TMZ CONFIRMED
Lacey
Pacing in my tiny office, I contemplated the upcoming evening. Mr. La Croix had offered me a bigger workspace, but I declined him. I liked my crappy little cupboard.
“Hey!” Hennie beamed, poking her head in the office. “You excited you’re about to—” She paused. “Why do you look like you’re having an anxiety attack?”
“I think I am.” I rubbed my sweaty hands together. “I keep thinking, like, what if Jordan comes, and he sees you and puts two and two together, and then I have to explain?” Marcia had triple checked for me that neither Stephen nor Jordan had bought plates at the fundraiser, so there was a chance I might get away with not seeing him until after. Then maybe if I was lucky, I could find the balls to come clean. Maybe. Talk about being a hypocrite. I’d ridden him so hard about being a little bitch about Amy, and here I was, also being a little bitch about my lies.
“You ghosted him weeks ago. I doubt he wants to see you at all.” She said it hesitantly, like she wanted to spare my feelings, but couldn’t.
“Right. I agree.” It hurt, but I did. “But anxiety isn’t rational.”
“Dude, you sold the Test Dummy. The copyrights are in place. We have a solid plan on the services. The app is ready for sale. It’s a legit business plan now, not just something you and Martin cooked up that involves testers getting raped and murdered. And Mr. La Croix has the helm, so you can’t be blamed for anything that happens.” Her eyes sparkled.
“What?” I scowled. “What happened?” Why did she sound weird?
“Did you check TMZ today?” She bit her lip and wiggled her eyebrows.
“Oh, shit!” I grabbed my phone and googled TMZ and The Test Dummy. The first headline almost made my knees buckle. I stumbled back into my chair and stared at the words as I read them aloud. “Son makes porn with same computer dad uses to campaign for senate.” I lifted my gaze to hers. “Holy shit!”
“Right.” She offered a smug grin.
“Miguel Amara, the son of Antoine and Maureen Amara, has some serious explaining to do. And backpedaling won’t work this time. Sorry, rich boy. A video of the well-known musician known as DJ Spark, in which he is allegedly shown drugging a girl, has led authorities to his house, where our sources say a sting operation netted more than the police were bargaining for. The video sent to us anonymously shows Amara being fidelity tested by a company called the Test Dummy, a private corp that offers a man tester in the form of a hot girl with a secret video camera. Yikes. When did the dating waters get so murky? It’s not even safe to cheat anymore, or apparently have a drink in a bar when Amara’s there. We’ll have more on the arrests and who else is involved.”
I clicked the link to the video, and there it was, in all its glory.
“Holy shit!”
“Right!” She was pleased, but the whole thing made my stomach hurt.
I jumped up and ran past her, right to Mr. La Croix’s office. He was on the phone, pacing and talking with his hands. Through the window he grinned at me, winking.
I smiled wide, knowing he’d pulled some strings to leak the story right away. I didn’t expect retribution to feel so sweet.
My phone went nuts, as if on cue.
Glancing at the messages, I knew we’d made the right decision. From the messages I could tell Kami was ecstatic.
I FaceTimed Marcia and walked back to my office. Hennie was gone, so I closed the door.
“Oh my fucking God, did you see?” Marcia burst out.
“I can’t believe this is real. He’s caught. It’s outed. And Kami sounds super pumped,” I shouted with as much glee as I could muster.
“Well, do you blame her? She was being forced into silence by the Amaras. Her dad told her to play nice and not rock the boat. And now, she doesn’t get any of the blame and all the reward. And she’s free, completely.” She glanced to the left. “I can’t talk, though. As much as I am jazzed beyond belief, I’m swamped here. I’ll see you at the gala.”
“Okay, see ya then.” I waved and hung up. It was so weird seeing Marcia work hard, or at all.
My phone kept going nuts. I threw in my obligatory comments, supporting Kami and being grateful the whole thing was out in the open. Miguel deserved everything he got.
