Page 5 of Lady and the Camp
Marcy emerged in front of me. “Slippers? I keep an extra pair for guests.”
The slippers were of the white and fluffy variety, stopping just short of bunny ears. “Yes,” I whimpered. I’d arrived in another dimension, a cozy one with people who knew a long-past version of me.
“Drink the tea!” Jillian moved past me in a flurry of activity, gathering blankets and pillows.
“Girl, it’s June,” Marcy told her. “What are you doing?”
She stopped, overloaded with throw pillows and a whole duvet cover pulled from a bed. “There’s a chill in here. We need comfort. Blankets are comfort.”
Finally, the flurry settled. My friends arranged themselves on the furniture while Jillian took the floor among her hoarded blankets.
“We’re all here,” Marcy stated. “We’re glad you’re here. Everything is going to be okay.”
Jillian’s head cocked. “Are you wearing a wig?”
I looked at each of their concerned faces and promptly burst into tears.
Noah swatted Jillian. “Now you made her cry. Of course that’s a wig. You think that’s her real hair? It’s like straw sprayed with aerosol paint. Or that bark stuff in garden beds.”
“Mulch,” Marcy added. “I think you mean mulch.”
I yanked off the wig. My real hair, faded pink, was now flattened and damp from an afternoon wig sauna. Worse than garden mulch. “It’s a disguise,” I admitted. Assembling a wig, hat, sunglasses, and schlubby clothing combo had been my only intentional accessorizing for days.
Questions poured in about paparazzi and the menacing media. Too much to follow and respond to.
Jillian clapped once, loud. “Come on, ladies.Focus.”
The women descended on me. Hugs and more hugs.
“I knew that rich boy was a creep,” Marcy muttered.
“It’s the power,” Jillian said. “It’s the power that does it to them. Makes them feel invincible.”
I wiped at my eyes. “I’m not crying over him. Or my hair. It’s you all. I’ve missed you so much. I don’t have a clue what you’ve all been doing.” The tears came again. “I’m the worst friend.” I pulled a pillow onto my lap and wrapped my arms around it. “I’m really sorry for losing touch. Until all this happened, it was like I existed in this bubble and only so much fit inside.” I’d sure made enough room in that bubble for VIP access parties, trips to posh day spas, and hours and hours connecting with strangers online.
Guilt hit in a new wave. This just plain hurt.
“We can get to what we’ve been up to after you tell us the real deal with this drama,” Marcy said.
I took a breath. “I messed up. I shouldn’t have trusted him. I shouldn’t have believed…”I was special.That my brand, my life, would leave a lasting mark anywhere, unless that mark was a stain. An oily, chemical-laden foundation stain. My nightmare stain.
“Everybody messes up,” she responded. “Not everybody messes up with a worldwide audience. The important thing is, you’re here. And we’re here for you.”
When my eyes closed, the viral video played, streaming free in my brain from now through eternity. A video call I’d assumed was private.
Despite blocking his number, I couldn’t block the memory.
I told my friends exactly what I remembered feeling as it unfolded, wincing at my own replay.
“You sold me out,” Kristoff had fumed, waving his hands frantically. The Krom Industries logo faced prominently behind where he sat at his massive clear plexiglass desk.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I’d stammered, sounding painfully naïve.
“You tipped off the feds. You just couldn’t stand sharing the spotlight. You had to sabotage me. All for attention. All for more likes from your followers. Now look. I stand to lose everything. Because ofyou.”
Fear struck me cold. He wasblamingme? “That’s not—what are you talking about? I signed on as a brand ambassador with your new business. Why would I sabotage that?”
But it was like I hadn’t spoken at all. He’d gone on and on, almost as if reading from a speech, with bursts of anger and at one point, near tears. I’d sat there in a panic freeze, like watching an oncoming semi-truck barreling toward me and aiming to total my life and career.
