by K. A. Linde
The conversation with Victoria had been much more enjoyable than the one with her parents. They reminded Liz of all the fears she’d had when she had first agreed to going public. What about your career? Will you finish school? How will this look going forward? Are you happy? Are you sure you want this? Liz shut out the questions for now.
“I think you should give yourself more time. I’m not keeping you from the newspaper, Liz, but just imagine what it probably looks like right now,” he said, giving her a knowing look.
Chaos. Gossips. Judgmental stares. She knew what was facing her, but the paper felt like home. It had always been her escape.
“I know what it will be like.” Like the press conference but worse, because it was her peers, her coworkers, her friends. “I can’t avoid it forever, though.”
“No one would ever expect you to.”
“I could have Victoria pick me up and get back there in an hour or so,” Liz said stubbornly.
“I believe you would do it,” he said. He crossed his arms over his chest and she read him like a book. He was daring her to do it and see how he would react. He had once thrown her over his shoulder without any hesitation because she wouldn’t get in his car. That would be a hysterical headline: “Congressman Brady Maxwell Keeps New Girlfriend in Line Caveman Style.” Oh, the backlash.
Liz sighed and cuddled back into Brady’s lap. No use arguing right now. “How long will I have with you before you have to take me home?”
“Baby, you’re mine now. I’m not letting you go home tonight.” Brady turned her face up to him and she read what he was saying in his eyes.
“But I thought with the reporters hounding us . . .”
“They can hound us all they want, but if we’re ‘out’ in public, you’re staying with me,” he said, kissing her lips lightly. “You still have the key. I’ve always belonged to you.”
“I’ve always belonged to you too,” she whispered.
Chapter 3
HEADLINES
Brady dropped Liz back off at her place the next morning before she had to be at the newspaper. He wasn’t planning to leave North Carolina until late that night and promised to see her again before he left. She didn’t like the fact that they would be separated so soon, but what else could she do? She had already delayed him an entire day. She just had to get used to their new relationship—only officially being together for three days and already out to the public while also dealing with long distance. All the best things in life rolled into one package.
Victoria was sitting on the couch with her boyfriend, Daniel, who Liz lovingly referred to as Duke Fan. “Hey,” Liz said, closing the door and waving at the pair.
“Hey yourself,” Victoria said. She jumped up off of the couch and rushed to Liz’s side. “So how was it? What happened? Are you and Brady officially out of the closet now?”
Liz laughed and shook her head. “Have you not seen the news about it?” she asked incredulously.
Victoria just shrugged. “Psh! I don’t watch or read the news. You know that.”
“Ah. How could I forget? We went to a press conference yesterday and Brady told the whole world we were dating. We were basically mobbed on our way out of the place. It’s kind of surreal.”
“Oh my God, it’s like you’re a celebrity or something,” Victoria said. “And dating a politician. I’m so jealous.” Duke Fan huffed on the couch, causing Victoria to giggle and swish her hips. “So what happens now?”
“I think I try to go back to my life?” Liz said uncertainly.
“What? Somehow I thought this would come with more perks. Like you two eloping and moving to D.C. and going to a million fabulous parties Great Gatsby style.”
Eloping! Where the hell did she come up with this stuff? They had just gotten together—marriage could wait.
“Pulling literary references out of your ass, Vickie.”
“Ugh! Now that Hayden is gone can we drop the nickname?” she pleaded.
Liz dropped her smile almost immediately. Hayden. She hadn’t had much time to think about him since he had attempted to apologize for ratting out her relationship with Brady and Liz had sent him packing. There had been too many other things going on, like Brady and the press and what the hell she was going to do with her life now that she was a political journalist dating a politician.
“Oh, sorry,” she whispered.
“It’s fine,” Liz said. She didn’t really want to talk about Hayden. Everything was too fresh after the breakup. A whole-year-long relationship down the drain for nothing.
“Well, don’t feel guilty about what happened. He was the jackass who wrote the article. You didn’t force his hand.”
“I know. I know,” Liz said, cutting her off. “I’m just going to get ready for class.”
“All right. You sure you don’t want to talk about it?”
“Very sure.”
“Well, Daniel said he’d drop us off so we don’t have to walk. Right?” Victoria asked. She turned toward her boyfriend with a smile.
“Sure thing, Vickie.”
Victoria groaned and gave him a death glare. “Not you too!”
Liz couldn’t keep from laughing. What a pair.
After changing into a loose, blue striped button-up tucked into a pair of skinny jeans, with dark heels, Liz tied her hair up into a messy bun and then followed Victoria and Daniel out to the car. They arrived on campus just in time for Liz to get to the newspaper before her class. Liz made plans with Victoria to walk home together, and then she crossed the busy street and in through the back door of the Union. She took the stairs up to the second floor and then rounded the corner to the newspaper office.
