“Hey there,” he says in the first message. “Thanks for coming out the other night. I hope you had a good time. I wasn’t sure if I should bother you yesterday or not, so I didn’t call or text. Anyway, not sure if you saw the news but, uh…someone apparently took a video of us dancing.”
God dammit. There’s a fucking video? The pic Melinda showed me must have been a still from it.
“Anyway,” the message continues, “it’s nothing to worry about. Just give me a call when you get a chance.”
Nothing to worry about. Right.
I click on the second voicemail. It’s shorter but more concerning.
“Hey, it’s Ash again. I just got called in to see Kaladin. I’m on my way there now. I’ll let you know what he says after we meet.”
That’s why he wasn’t picking up. He’s already in with Mr. Kaladin.
I put my phone down and rest my head in my hands with my elbows on the desk. Patience is not one of my virtues, nor is trusting my futurein someone else’s hands. It will be absolute agony until I hear from Ash.
I’m not a religious person, but I start praying I haven’t completely screwed everything up.
Chapter 15
Ash
I send the call from Gray to voicemail as I sit across the desk from Max Kaladin. I wanted to talk to her before I saw him, but now it will have to wait until after this meeting. One doesn’t keep the billionaire who pays your salary waiting while you take a call.
“So,” Kaladin says, tenting his fingers, “care to explain why you and Dr. Mackey are splashed across every tabloid in the country?”
Cedric sits in the chair next to me. I’m not sure what time the video of me and Gray hit the media, but Cedric looks like he’s running on coffee, sugar, and sheer willpower right now. I don’t envy the man his job, and I’m only mildly sorry I’m adding to his stress. Secretly, I’m thrilled the world thinks I’m dating Gray.
“Code Ex,” I tell Kaladin.
He raises a confused brow. “Excuse me?”
“I invited Gray to come out and hang with me and some of the guys Saturday night at the club, but we had a Code Ex,” I explain.
Kaladin cocks his head at something, but whether it’s the Code Ex thing or the fact I called Gray by her first name, I’m not sure.
Thinking of her as Gray rather than Doc Mackey is easier now than it was before. I suppose having my hand between her legs and my tongue down her throat helped.
“Gray’s ex was there,” I elaborate, ignoring the look, “and the code says we had to make the guy jealous so he’d realize what he’d lost.”
“Ah, Code Ex,” Kaladin says, humoring me like he knows exactly what I’m talking about. “And feeling the good doctor up on the dancefloor was part of the code?”
I shrug. “I was improvising.”
Kaladin sighs and turns to Cedric. “What’s the situation? Do we need damage control?”
Cedric looks up from his phone where he’s been furiously typing.
“They identified Dr. Mackey about fifteen minutes ago,” Cedric says, “and the news of her work with trash talk just hit the wires. There’s already conjecture about her working with Ash, so we need to make a statement sooner rather than later to control the narrative as much as possible.”
“Whatisour narrative?” Kaladin asks.
“We confirm what they already assume,” I say. “I’m dating Gray.”
Kaladin narrows his eyes. “Areyou dating her?”
“No, but they don’t know that,” I say, “and it’s better for us if they think I am, right? It confirms what the photo suggests, and it deflects attention away from her working with me while still giving us a reason to be seen together.”
Kaladin’s brows shoot up. “You want to…fake date Dr. Mackey.”
