“You think?”
“Yeah, I do. And it seems like he could use you fighting in his corner.”
She’d fight for Alex to the ends of the earth, but he wasn’t the only issue here. “Even if it means I have to fight his father?”
“Dan Drake doesn’t stand a chance.” Gemma reached for her, pulling her into a tight hug. “Nobody messes with a Romano girl, right?”
The door let out its familiar squeal of poorly oiled hinges as a patron entered. Jess turned to ask what he’d like, but it wasn’t one of Romano’s grizzled regulars.
It was Lina.
Chapter Thirty-Three
She stood just inside the door in her long navy puffer coat, her gloved fingers clenched in front of her and her uncertain gaze fixed on Jess. Jess’s brain remembered the way they’d parted, the things Lina had said that left her feeling so bruised and angry, but in that split second of recognition, her heart forgot. All she knew was that she’d missed her like air.
“Hey, Lina,” Gemma said conversationally, when Jess said nothing.
“Hi, Gemma,” Lina said. “I came to talk to Jess.”
Seeing Lina filled her with hope, but the truth was, she didn’t know why she was here. And if she was going to start lobbing accusations again, Jess couldn’t afford to let her guard down.
“What’s up?” There. That sounded sufficiently casual. Not at all like she’d burst into tears multiple times over the past few days about her fight with Lina.
Lina took a step forward. “Can we talk?”
“Sure. Go ahead.”
“I’m gonna inventory the basement stock,” Gemma said, tactfully excusing herself.
As Gemma left, Jess told herself to stay calm as she heard Lina out. At least this time, the shock of her firing had faded. She was fully in control of her emotions now.
She turned back to Lina and waited for her to begin.
“Alex called me.”
That was the last thing she expected her to say. “Alex? Why?”
“He told me about Chase...that he’s the one who stole my story.”
“Are you going to accuse me of sleeping with him, too? Because you decided that one kiss with Alex was enough to make me into some backstabbing Benedict Arnold.” She hadn’t intended to be confrontational, but it seemed she was more hurt than she realized.
“I know! I’m so sorry, Jess. I was wrong. Alex told me—”
“You doubted me, but you’re immediately ready to believe Alex?”
“No, Jess, stop. I already knew you didn’t do it. God...” She broke off, her eyes flying up to the ceiling as she fought back tears. “I feel so, so awful. Once I calmed down and thought about it, I knew I’d screwed up. Yeah, maybe you kept one or two things to yourself, but that was no reason for me to question you. You’re the most loyal, honest person I know.”
Grudgingly, Jess dropped her shoulders a bit, forcing herself to ease up. Lina was acknowledging her mistake and she needed to let her. “So why did you doubt me?”
“I guess because Mariel did? And finding out about you and Alex in college...it hurt that you’d never told me that.”
“I wasn’t trying to deceive you, Lina. I was embarrassed by it. I wanted to pretend it never happened.”
“I get it. I do. But add that to the Twitter thing, which you’d also been keeping secret...and just the day before my story was stolen...it was all coming at me at once. I’m not entitled to know all your secrets. It was wrong of me to feel betrayed just because you kept something personal to yourself.”
Hearing her actions laid out by Lina, even though she was apologizing, left a bad taste in Jess’s mouth. “I shouldn’t have kept so much from you. That’s my fault. And I was too quick to blow up at you. I just wasn’t in a place to think...or react...clearly. I’m sorry, too.”
Lina’s eyes welled again. “God, that moment must have been awful for you.”
“It was definitely not my best day.”
The air was heavy with their fragile truce. What happened next?
Lina was the one to break the silence. “See, that’s just what I’m here to fix. I told you I figured out almost right away that you didn’t do it.”
Jess blinked as Lina’s implication hit her. “So where have you been all week? I thought you hated me.”
Lina grinned. “Stop scowling at me like that. I’ve been trying to prove it. And I have. Well, I proved one part. Alex took care of the rest.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Something about that tweet...that last one from that morning...kept bugging me. I was talking to Hassan about it, and he put his finger right on it.”
“Right on what?”
“He said it was a stupid tweet for someone so good at Twitter. I mean, look, you’ve been waging this Twitter war with Alex for weeks that had all of New York enthralled. You can decimate someone with a single well-worded sentence. But that was just...clunky. Dumb. Amateurish. It didn’t sound like you at all.”
“Because it wasn’t me.”
Lina thrust a finger in the air. “Right! But who was it?”
“I’m guessing you know.”
“Not right away. I kept going over and over it, and then boom! It hit me. A dangling participle.”
“You got hit with a dangling participle?”
“No, the tweeter used one. Along with an apostrophe in the possessive form of ‘its’—something you would never, ever do. But you know who does? All the time, because her grammar sucks for someone trained to write?”
A cold knot of anger twisted in her chest as she forced the name out around the lump in her throat. “Lauren.”
They’d laughed about it, her, Lina, Zoe, and Natalie, back when they were all still friends—all of Lauren’s terrible typos, grammatical errors, and malapropisms in her memos. For someone with a degree in journalism, her writing was atrocious. It didn’t seem so funny anymore.