I couldn’t say much more.
I was now legally sworn to secrecy about it all.
The entire company was.
“I got my bag. You ready to go?” Hennie opened the door.
“We can’t leave now if TMZ just blasted our story. We have to do damage control and make sure we’re blasting the company—”
“No, Mr. La Croix just sent me this text.” She flashed her phone at me.
“Get Lacey home and dressed and make sure she comes to the party on time, or else!” I read aloud, and glanced up at her. “Damn. What does or else mean?”
“I don’t want to know. But he knows you. You’re a total workaholic and a personal-attention avoider. Let’s go.” She shoved my bag at me and pushed me toward the elevator.
I gripped my bag, my hands still shaking and sweating like the nightmare stress ball I was as we walked to the station.
“You are so funny. He pays you six figures for the Test Dummy, and you still take the subway.” She chuckled as we walked down the stairs.
“I like the subway. These are my people.” When we got to the bottom of the stairs and onto the platform, I nodded at the guy pooping in the corner of the far side, away from the train guard. “Except him.”
“Oh, wow.” She grimaced and turned her face to mine. “Haven’t seen anyone pooping down here in ages.”
“Yeah. They always do it in the summer, too, when it’s hot.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her away from him, closer to the guard.
“So Martin was saying that every dime from tonight is going into a fund for kids like him, that your family isn’t taking any of it to pay for medical bills.”
“Right. The fundraiser isn’t for Martin, it’s for kids with cancer. He’s just the poster boy for it.”
“Which we both know he is loving.” She laughed.
“Completely.”
“So what about the medical bills?”
“Oh, man, Mr. La Croix already paid those. It’s called an angel donation, and you can’t do anything about it.”
“What about the Test Dummy money you made?”
“Added to the fundraiser.” I smiled. “And I kicked in ten percent of the sale of Test Dummy to it too.”
“Holy shit!” Her eyes widened.
“And I gave Martin a huge payday for all the web design and safeguards he put into place, which ensured I never got caught.”
“Dude, this summer is turning around for you. I’m not gonna lie, that first week, I really wasn’t sure how you’d manage. Bugs and boys and brothers.”
“It was a hard start to the season, but we made it. At least on the bugs and brothers fronts. I’m still not sure the boy problem is fixable.” I hugged her. “But you helped me so much. Thanks for being there for it all.”
“Even if I started dating Martin?”
“Yeah.”
“Did he tell you he’s graduating early?” She beamed at me as we got on the train and sat.
“No, what?”
“Yeah. He started summer courses so he could finish by January and enroll in college early. He’s made sure his enrollment is moved up and everything.”
“At MIT? In Boston?”
“Yup.” She shrugged.
“That’s kind of close to you at Harvard.”
“The twenty-minute walk and separate campuses and us both being busy will be good for us.”
“So you can break things off?” I realized I didn’t really want that. My brother would be crushed.
“No, so he can mature on his own and we can slow things down.” She smiled wide. “He’s too intense, too fast. Taking it slow will be good for him. He asked me to move in with him when we’re there.” She rolled her eyes.
“Oh, wow.” That made me feel funny.
“I told him it wasn’t the sort of conversation people had after a couple weeks.”
“He’s that guy.” I laughed. “Once he sees something he wants, he gets it. And he keeps it.” I nudged her. “So if you try to escape, he might lock you in the basement.”
“You don’t have a basement.” She wrinkled her nose and stuck her tongue out. “And even if you did, maybe I like the basement.”
“For you and Marcello?” I scoffed.
“My Italian lover.”
“Don’t say lover.”
“Right.” She laughed. “Sorry.”
I leaned against her, pretending she was dating an Italian and my brother was a little boy and my life wasn’t as complicated as I seemed to make it.
The ability to create a giant pile of steamy shit out of what appeared to be a normal summer had to be a skill. I wondered if I could put it on my résumé.