“I sent it.”
“You didn’t.”
“Oh, sorry, I was so sure I finished that.” She looks taken aback and then her face crumples. “I wish it were something that small.”
Smaller than costing me the promotion I’ve been working my buns off for?I plunk myself into my chair and sigh. “What’d you do?”
She stands. “Come with me. I can’t talk about it here.”
“But nobody’s here.”
“Someone might come by.”
I force my aching body up and out of the chair and follow her to the ladies’ room. When the door is securely closed, Kat sniffles. “It’s so awful, I don’t think I can even say it.” She heaves with huge sobs before launching into the story. “I… well Paz and I… you know Paz, the hot bartender?”
“Yes, I know him.”
“We…well he, not me, I didn’t know he was doing it…but he made a recording of us having sex.”
Every muscle in my body goes limp. “What? He made a tape of you in bed?”
Fresh tears stream down her cheeks. “Technically it wasn’t in bed. It was in the ballroom. On top of the bar. You know the one we were using for practices?”
“Oh my God, Kat, what were you thinking?”
“I didn’t know he was recording it!” she shrieks.
“But why would you think it was okay to sleep with him in the first place? At my place of work? After it was made clear to you not to do that!”
Narrowing her eyes, she says, “I don’t need a lecture. I already told you it was a mistake. I came to you for help, so please don’t make me regret it.”
“Sorry, but you’ve just dropped a pretty big bombshell on me,” I answer, oozing sarcasm. “It might take a minute for me to catch up with you.”
“I haven’t even told you the worst part.”
“The sex tape isn’t the worst part?” My voice rises. “What the hell else did you do?”
“Nothing! But he said if I don’t give him fifty thousand dollars, he’s going to post the video so he can make money off it.”
My stomach lurches, and I clasp one hand over my mouth. “Where does he think you’re going to come up with that kind of money?”
“He said I should be able to get it easily, since our parents are pastors.”
“I don’t think he knows how much pastors get paid,” I tell her, not understanding where she’s going with this.
“He suggested I steal it from the collection.”
I gasp, feeling like I had the wind knocked out of me. “You can’t be serious. He wants you to steal from the congregation?”
She nods. “He’s giving me until next Monday night to e-transfer him the money, otherwise he’s going to post it as Preachers’ Daughter Gets Hot and Bothered.”
I lean against the bathroom counter to hold myself up. “Oh my God. Oh my God, Kat. This is so much worse than anything I thought you were going to say.”
“I know!” she cries. “Please think of something. I don’t know what to do. This’ll kill Mum and Dad. Especially Dad. I’ll never be able to look him in the eye again.”
I rub my face with both hands, praying this is all a bad dream, and I’m going to wake up. But it isn’t. This will be the scandal that will take my parents down for good. There’s no way they’ll be able to stand up on Sundays and preach about living the good life after this. Not with the church community thinking their youngest daughter is an amateur porn star.
Rage fills my veins, and I pace the length of the counter. I’m furious at her for being so stupid. I’m furious at Theo for being such an ass. I’m mostly furious with Paz for being such a lowlife, scum-sucking pig of a human being.