“Think about it,” Lina continued. “Haven’t we been saying for weeks that it’s just a matter of time before Mariel cans her? That’s why she’s been so nasty to you.”
“That explains why she’d sabotage me, but not why she’d steal stories from the paper.”
“Maybe she can see the writing on the wall, the same as the rest of us, and she figured she’d better guarantee herself a nice comfy job after Mariel fires her. And if she’s that much of a lying snake, why wouldn’t she take down her rival on the way out the door, just to be petty?”
“I can’t believe this. No, I take that back. I can believe it. I’m just so mad at her I could spit.”
“Line up,” Lina growled lowly. Of course. Poor Lina had more reason to be angry than anyone.
“But, Lina, while her grammar is admittedly bad, you know that’s not proof, right?”
“I know! So I got proof. Well, Griff did.”
“Griffin?”
Lina nodded. “I told him what I suspected...he didn’t believe it was you, either, by the way...so he took a look at Lauren’s computer after hours. Along with a ton of malware, because she’s an idiot who clicks on every link in her emails, he found it.”
“What?”
“The record of her logging into the Twitter account at midnight the night before you got fired.”
“That’s still not proof.”
“Maybe not proof it was Lauren, but it’s proof it wasn’t you. Where were you when that log-in happened on a computer at the Daily Post?”
Midnight the night before she was fired? Oh, she remembered, all right. She was in her kitchen, kissing Alex.
“Um, I was with Alex.”
The corner of Lina’s mouth quirked. “That’s what I figured.”
“So what does he have to do with this, anyway? Did he figure out it was her?”
“Not exactly, but he did snoop ar
ound and find out that Chase is meeting his contact...in other words, Lauren, tonight. He’s got it all set up and he asked me to make sure you were there when they bust them. Seems like he felt he couldn’t call you himself.”
Jess heard the question in Lina’s voice. She didn’t know everything that had happened between Jess and Alex since last week, but she could probably guess it was more than one kiss.
“It’s complicated,” she said, to answer the unspoken question.
Lina nodded. “Seems like it. But—”
“Yeah?”
“He wouldn’t be doing all this if he didn’t care, Jess.”
Despite that horrible scene last night, Alex was still doing everything he could to fix things for her, including enlisting Lina to help. God, she’d been so wrong. Yes, she was fighting for his happiness, but she couldn’t make the choice for him, especially not by delivering some ultimatum. All she could do was support him—love him—if he’d still let her.
“I know he cares. I care about him, too. We’ve got some stuff to sort out. After this—after tonight.”
Lina looked down at her hands, teeth catching her bottom lip. “And me and you? Do we have stuff to sort out, too, or are you never going to speak to me again after this?”
Jess rolled her eyes. “Come on, Lina. We got through competing for senior editor of the college paper. We’ll get through this.”
Lina’s relieved smile warmed her from the inside out. Jess didn’t have words for how happy she was that Lina was back. So she did what Gemma always did when she couldn’t express herself with words. She did it with food.
“Have you eaten lunch? Gemma left a huge pot of ragu in back. You want some?”
Lina scrambled up on a bar stool and unzipped her coat. “You know I will never say no to Gemma’s food.”
Jess filled two glasses with beer from the tap. “I think we both deserve a drink today.”
“I think you are exactly right.”
“Here’s to busting Chase and Lauren and getting my job back.”
Lina clinked her glass against Jess’s. “And here’s to you and Alex.”
“How do you know there is a ‘me and Alex’? I haven’t even told you the full story.”
Lina leaned forward on her elbows. “Well, then maybe you should tell me now.”
So Jess started at the beginning and told Lina everything, and before she knew it, it felt just like old times. Repairing her friendship with Lina seemed like it wouldn’t be so hard after all.
If only things with Alex could be so easy. Even if she convinced him to give her another chance, there was still that pesky controlling media mogul determined to scrape her off like a barnacle, and the tiny problem of a potential transcontinental long-distance relationship. But if she loved him—if he loved her—they would figure it out. Right?
Chapter Thirty-Four
Jess and Lina found the address Alex had given Lina deep in the hinterlands of Greenpoint. Like Williamsburg, Greenpoint had gentrified dramatically in recent years, evidenced by the glass-and-brick facade of the bar they faced, called the HandleBar.
“Irony. How refreshing,” Lina quipped.
Jess managed to laugh despite the nerves eating her up inside. Alex was inside somewhere. Would he act like nothing had changed? Or would he be cold and distant?
“Are you going in or are you gonna watch the whole thing from the sidewalk?”
“Sorry, just nervous.”
“Jess, he’s doing all this for you. He could have just fired Chase.”
“Right.”
The HandleBar was a long, narrow space, with a bar stretching along the wall to the right. A few small tables were clustered up front and many more in the back. About halfway down on the left side, a staircase led up to a mezzanine seating area that overhung the front half of the room. No one they recognized was there yet, so Lina and Jess took seats at the bar.
They hadn’t gotten around to ordering drinks when Alex’s voice behind her sent her jumping out of her skin.
“Good. You made it.”
She spun around, greedily drinking in the sight of him, even though it had only been a day since she’d seen him.
