I can imagine a scenario where I would be annoyed with Caroline suggesting that I need someone else to do my hair and makeup, but I’m so frazzled, I am simply grateful. “Thank you. And Caroline, could you contact this woman for me?” I text her the real name of Ms. Book Boyfriend. “See if you can find out who gave her the photo of Liam and me.”
“I’m on it,” says Caroline. Ms. Reynolds takes me to Liam’s office to change. I’ve never been here before, and the spacious, light-filled room makes me think of Liam. I feel a pang of sadness looking over his tidy desk. I want to study it, but I need to hurry.
Caroline came through with a fabulous wool black pantsuit and a Swiss dot blouse with a high neck tied with a big droopy bow in front. The ensemble is just vintage enough to feel like me. Just as I’m buckling the T-strap heels, there’s a knock on the door and Carmen enters.
“Lettie, I’m going to paint your face.” As always, Caroline’s stepmom looks glamorous. But she wears a lot more makeup than I do. I’m not sure if that look would work on me.
“Oh! Good,” I stammer.
“The look on your face... ” Carmen laughs. “Priceless. Don’t worry. I do my makeup extra fabulous. That’s me. I’m a lot. But I can see that you’re more into a natural look.”
“Perfect.” I let out a little breath of relief.
I sit still as Carmen massages moisturizer into my skin. Her fingers touching my face relieve some pent-up tension.
“I can’t bear to have Joe Whittaker take over Pemberley,” she says as she rubs rouge on my cheeks.
“Is he that bad?”
“Worse! He’s been doing everything he can to steal leadership away from the Darcy family. Joe just can’t stand the idea of Liam being in charge. He’s old school and doesn’t like the changes Liam has made such as actually paying overtime. Profits aren’t as high as Joe would like. He’s been campaigning to replace Liam, and now he finally has his ammo.”
“And I gave it to him. I promise, Carmen, I had no idea my stupid book would cause so much harm.”
“I wish you hadn’t written it. But it’s totally loco that the board is listening to Joe on this. Liam should not lose his job because an overbearing boss in a self-published romance resembles him. The TikTocker made things worse by throwing around accusations of sexual harassment.”
“Where did that come from? It’s not in the book. I swear.”
“I know, sweetie. I read it. It’s a fabulous book. These are the most baseless accusations. That’s why we need you here.”
Inwardly I groan. “I promise I never wanted to hurt Liam or this company.”
“Close your eyes,” she says as she brushes mascara on my lashes. I do as she says.
“I mean, there was a very brief time when I did want to hurt him,” I confess. “But that was a long time ago.”
“I know, dear, remember, I was there at karaoke.”
I want to correct her, set the record straight, tell her that’s my standard karaoke song. I wasn’t singing “Crazy for You” to Liam. But who am I kidding?
***
It’s more than a little nerve-racking tostand in the boardroom before six men and three women and tell the somewhat embarrassing story of how I ended up writing Liam Darcy as the villain in my book. I try to leave out the more humiliating moments. No one needs to know that when he first met me, he called me tolerable. But I still have to tell them about our disastrous date and how, after, I wrote him into my book as a revenge revision. I let them know we’ve been emailing and texting for several months now as friends, maybe more. I told them how I revised the book, yet again, to write him out of it. This last revision baffles the board.
“So, which character is supposed to be Liam Darcy? The man who owns the construction company or the wildlife photographer?” asks a white-haired man in a navy suit.
“Neither,” I answer. “I’m guessing you read the most recent edits in the eBook version where the villain is nothing like Liam.”
“I see. So, the sexual harassment is in the other version?”
“There was no sexual harassment in either version,” I say.
“But I saw this video that said there was,” says another man in a navy suit; I believe his name is Tom.
“She just said that,” Fiona, the woman I met at the gala says, waving her copy of the paperback. “I read the version inspired by Liam. Nice job, by the way.” She winks at me. “There’s no sexual harassment in the book.”
“This feels like a coverup,” says the first man in the navy suit. “Why, if there’s nothing wrong, did she change it?”
“Because this is all much ado about nothing,” says Fiona. She hands the first navy suit the paperback. “Read this, and you’ll see there’s nothing to be upset about.” She glares at Joe.
