaked it everywhere. Siena had trusted her, and not only was that going to lead to her own demise, she was going to have to deal with the long-lasting consequences of breaking the trust of her clients. Piper had questioned Jamie being there, and Siena assured her it was fine.

But it wasn’t.

This was going to go down in history as one of Siena’s worst mistakes. Bunny would have her head over this. And Siena wouldn’t be surprised if there was at least some threat of a firing. Shit, she’d really fucked this up.

Ingrid was sitting at her desk, still looking at things on her computer when Siena stepped back in. “It’s already been picked up.”

“You’re kidding me.” Siena’s heart dropped.

“I’m not.”

“Fuck me.” Siena ran her fingers into her hair and pulled at the strands until it hurt. She really needed to get hold of Jamie. First, she needed to smoosh out this insane rumor, and then she needed to yell at Jamie, or fuck Jamie. She wasn’t sure which she wanted to do first but both of them were in there.

Walking out of her office again, she turned and looked at Paula. “If Jamie calls, put it through. She’s going to get a piece of my mind.”

“Oh okay.” Paula furrowed her brow. “Is something wrong?”

“She leaked something she shouldn’t have. I need you to put in a call to Diamond Enterprises so we can run a counter article that we can control. And when Bunny calls, because she will call, it’s not going to be pretty. I promise you donuts afterward.”

“That bad?”

“That bad.” Siena stalked back into her office and threw her hands up in the air. “Where do we start?”

“Diamond.” Ingrid grinned at her. “I already started drafting an oppositional article.”

Except they couldn’t really do that either, but only Siena knew that. The photos weren’t faked, but she was going to have to figure out a really good spin on why Piper was down on one knee in front of another woman and then it looked like they were happily kissing afterward.

Fuck.

She really needed to think this one through faster. Not only was she potentially going to lose Bunny and Piper, but she had to deal with the fact that they’d dragged Jo and Bea into this mess too. Two up-and-coming stars that Siena hadn’t even officially signed yet, though she wanted to. She was working up the contract that morning to present it to them as a possibility, but like hell would they want to sign with her now.

Siena typed furiously on the computer, listing bullet points of how she could potentially spin this.

Practice for a friend.

Fake engagement all around.

Not actually Piper and Jo—mistaken identity.

Ignore it and say nothing and it’ll go away.

Siena snorted at that last one. Jamie would never let this go. She had the power now, and she was going to ride it out for as long as it was useful to her. That’s what all the gossip columnists did. They never thought about the damage that they could do to the celebrities they were writing about or the people behind the scenes. The ones who would get fired, the ones who the rumors actually hurt. There was a value in the gossip writers when it came to drumming up business and support and sales, but beyond that, Siena didn’t see very much worth in their jobs.

And Bunny hated them.

Bea and Jo at least seemed to handle them a bit better.

Siena winced again.

“You’re going a mile a minute,” Ingrid commented. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this flustered before.”

“This is personal.” Siena bit the inside of her cheek, already knowing that she said too much.

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