“They’re here already.” He was looking at her, talking to her, but somehow managing not to make eye contact. That was a bad sign.
“What?”
“Chase and Lauren. I had to stay out of sight, but I showed a waiter Chase’s picture and he’s been watching for me. He says they’re in a corner upstairs.”
Right. Chase and Lauren. That’s why they were here. Everything else would have to wait until later.
“What are we waiting for?” Lina asked, hopping off her stool. “Let’s go up there and bust some heads!”
“We’re waiting for them.” Alex pointed toward the front door. Jess and Lina turned just in time to see Mariel Kemper coming in. With Dan Drake.
“What—”
“I asked my dad to get Mariel here. I figured she should see it for herself. And Dad will have fun firing Chase in person.”
Mariel was scowling as Dan ushered her inside. “I live on the Upper West Side, Dan. I don’t understand why you dragged me all the way out to Greenpoint—”
Alex strode forward, cutting her off. “Dad, thanks for coming. And Ms. Kemper.”
Mariel quickly took in Alex, then Lina and Jess standing right behind him. “What’s going on here?”
Dan spoke before Alex could. “Mariel, I have to confess, I had more than one reason for bringing you here.”
“I’m still not sure what the first reason is, never mind the second,” she snapped. “Why did you call me? What am I doing here?”
“This afternoon, Alex brought it to my attention that someone on the ClickNews staff has been publishing stories on the website stolen from the Brooklyn Daily Post.”
“I know,” Mariel snapped. “Stolen by her.” She pointed her finger at Jess. It took all Jess had to stand still and not shrink into the floor. Then she felt a touch on her hand, Lina, wrapping her fingers around hers. Lina squeezed lightly in silent reassurance. That’s right. Lina and Alex knew she didn’t do this. They believed in her.
Lifting her chin, she forced herself to meet Mariel’s gaze. “It wasn’t me, Mariel. That’s what we came here to prove.”
“Our leak is upstairs right now,” Alex said. “Meeting with your leak. Probably acquiring more of your stories to publish on our site.”
Dan, grinning broadly despite the palpable tension in the air, laid his hand on Mariel’s back. “Why don’t we go upstairs and see if you recognize Chase’s friend?”
“Sounds like a good idea,” Mariel growled.
Jess hung back with Lina, letting Dan escort Mariel first, with Alex in their wake. The light, already dim downstairs, was even lower upstairs. She stopped at the top of the stairs, squinting into the murk trying to make out Chase’s sandy blond hair and smug face. She spotted him tucked into the far corner at the same moment Dan and Mariel did.
Mariel let out a colorful stream of expletives, ending with, “I can’t believe this!”
“You know her, then,” Dan said.
Mariel started storming across the mezzanine. As soon as Dan moved to follow her, the view was unobstructed, and Jess got a good look at Chase’s table in the corner.
But he wasn’t sitting with Lauren.
Lina’s hand tightened around hers as her shout cut through the low-level bar chatter. “Zoe!”
The shock of it, the utter betrayal, left Jess frozen in place. Zoe. How many times had she and Lina laughed and gossiped with her? She was supposed to be one of their team, on their side. Ever since they’d all started at the paper, they’d pledged to look out for each other.
It’s a tough business for women. We’ve got to have each other’s backs.
That’s what Zoe had t
old her right after she’d offered to set up an interview for Jess with Frank Gallagher.
Right before she stole Jess’s story for herself. And Lina’s. And Dana’s. She’d betrayed them all. The realization was like another punch to the gut.
Zoe’s head whipped in their direction, just in time for her to see Mariel and Dan descending. Chase followed her horrified gaze, and in an almost comedic moment, the smug, flirty grin slid off his face, replaced with wide-eyed dread. Zoe snatched her hand out of Chase’s, but not so fast that Jess didn’t register it. Of course there was more to this than stolen stories. There was sex, too. Chase was so freaking predictable. But Zoe...that betrayal burned like acid.
Jess shook off the moment of shock and followed Alex and Lina.
“Zoe, how surprising to find you taking a meeting with... I’m sorry, I can’t recall your name, but I do remember you handle the journalism division at ClickNews, am I correct?”
“Mariel,” Dan interjected, his jokey demeanor finally replaced with grim resolve. “This is Chase Bennett, formerly of ClickNews, but unemployed, effective immediately.”
“Dan...” Chase began, finding his smarmy smile again. “I’m not sure what you’ve heard—”
“I’ve heard from my son that you’ve put the website in a precarious position, accused of theft of intellectual property.”
Chase scoffed. “Sorry, Dan. Your boy’s desperate to throw somebody under the bus. That’s a fucking lie.”
“Chase,” Alex cut in. “You know as well as I do that all the stories go through you. That means you were the source.”
The look of pure malice Chase leveled at Alex stole Jess’s breath away. “You can’t prove a fucking thing,” he snarled, like the cornered dog he was.
“Yes, he can,” Lina interjected. “Jess’s substantiating research and some of my notes appear verbatim in your article. And now we know exactly who gave them to you. This worthless piece of trash.” Lina took a menacing step toward Zoe. “I mean, Lauren didn’t surprise me, but you! We trusted you.”
The One I Love to Hate Page 26