Page 132 of Bad Love

"What if there's nothing wrong with your choices? Not then, not now, notever?"

I ball my tissues into a tight wad and squeeze it in one fist, lifting my chin. "Then I'm anidiot."

Motion in the doorway has us both looking up. "Mom?" Rory asks. “I have an idea for the talentshow.”

* * *

Later that afternoon,I go in the back end of the website for thevibrators.

If sales are continuing on the same trajectory, we should be halfway totarget.

But when the page loads, the numbers areoff.

I hit refresh twice to besure.

No.

Purchases have dropped off significantly even though lots of people have been viewing thepage.

What’s goingon?

Holding my breath, I click over to the mainwebsite.

I know the stakes resting on this. I gave Logan my word I'd see this through. My ability to pick clients and send Rory to camp is one thing, but this is Logan’s company we’re talking about. His family’s company. And the consequences are real forhim.

That's when I seeit…

The dozen great reviews have been drowned out by nearly fifty terribleones.

My stomach plummets.That’simpossible.

What happened? Did Ben's tech let us down? Was there some part of the product Ioverlooked?

I click the reviews and read. They’re truly appalling. They don't sound anything like the tester feedback wegot…

I start to call Logan, then hesitate as I reread the lastreview.

Nowhere near as good as the old one. That thing wasclutch.

“Clutch.” Not exactly the most common way to describe avibrator.

But I do remember someone using that wordrecently.

Fire starts in my gut, the kind I haven’t felt inyears.

I hit the number for the Charlotte Hotel. "Could you put me through to Nelson please? Tell him it's KendallSullivan."

A few minutes later, his voice comes on. "Kendall. You looking to host another event at theCharlotte?"

"That’s not why I’m calling. Those product reviews on the new Petal vibe sound suspiciously likeyou.”

I half expect him to deny it, but hedoesn’t.

“You'd tank your own company to win abet?"

I can almost hear him shrug. "Won’t be my company long. It’s going on the auctionblock."

My brain races to get out ahead of his warped logic. "But we put work into this product. You could make money on this, Nelson. At a minimum, having a strong-selling product makes this company worth more when you sell it. Logan did you afavor."

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