The bottling machine topped off the last of the orders I was able to fill and whirred to a stop.

For all their borderline extortion-like practices, Copa Farms had kept their word. They arrived on time like they said they would and dropped off two pallets, which was half my total order.

I blew through both pallets of aloe vera in one day and, looking over at the still-printing stack of new orders that were coming in, I might have to do another full order with them before the season was over!

One step at a time, I reminded myself.

I paid for the the last half a few days ago, so I should be getting the rest of my aloe shipment tomorrow. That was at least one thing I didn’t have to worry about. I stretched and shook the nine hours of working soreness out of my arms, legs, and back.

There was something uniquely rewarding about reaching the end of a great productive day. Granted, I wasn’t out of the woods yet. The busy holiday season was far from over. There were a lot of long, hard days on the horizon, but at least now with the new infrastructure in place and orders coming in, I had hope again!

Kade was responsible for some of that hope.

Glancing at the clock, I had just enough time to start cleaning up for a celebratory dinner with Kade. Kade offered to take Emma for me today so I could throw myself into the work. Treating him to a nice dinner after everything he’d done for me was the least I could do.

I smirked as I washed the sticky aloe off my hands. If I was being honest, I’d been looking forward to dinner with him all day. We didn’t call it a date or anything, but in the back of my mind I knew that was exactly what it was.

By the time I was out of the shower I had my outfit and shoes picked out in my mind. There was a small closet in my cramped office designed to hold coats, but I repurposed it a long time ago for what little nice wardrobe I had. I hadn’t had any reason to browse through that closet since…I drew a blank.

Amber better not have stolen the dress I wanted to wear!

Walking past my computer I saw my phone literally vibrate itself off the desk. Completely losing my towel in the process, I lunged for my cell and, after a bit of frantic juggling, was able to grab it out of the air.

“What’s got you so riled up?” A subconscious tenseness crept into my features when I felt how warm my phone was. I looked at the dark screen for a moment and wondered if there was some kind of electrical malfunction. My phone never heated up this much before.

A second later the screen lit up and gave me my answer.

Immediately, my heart started racing and my intestines cramped in a ball. The tiny hairs all over my body raised and nervous sweat speckled my brow. With now shaking hands, I put in my password and cleared the screen saver.

“Oh no…” I whimpered as I thumbed through hundreds of texts, social media notifications, missed calls, and voicemails. My phone was warm to the touch because of how many people were contacting me.

Someone is dead.

Immediately, I thought of my parents and became nauseous. What else could it possibly be? I was barely a footnote in this town otherwise, why else would so many people be reaching out to me?

The messages weren’t of condolences, they were of condemnation. People weren’t expressing their sympathies for me, they were pissed. At first, a wave of relief washed over me that my parents were alright but that was short lived.

I followed a link to the YouTube video she posted on her channel titled, Douglas, Texas is now Kinky AF. And it’s all thanks to my sister. The video went up five hours ago and had over two-hundred thousand views. That was more than four-times the population of our whole town.

“Nononono. She wouldn’t...” I whispered in horror as I started watching the three and a half minute long video that started with Amber walking through the Shepherd Soaps store. I slowly collapsed onto my cot as I continued watching.

“Hey freaks. Are you down-to-fuck?” Amber asked offhandedly in the video as she walked through the store, generally rifling through the displays I meticulously put together. Muffled yet familiar music pounded louder in the background the further into the building she got.

When was this filmed?

“Because I know my sister is. Here, let me show you.” Amber raised an eyebrow and let the question hang for a few seconds. She sauntered up to the door of the shop where I made all the soap, pressed her finger to her lips, winked, then slowly cracked open the door.

I was horrified to see the secret cell phone footage of me hustling from station to station mixing, pouring and forming product all the while dancing like an idiot to the mixed CD that Kade gave me. I looked terrible in my stained work clothes, pinned up hair and bright yellow gloves. The video followed me for thirty seconds as I belted out tone-deaf renditions of my favorite teenage songs.

Looking smug that she’d embarrassed me enough, Amber carefully closed the door and retreated into the hallway back towards the store section of the building.