She stared at the office with a contented sigh. The newspaper was her sanctuary. She couldn’t even count the number of times that she had walked through these double doors. It was like coming home when she walked into the office.
The paper had already gone out for the day and there were fewer students in the building as a result. That did not, however, mean that it was empty. Students milled around the desks looking over articles, rehashing articles from the morning, drinking coffee, some even frantically working on homework. She even caught a glimpse of Tristan, one of her coworkers in the campaign division last year, diligently laboring on what was likely another incredible piece.
Liz smiled at the familiarity of it all and walked through the bustling room to her office. She heard whispers all around her as more and more people glanced at her. She tried to shrug it off and keep walking.
Just when she made it across the room to her office, Massey stepped in front of her. “Liz!” she said with her normal bubbly personality. Massey was dressed in tight ripped jeans, a plaid button-down, and a North Face vest that she had monogrammed with her initials, like the majority of her other clothes. Liz glanced up and met her eyes.
“Hey, Massey.”
She nodded toward the office. “Can we talk?”
“Sure,” Liz said. Massey entered first and then Liz closed the door behind them.
Massey’s smile dropped as soon as they were in the confines of the office. “What were you thinking? I didn’t want to just go off in front of like everyone, but Brady Maxwell?” Her eyes widened. “I really thought you were the last person to sneak around on Hayden. I mean, y’all dated for like a year or whatever. He’s a good guy. A little uptight, but you seemed to work well together. When I heard, I thought it was a joke, but then after the press conference yesterday, I finally had to accept facts. You cheated on Hayden. Still shocked!”
“Massey, no,” Liz said uncomfortably. “You have the facts wrong.”
“Um . . . I think Brady Maxwell told everyone exactly what happened.”
“No. He said we were together and that we’re together now. We were not together while I was dating Hayden,” Liz said and then immediately felt shitty for
the lie of omission. She swallowed the guilt that lodged in her throat.
“Wait, so you guys like broke up or something?”
Liz bit her lip. She hated what she was about to ask, but knew it was a necessity. “Is this conversation . . . off the record?” she whispered.
“Oh!” Massey said, looking guilty. “Yeah, sure.”
So, she had been interested in making this some kind of interview. Great. Liz wasn’t sure how much Massey would have actually written about, but she wanted to err on the side of caution.
“So . . . what happened then?”
Liz took a small breath. “I don’t know what you’ve heard, but Brady and I had a relationship two summers ago. I left because I thought that I wanted more than he did. Well, it turned out that I wasn’t the only one. After I told Hayden about what had happened, we broke up and Brady and I ended up getting back together. It’s been a long week.”
“How did you end up getting back together . . . and get him to go public about it?” Massey asked. “I mean if you wanted more before . . .”
“That was actually his idea. It was already out that we’d been together. He wanted to keep us together, and the only way that would happen was to . . . I don’t know . . . claim me.” Liz tried to put on a strong face for Massey. “Plus, I really wanted this. I’ve never been happier.”
“But it was all in secret,” Massey pointed out. “How do you even know it’s going to work out now that it’s out in the open?”
That was the right question, wasn’t it? The only thing Liz could go on was past precedent. She loved Brady. She hadn’t been able to get over him. She wasn’t going to get over him. “I don’t, I guess. I just know how I feel about him and I know how I feel without him. It’s worth it to at least try.”
“But if it fails . . . then it will be all over the news again.”
“True,” Liz said with a shrug. “I’m telling you I can’t imagine my life without him. I’d rather risk a public scandal every day than to look back and wonder what would have happened.”
“But . . .”
“Can we go without the buts, Massey? I’ve kind of had a stressful weekend. I’d like to get back to some semblance of normal in my life.”
“But . . . do you think you’ll ever get back to normal?”
Well, that depended on the definition of normal. Maybe the change with Brady would become her new normal. She could live with that.
“I don’t even know what normal is,” she finally admitted. She hadn’t thought it was normal to be dating someone and always thinking of someone else. She hadn’t thought it was normal to hide her relationship or her feelings. She hadn’t thought it was normal to be miserable to give up someone she cared for. If those were normal, it would be better to try something out of the ordinary.
“Well, in case you weren’t aware,” Massey said, her voice still skeptical and cautious, “dating a congressman as a rising political journalist is not normal.”
Liz laughed, hoping to lighten the mood. “That I did know.”
“No, seriously.”
“I know,” Liz said, sobering. “I know there’s a fine line. But everything negative I wrote about Brady was before we started dating. And I’m not going to write about him now. I can just supervise.”
“Liz . . .” Massey said awkwardly, staring at the floor.
“What?” she asked.
“Um . . . about that.”
“About what?”
“I’m really sorry. I hate to do this. I know you’re so dedicated to the newspaper.”
Liz’s heart pounded. “Do what?”
“I think you should leave the paper,” she blurted out.
