Page 94 of The Fake Dating Plan

“Let me guess. Six figures. It only makes sense for a respected journalist like you to take anything above six figures.”

Silence.

“Are you still there Maggie?”

The throaty purr was gone. In its place, her normal steely voice. “You couldn’t have called me without an ulterior motive. What do you want?”

“Undo the damage you caused.”

“Fine.”

“And I don’t mean a correction on the thirteenth page of the magazine. I mean, a front-page piece, full of remorse and regret over what you did.”

“You know I can’t do that!”

“I’m giving you an out Maggie. I could easily get a journalist of my own. One with better credentials to expose your gutter deal with Heron. Hell, I could get an entire troupe to do a hit piece after hit piece until your career is so dead. The only job you’d be getting is a teaching gig at a community college.”

“Fuck. You must really like her. Is her pussy that sweet?”

“Best pussy I had ever tasted if you must know.” I ended the call. Satisfied that part was done, I moved on to the next step, but not before Adeline came in with a list of messages she had received while I was on call.

“There are several people who want an interview with you. Should I give them the usual answer? I thought I should ask since there were more requests than was usual.”

“No. Schedule them all.”

She cocked an eyebrow. “All?”

“Yes. Well, the reputable ones at least.”

“Is something happening I should be aware of?”

Just that I told the press I was willing to give them access if they laid off, hounding Emilia. It was the least I could do. “No.”

19

It was Monday, and I was still feeling the effects of Friday’s events. My head ached and my muscles were still sore from all the partying. Maybe it was a little too much partying for someone no longer in their twenties with an entire company to run. As I sat down at my desk, I felt a muscle complain and I winced.

“Tell me to never do that again,” Dylan croaked as he and Laura strolled into my office. He was speaking to Laura, who seemed to not be as affected as I was by Friday’s events.

“As if you’d ever listened to me. Just be grateful that I called a taxi for you or you’d have woken up in some billionaire’s mansion the next morning and your husband hounding you.”

“Did you really party that hard?” I said to them as they sat down.

“Who are you asking? It’s not as if you weren’t just as drunk.”

I nodded. “He’s right though. We should never do that again. My muscles are still aching from all that dancing.”

“That’s because you were more active than I had ever seen you in a long time. Did winning the award get you in that good of a mood? If it did, we should bribe all the award shows. I would love to see you as outgoing as you were on Friday.”

I groaned. I was trying to forget my encounter with Ax and what he had said. Not that it helped. He was on the forefront of my mind the entire night, just as he was this morning. His question came out of nowhere and had me wondering what he was thinking. His eyes were filled with an emotion I dared not interpret as regret. It could not be.

“It was a one-time thing,” I said. “Be glad you saw it because it’s never happening again. Can we get to today’s business?”

My phone beeped. It was lying on the desk, so I gave it a cursory glance. A text message popped up.

Maggie Capital Magazine:Can we talk.

“God. What does she want,” Dylan said. They had both seen the text. I shrugged and turned off my phone. “Good,” he applauded, “That bitch doesn’t deserve your attention.”

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