“Yup, that’s Genevieve Shepherd shaking her ass, probably still thinking about the hot guy who slept over last night.” Amber shrugged and feigned innocence. “Now. You know me. I’m not one to throw shade. I have no idea what she did with Kade last night. How do I know his name? Because Genevieve was screaming it so loud that I could hear her two floor up.”

I paused the video, needing a break from the incredible invasion of privacy. I groaned, doubling over on my cot, feeling sick to my stomach. Amber and I had never really gotten along, but this…this character assassination was way too far.

Why would she do this to me?

Tensions had been ramping up between us ever since I was given the family business. She was the oldest, sure, but growing up, even up until Mom and Dad retired, Amber never wanted anything to do with Shepherd Soaps. She’d said countless times that we should let the failing business die and that she would never waste her life like our parents.

She was always more interested in growing her YouTube following than finding a way to make Shepherd Soaps stay competitive.

I straightened, breathed, and readied myself to watch the rest of the video. This was, by far, the worst thing Amber had ever done to me, and I hated that Kade was dragged into this too, although he probably wouldn’t care. It was embarrassing and hurtful that she’d do this to me, but at least she’d kept the family business out of it.

Or, so I thought.

“What exactly is she making, you ask?” A wicked smile crept vindictively across Amber’s sharp features. “Normally, it would be some boring soap concoction with like sage and eucalyptus or some bullshit, but not today.”

Amber held up one of my Lick it Lube labels from the cardboard box that Kade found. I immediately felt like the biggest idiot in the world for not hiding that better. But why should I have? Everytime I asked Amber for help with orders, she’d said she wouldn’t be caught dead in the shop.

Now, I wanted to curl up in a ball and disappear.

“So, if you want a sad loser making lube for you to smash to, you now know where to go. This has been your girl Amber with your weekly Splash or Trash segment. See you freaks in the next video.” Amber kissed at the camera and the video ended.

Dozens more notifications and messages vibrated my phone, but for the next five whole minutes, I was paralyzed with worried indecision.

Eventually, to keep my phone from melting, I turned off all the alerts. Mustering up some courage, I started going through the hundreds of YouTube comments. There was so much hate… Mostly from people I didn’t know telling me that I should be ashamed of myself, or calling me some kind of whore, or explicitly describing how they were going to use the lube on me.

It was all too stomach-churningly disgusting. I hadn’t even read half the toxic comments before I had to exit out of the page or risk throwing up.

Going through my voicemails and texts was even harder, not because of the messages I received, but because of the ones I didn’t. Our parents always encouraged and supported our hobbies, so I knew for a fact that Mom watched every video Amber put out. I was the one who set up the alert for her so she could watch them right when they were posted.

I forced myself to go through everything and didn’t see a single message from Mom or Dad.

Oh, God, what did they think of me now?

My phone suddenly lit up with an incoming call, one I was in absolutely no shape to accept. I guess it was only a matter of time until I had to deal with them. Given their preference of just showing up in person, I was actually relieved that they called instead. At least this way I didn’t have to participate in being yelled at. I slid the icon left across the screen and let Copa Farms go right to voicemail.

I didn’t waste any time listening to their message. Aggie Copa’s tirade went down pretty much how I imagined, a fiercely traditional woman would express her displeasure and disappointment. In a shrill, exasperated and fumingly angry voice, Aggie berated me for dragging their farm’s name through the mud if by nothing except the virtue of association. She also said they would “not be supplying the remainder of the product and would also be keeping the money I sent them for irrevocable damages to their reputation caused by the Shepherd family’s secret...deviance!”

The backlash and hate from the video Amber posted didn’t stop the existing orders from being filled, but the lack of product from Copa Farms definitely did. I was going to have to refund everyone, and without getting my money back, there was no way I was going to be able to pay the bank.

“This is it,” I choked the words out and immediately started to hyperventilate. Thoughts of embarrassing my family, and failing the business, spiraled me into a deep depression. I lowered my head and started to cry. This was my worst nightmare and the final nail in the coffin.

I was going to have to sell Shepherd Soaps.