“What?” Liz gasped. She felt the blood drain out of her face. This was her world.
“It looks bad for us to have our editor in the news. It puts a stain on the newspaper as a whole. You have to understand.”
“You’re kicking me out?”
“No, well, I can’t do that,” Massey said sheepishly. “I just . . . I mean, we hope that you’ll step down without us having to speak with anyone. I mean we only have two months to graduation. It would just be a temporary leave of absence.”
“A temporary leave of absence,” Liz said hollowly. “Temporary in that in a couple months I’m graduating and never coming back to the paper.”
“It’s best for everyone.”
Everyone but Liz. She was sure of that. How could it be better for her not to be at the newspaper?
“You can’t be serious.” But Massey sure looked serious.
“It wasn’t an easy decision.”
“An easy decision for who?” Liz snapped, her anger bubbling up. “As far as I’m concerned this is only a simple decision for you. Get rid of the problem and, let me guess—you become editor?”
“It wasn’t like that,” Massey said defensively.
“I’m sure, but you didn’t answer my question.”
“You left me in charge as editor while you were sick. It’s an easy transition for me to just continue to do the work.”
“That would make sense, Massey, if I hadn’t slaved for years here to be the editor! You want to come in and take all of that away from me?”
“I’m not taking all of that away from you,” Massey said. “I’m telling you that it’s not feasible for you to continue to work for the paper when this is on the front page.” She grabbed a newspaper off of the desk and slapped it into Liz’s hands.
Liz glanced down and swallowed hard. A picture of her was on the front page. The headline read, “Congressman Maxwell Affair with UNC Reporter Confirmed.” Liz tried to steady herself as she read through the article. It was pretty cut-and-dried—straight out of the information Hayden and Calleigh had written as well as from the press conference. Still, seeing it like that on the cover made her feel nauseated. She had gotten herself worked up about the other papers last night, but this was so much worse. This was her paper.
Her eyes drifted to the byline. Massey Davis.
“You wrote this?”
Liz knew somewhere in her logical subconscious that if things were reversed she would have done the same thing. She would have written the article and published it. She would have done it without blinking. But it still hurt knowing that her friend had done it to her.
“I’m sorry,” Massey said softly. She actually did sound sincere. “Someone had to write it. No one really wanted to. We like you, Liz. We all liked you as editor. But we couldn’t ignore this. The paper would have looked like it was biased, trying to protect its own and all that.”
“Yeah, because that’s really so bad.”
“You know what I mean. We’re supposed to be objective. You were news. And on campus, you’re kind of big news,” Massey told her.
Liz tossed the paper back onto the desk without finishing reading. “I guess I am now.”
“You would have done the same thing.”
“Irrelevant,” Liz said, crossing her arms. “You’re kicking me off of the paper, Massey. This is my life. This is everything I’ve worked for.”
“I know,” Massey said helplessly. “If things calm down maybe you can still come back.”
Liz knew she was lying. The media haze around her relationship with Brady would lighten, but she would still be with him. There was no way the paper would take her back.
She contemplated asking Massey about the chances of her staying on if Administration got in the mix, but she knew that she didn’t want to actually include the university in the decision. The paper was technically a separate entity from the school to keep its anonymity. It gave the staff freer rein to discuss matters the school itself might prefer that they not talk about.
Liz was sure that Administration would either defer to the judgment of the paper or somehow her taking it to a higher-up would end up in the paper anyway
. Neither option was optimal. Likely both would leave her without a position at the newspaper.
All she knew at this point was that she needed to get the hell out of here. This had been her safe place and now she wasn’t even welcome.
“Just temporary. Right,” Liz said softly. She hoisted her purse higher on her shoulder. “Well, I guess that’s my cue, huh?”
Massey sighed and looked as if she wanted to say something, but she didn’t.
Liz grabbed the door handle to her, now, old office and wrenched it open. She glanced at Massey once more before walking out.
Liz didn’t even give Massey any last parting words.
Chapter 4
SPIN
Liz stalked across the quad on the way to her first class of the day. She was mostly looking forward to her last class with her mentor, Professor Mires. Liz had started working for her as an assistant. After they’d successfully put together a political journalism colloquium, Professor Mires had helped Liz get an internship working with the New York Times, which landed her a job at the paper postgraduation. Liz would much rather think about that than what had just happened at the newspaper.
She had two months before she was supposed to be in New York City, and that seemed much more important than what she was doing right now. She wouldn’t mind fast-forwarding through the difficult months.
Trying to shake off her conversation with Massey, Liz walked into the journalism building and found a seat in her advanced editing class. It ate at her that this would affect their friendship. She and Massey weren’t close like Liz was with Victoria, but they had worked together the past two years. Liz didn’t know what to do about it, and worse, she thought there might not be anything she could do about it. She wasn’t about to go apologize for what she had said, and she knew Massey wasn’t likely to either.