Page 52 of Personal Disaster

Hello, pissed-off billionaire boyfriend.

I give him a wide-eyed look. I’m fine, I try to convey.

He ignores that and glares hard at the cop. “Go. Now.”

The copgoes.

“That wasn’t necessary,” I whisper under my breath as Marcus hugsme.

“I’m glad I was on the east coast already.” He kisses the top of my head. “I flew in this morning for a suit fitting in New York with theguys.”

The wedding is next weekend, and Marcus has mentioned he has other business in New York, too. I was going to fly down in twodays.

Something tells me he’s going to want me to fly back with him tonight, and I’m not likely to argue. It’s not like I can objectively report on today anyway.

“Have you had anything to eat or drink since it happened?”

“No. I’m not hungry.”

“Good to have something anyway to combat the shock.” He raises his voice. “You. Get her some juice. Cranberry if you can find it, it’s her favorite.”

“Stop bossing around the cops,” I whisper. “And how did you know what happened?”

“It’s all over the news.” He hesitates. “But I was already on my way here. There was chatter I didn’t like on the alt-right forums.”

“About tonight?”

He doesn’t answer.

“Marcus?”

“Aboutyou.”

“Seriously?” That makes me mad. “Why?”

“No good reason. Just…they picked a reporter at random to target today. They wanted to scareyou.”

“They succeeded.”

He tightens his hold on me as the door opens, and I close my eyes as the police commander introduces himself to Marcus. I listen to the steady, rich buzz of his voice through his chest as he tells the supervisor what he just told me, with more details I want to not hear. In my head, I start to say la-la-la, and when the other cop returns with juice, I sit down at the table and downit.

Only when I set down the empty bottle do I realize that my hands are shaking.

It’s another hour before we can leave. I check in with James, who says there’s a new phone waiting for me at the hotel, organized by our editor. I thank him, and when we arrive at the hotel, I call our editor and thank him aswell.

“Take the next day for yourself,” hesays.

I tell him about Marcus showing up. He knows I’m taking a few vacation days to go to the wedding, and I tell him I might go sooner than later.

“You’ve worked hard these last few months. Take the time you need. And Poppy?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry. We’ll work on better barricades for future events.”

“Yeah.” I take a deep breath. “I’ll have a personal reflection piece on today in a few days. I know you don’t need one, but I’ll want to write it anyway.”

“Soundsgood.”

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