I knit my eyebrows together. “What do you mean?”
“Not everyone is buying your story.”
My jaw clenches. “A member of the board approached you?”
“No. Given you’ve been at work since early this morning, I assume you’re not up on the latest celebrity news.”
“What are they saying?”
“You only have to worry about one asshole.” My brother pulls out his phone from the inside of his suit jacket. He taps on the screen and hands me the device.
‘PHOENIX KÖNIG AND MICHAELA KNIGHT IN LOVE? I CALL BULLSHIT’
Annoyance consumes me as I scroll down the unnecessarily long article.
“FuckingPaynein the ass,” I say, handing him back his phone.
“I particularly like the part where Payne says,‘Boy band singer turned COO—and interim CEO while his father recovers from a heart attack—thinks the public is stupid.’” My brother’s tone drips with sarcasm as he reads a snippet of the article out loud.
Payne Meldrum is a fame hungry celebrity content creator who has no problem using any means necessary to drive an insane amount of traffic to his website. He laughs in the face ofjournalistic integrity and uses rumors as facts. Heck, he’ll create rumors if he has to. Most of his articles are dubious, but in this case, he’s right on the money.
I meet my brother’s gaze. “I don’t need him poking holes in my story.”
“I hear you, but to Payne’s point, there’s absolutely zero history of you dating Michaela.”
“I’m fully aware of that.”
“You need a kickass PR campaign because Payne isn’t going to back down.” Slate states the obvious. “Knowing him, he’s just getting started. When that ambulance chaser smells blood, he’s worse than a vampire.”
“Don’t I know it.”
I reach for my Montblanc pen and tap it against my desk, a habit I have when I’m thinking hard or when I’m annoyed, like I am now.
“If only Niels had picked up the phone to talk to me,” I say. “That stunt was unnecessary.”
“You can’t go back, Phoenix,” Slate says. “You have to work with what you have. At least you can use your frequent trips to New York in the past few months to justify the hush-hush nature of yourrelationship,” he says, “but you’re going to have put on a show from now on.”
“First, Michaela has to agree?—”
My phone vibrates.
My attention swings from my brother to my screen.
“Speak of the devil…” I say.
Little hellion
Fine. I’ll do it.
“Good news?”
I hand Slate my phone. “She’s in.”
He grabs my device and lowers his eyes to the screen. His disapproving frown speaks volumes.
“Not exactly hot and heavy. Not even heartfelt in the least,” he says.
“In her defense, it’s not like I serenaded her with a four-string quartet before dropping to one knee and declaring my undying love.” I adjust my cufflinks. “It was a cut and dried deal. I expected her to drag things out until the last second before the clock struck midnight. By eight o’clock this morning, I got the answer I was hoping for. I’m not going to complain about her less than enthusiastic response. There was always the chance she might turn me down.”
