“Define urgent.”
“Lucas.”
“Yes, it’s urgent. Come on, it’ll be quick.” He gestured me into his office. I followed with the resignation of a man who knew he wasn’t going to win the fight.
Lucas closed the door behind me, which was my first indication that this was going to be worse than I thought.
“Heidi wanted to be here, but I may have bought lunch for the entire marketing department to keep them occupied for the next hour. I thought this would be better with just you and me.”
“Is this another stunt pitch?” I asked, already feeling my shoulders tense. “Because I am really not in the mood. I said no and I meant it.”
“It’s not a stunt pitch. Well, not exactly.” He pulled up something on his computer and turned the screen to face me. “Have you seen social media lately?”
I shook my head. “I stay away from those viper dens.”
He gestured at his computer.
The screen showed a compilation of posts from all the major platforms, along with a few forums I’d never heard of. All of them talking about me and my “mystery girlfriend.” Along with the posts were photos that had been circulating.
Some of the pictures weren’t even of me.
There were entire threads dedicated to figuring out who she was. Amateur detectives zooming in on grainy photos, trying to identify her from the curve of her cheek or the color of her coat. Fan accounts posting countdown clocks to Valentine’s Day and the commercial reveal.
“It’s a firestorm,” Lucas said. “In the best possible way. Engagement is through the roof. But people are getting impatient. They want more.”
“More what?”
“More of you and Ina. More of the story.” He leaned back in his chair. “The gala tonight. You should take her. It makes sense. It gives people something to talk about.”
“No.”
“Dane, you know it’s working and you know it will feed the fires that guarantee some of us are going to get a nice bonus… right, boss man?”
“I said no. I want to keep Ina out of this from now on. No more public appearances. No more staged dates. She’s done enough.”
Lucas stared at me for too long. “Okay,” he said with a slow nod. “Can I ask you something? As a friend, not as your director of PR?”
I crossed my arms. “Do I have a choice?”
“Not really.” He came back to his desk but didn’t sit, just leaned against it. “Is something going on between you and Ina?”
“That would be against company policy.”
“You wrote the company policy.”
“The board adopted the policy. And both Ina and I would be on the chopping block if we let this thing get carried away.” I stopped myself, realizing I was about to admit more than I should.
“Whatthing?” Lucas pressed.
“We’ve been walking a very fine line, Lucas. Ina’s my secretary. There are power dynamics at play. If anyone thought for a second that something real was happening between us, it would look bad for everyone involved.”
“But it’s not real,” Lucas said slowly, watching my face. “It was just a PR stunt. A very successful one, but still just business. No harm, no foul. Right?”
The way he said it made it clear he didn’t believe a word of it.
We stared at each other for a long moment.
“Did something happen?” he asked finally.
