“You deserve to be fired, Tavon,” Sierra said and sat down at her desk. “I’ll tell Mr. Hunter myself.”
“Oh, come on,” Tavon said. “You knew what saying yes to a date with me would mean.”
Sierra’s face turned red. “I did not know. Where I’m from, people don’t sleep with each other on the first date. You’re disgusting. Tell him, Penny.”
“I…” my voice trailed off. I had slept with James before we had even officially had a date. And he was my professor. I wasn’t the one to lecture Tavon for being forward. “I mean, you have to read the situation.”
Zach laughed.
“Oh my God,” Sierra said. “Did you sleep with James on your first date?”
“Um, kind of?”
“Okay,” Tavon said. “Tell us the whole story.
***
The rest of the morning I spent laughing and bonding with the other marketing interns. They were all really nice. Extremely nosey, but nice. And I didn’t blame them. I kind of did have the inside scoop on their boss.
Before lunch, Andy stopped by with an ad idea he wanted us to go over. They were teaming up with Mason and Bee’s advertising agency for it, and it was fun going through the idea knowing that we’d be handing it over to Bee afterwards. Although, I’d be on my honeymoon when it was passed on to them. The afternoon flew by as well.
I was just about to shut down my computer so that I’d be in time for my dress fitting, when I got an email alert. I clicked on the box that had popped up:
You only have half an hour until I give James the pictures.
I deleted the email and shut off the computer. My heart was racing even though I knew the threat was empty. The pictures didn’t matter. I didn’t even talk to James about the pictures Isabella had sent me of him, and we were fine. It was just creepy that she knew my email.
“See you in a few weeks, guys.” I stood up and grabbed my purse.
“I still can’t believe you didn’t invite us to your wedding,” Tavon said and put his hands behind his head.
“I didn’t know you when I sent out the invites. And we already gave them a headcount. I’m really sorry.”
Tavon sighed. “It’s fine. Want to go out with me on Saturday?” he asked Sierra.
“I don’t think so.” She turned to Zach. “Would you like to hang out Saturday night?”
Zach smiled. “I’d love to.”
“Asshole,” Tavon said. “I called dibs.”
Zach shrugged. “Our bromance isn’t strong enough to honor your dibs. Besides, Sierra clearly doesn’t like you.”
“She’s just playing hard to get.”
Sierra laughed. “No, I’m not. Congrats, Penny. And I hope your dress fitting goes well.”
“Good luck,” Zach said with a smile. I was glad that he had finally let go of his theory that James was abusive.
“Break a leg.” Tavon laughed. “Just kidding. I don’t know what to say. You’re too young to get married?”
“Thanks for the support, Tavon.”
“Don’t listen to him. He’s just jealous that you found your person. And he can’t even get a date,” Sierra said.
“Bye, guys,” I said with a laugh. “Take care of James’ company while we’re gone.” I felt a little guilty walking away from them. If I hadn’t been such a mess when I first started the internship, I would have bonded with them sooner and could have given our wedding planner an updated headcount. I tried not to think about it as I made my way toward James’ office. I wanted to say hi before I went to my fitting.
Right before I grabbed the handle my phone buzzed. I pulled it out of my purse and looked down at the text I had just received:
“If you go to James I’ll leak all the photos.”
Jesus. How did she have my phone number? This was crazy. I needed to tell James right now. He’d know how to handle her. I didn’t want to deal with this alone anymore.
I reached for the handle again as another text came through. This one was a picture. But it wasn’t one of the ones she had sent me this morning. It was of James and I having sex. On his desk in his office. Holy shit. Another one came through. And then another. And another.
I put my face in my hand. What was wrong with me? Obviously she had planted a camera in there if she had gotten that picture of her kissing James last week. I was such an idiot. I didn’t think at all. My phone buzzed again, but this time there was a message:
“You thought I was talking about the other photos from this morning? Aw, Penny. You underestimate me. These photos will be leaked to every sleazy tabloid if I don’t see the money in my account in 20 minutes. And don’t you dare run to James. If you do, I’ll leak the photos. If you call the cops, I’ll leak the photos. We’re ending this right here, right now. And there’s more pictures where that came from. You’re quite flexible.”
You sick fuck. This wasn’t just some petty game. She’d ruin James’ reputation. My hands were shaking. James was the C. E. O. of a huge company, he was well respected, he was a freaking philanthropist. He was a good person. These pictures would make it seem like he didn’t have control. I stepped away from James’ office and looked back toward the cubicles. I had tossed out the envelope that had Isabella’s account information in it, but I could dig it out of the trash. Would she really leak the photos if I went to James? I had already tarnished his reputation once. I didn’t want that to be on my hands again.
My phone buzzed again.
“Step away from his office. Here’s my account number again. You’re running out of time.” The account number was written at the bottom of the text.
I turned around. How is she watching me? I could feel tears begin to well in my eyes. I couldn’t risk it. James could lose everything. 20 million dollars wasn’t that much to him. And maybe we could get it back later. She didn’t say I couldn’t tell him afterwards. I didn’t have time to think right now. I was running out of time.
I ran toward the elevator and called Ian.
He picked up on the second ring. “Hey, Penny. I’m waiting outside to take you to Kleinfeld’s.”