Page 94 of For Butter or Worse
“I’ll be in your offic-c-e,” Jasmine said, slurring the last word.
“One sip for courage.” Nina took the open bottle. She wasn’t nervous, exactly, but she was about to close a chapter of her life, and she had no idea what was waiting on the other side.
The reporter, Shay, wasn’t bubbly or nervous. She had a bob of tight curls, a recorder and her phone. Nina walked her around the empty space.
“So it must be a little satisfying to know that your ex, Charlie Gauthier, will no longer be on your old show?” Shay asked.
Nina tried to hide whatever surprised expression crossed her face, because this information was news to her. She just didn’t want her response to become a headline in itself. Was the reporter just trying to get a clickbait article, like everyone else?
“Ah,” Shay said. “Is this the first you’re hearing of it? Don’t worry, we’re off-the-record now. I haven’t started recording. I couldn’t give two fucks about him. He’s always seemed like an asshole.”
Nina exhaled and nodded. “You hit the bull’s-eye there.”
“Apparently he didn’t test well with audiences.” Shay raised a conspiratorial eyebrow.
“I am shocked,” Nina said in her best deadpan voice.
“Ha!” Shay said and laughed. Nina liked her already.
“Would you like to sit?” Nina pointed to the two-top table in front of the picture window.
“I’ll start recording now,” Shay said. She placed the recorder on the table and hit the big red button. Nina licked her lips, ready to talk. There had been rumors circulating after Nina had covered the windows in paper and moving trucks were seen coming and going, but she’d never confirmed that Lyon was closing. As they sat in the picture window, Nina admitted the truth. The space had sold, and Lyon was done.
“You brought up losing focus once you started on the show. Can you talk a bit more about that? I don’t think it’s a secret that people treated you like shit online.”
Nina laughed. She appreciated that someone other than herself had noticed.
Ever since Leo’s Instagram post, where he called out the sexism she’d experienced, reporters had actually gone back and started to examine it. Think pieces were published, and some old comments were retweeted and discussed by Twitter users with verified checkmarks. A whole shift happened with the conversation around her leaving the show because, apparently, it hadn’t occurred to anyone that she could’ve left for her own mental health, versus personally ruining their TV viewing lives.
In many ways, Leo’s post had freed her from being the villain she’d been cast as. He forced their fans to reflect on their own behavior and take accountability for what they’d created. But they’d also taken stock of who Leo was, and now their fans thought he was the bad guy.
She hadn’t been sure how to bridge that gap. There were no real villains on the show. She and he were just people on TV, trying to further their own careers. Their actions didn’t make them evil—all they’d done was their jobs. Which was what she’d wanted to tell their fans—she just hadn’t been sure how until Shay called.
“I want to answer your question by talking about the relationship Leo and I had after I left the show.”
She was going to tell Shay the truth about her relationship with Leo and confess that being with him for publicity had been her team’s idea. She’d used him.
Their feelings for each other hadn’t all been fake, though—not for her—but she would keep that to herself. She wanted to help Leo, not create more headlines.
“The first thing you need to know is that Leo and I hated each other pretty much every day that we were on set ofThe Next Cooking Champ!” Nina said. “But that changed.”
She would tell this reporter the real story, the one her team had worked so carefully to keep under wraps. And she was ready to repay the favor Leo had done for her. Maybe if she could clear his name, he’d be able to put her—and his villain status—in the past. However painful officially losing him would be, she knew it was best for him.
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