“The board chose you sir.”
“What?” I glared at her. “I’m the CEO.”
“They figured that since you keep a low profile and never put your face on any of the company’s documents or websites, you would easily fit in and—”
This is bullshit! This is clearly their way of letting me know that they haven’t forgotten about my exploits in 2010! I can’t believe them and their silly little idea. I refuse to do this.
“Get Barry in here. Now.”
She scuttled out of the room and within seconds Barry walked into my office.
“Sorry I couldn’t make it last night,” he shut the door. “Shouldn’t you be preparing for Hawaii?”
“Jade turned me down,” I opened a drawer and gave my stress ball a few squeezes. “She said she met someone else.”
“Ouch…She really said that? At your birthday party?”
I nodded and knocked her picture off my desk.
“Well, this ought to cheer you up,” he pulled out a sheet of paper and slammed it on my desk. “You’re going to be on the cover of Fortune! You’re officially the entrepreneur of the year! And you’re doing this photo-shoot, whether you like it or not. What did you want with me anyway?”
“I want to know why the board picked me to go down South to play undercover boss. I’m sure there were plenty of other alternatives.”
“Beats me,” he smirked and shrugged his shoulders.
“Barry…”
“Okay, okay. Well, I’m CFO and I had to go on an undercover assignment once, remember?”
I tried to sort through my memories, but I hardly ever paid attention in board meetings, and the only undercover assignments I recalled were completed by groups of interns. I remembered him being in the hospital for three weeks when he went to our test store near the Chesapeake Bay, but I couldn’t remember what happened.
“Umm,” I shrugged. “Vaguely.”
“Do you remember me falling off a rig and getting stung by jellyfish? Ten jellyfish! Do you remember them stinging me on my ass? I couldn’t sit down for two weeks!”
“You suggested this?” I leaned forward in my chair. “Is this your idea of revenge?”
“One of them stung my face! I couldn’t eat anything! You should’ve seen how swollen my lips were! I could barely—”
“You volunteered me didn’t you? Didn’t you!”
“Yes! It was me!”
I sighed. “Why are we still friends, Barry?”
“Because I meet every requirement on your checklist,” he rolled his eyes. “Do you need an intern to help you pack?”
“For a one-week trip? I think I’m more than capable of doing that myself. Thanks. North Carolina has nice stores, right? I’ll just buy whatever I forget.”
“North Carolina? One week?” he bent over laughing. “The newest expansion site is in Fayetteville, Arkansas… And it’s a six week assignment.”
Chapter 5
Selena
I was living in a nightmare.
#Selenaisaslore, #SelenaRosssucks, and #shedidn’tdeserveMatt were all trending on Twitter. I’d officially broken the record for the most mentions in seventy two hours.
The late night TV hosts were brutal. The tabloids, blogs, and former friendly presses were dissecting every moment of my affair with Phillip—comparing our body language on set, deciphering our past interviews, and creating storylines for each and every scandalous picture.
There were numerous paparazzi camped outside my condo, and every couple hours I could hear them shouting, begging for me to make an appearance.
I tried to keep my mind off things by drinking old wine and watching a slew of romantic comedies—Runaway Bride, Sleepless in Seattle, How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days—but it was no use. Each time a new set of credits rolled, I remembered I was stuck in reality and almost everyone in America hated me.
What’s worse was that not a single person had called to see how I was doing, how I was coping. I’d wasted countless hours staring at my phone, wondering when someone, anyone, would think to check on me, but my phone never rang.
Still, even though he’d sent me that dismissive text, I knew that Phillip would call to talk to me eventually. I knew he would say he was going to sort things out with the media and come to my defense, and that those divorce papers he’d told me about would be finalized any day now.
I kept replaying our “affair” over and over in my mind, hoping that by the end of the week the public would know how it really happened…
A few months ago, I was sitting alone in my trailer, rehearsing my lines and wishing that the production break would end at any moment.
Since I’d fired my latest assistant hours earlier, I didn’t have anyone to talk to. I picked up my phone and called Matt Sterling.
“Hello?” he answered in that I’m-only-answering-because-this-might-be-the-call-telling-me-that-you’ve-died tone. “What do you want Selena?”
“I just realized that we don’t hang out anymore, Matt! We used to be such good friends before we got engaged! Don’t you want to come to my set and eat lunch with me? Don’t you want to catch up?”
“No. I don’t.”
“Matt, please! I’m really lonely…”
“I don’t care,” he huffed. “Is that the only reason you called me?”
“No, I really want to talk to you in person…I want to go over a few wedding ideas with—”