Page 63 of How to Get Even

Everyone in the room nodded, Bella hoping that she didn’t blush. She was, she was beginning to realise, very bad atbeingbad.

‘As a result, we’ll probably be fielding a lot of queries in the next few days. Bella, can you put something together that either sidesteps the query, or addresses it in a way that shows we’re not taking it seriously?’

‘Absolutely, I… ehm, what?’ she asked, looking up at them. ‘We’re not taking it seriously?’ she repeated.

‘No.’

Bella’s mind went completely blank. This had never happened before. She made plans. Executed them. And they went as predicted. Always. This… Chasestaying… wasn’t part of the plan.

‘Why?’

Chase blinked.

Oh crap.

‘No, sorry. I don’t mean why are you staying, obviously, that would be…’ She laughed, hoping no one heard how fake and awkward she sounded right now. She waved a hand. Maurice side-eyed her, Ali laughed with Bella, and Ye-Joon pumped his fist in the air, presumably in support of Chase.

Bella swallowed. ‘I’ll have something drawn up by lunchtime.’

‘Excellent. And I’m going to need you this afternoon to sit down with me, Tej and Magenta,’ he said, flicking the screen of his iPad.

‘Sure, of course,’ Bella said.

‘How do you want to handle comms until then?’ he asked, finally looking back up at her.

She blinked, hastily regrouping her scattered brain cells.

‘If we get calls from journalists, it’s no comment, for clients, Carlton is a disgruntled journalist with an axe to grind, and for artists there’s no such thing as bad publicity,’ she snapped out.

Chase looked to Tej leaning against the back wall, his arms crossed over his chest, who nodded, before turning back to the team. ‘That works. Let’s do it.’

Bella swallowed again and followed the team filing out of Chase’s office back to theirs.

‘I wonder what Chase did to that guy? The piece was terrible,’ Ali whispered to Ye-Joon.

‘These journos, man. They’re all up in your business but if you piss ’em off, that’s it. You’re as good as done.’

‘Bella,’ Tej called. ‘Can I buy you a coffee?’ he asked with a laugh, pointing to the kitchen.

‘Of course,’ Bella offered with a smile. She turned to follow him and then her thoughts hit her, near stopping her in her tracks.

Oh God.

What if he knows?

What if someone had spoken to Chester? What if he’d told them about her involvement in the interview?

Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod.

‘Actually, can I…’ she asked trying to excuse herself.

‘This won’t take long,’ Tej assured her.

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod.

As she nibbled the centre of her lip, her heart went into overdrive and her cheeks burned.

‘You okay?’ he peered at her curiously.

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