CHAPTER 17DENISE
CHAPTER 17
DENISE
“I quit.”
Cleo’s face was angry, and her eyes were puffy as she opened the door and stepped back for me to enter. I waved at the driver waiting for me to go inside before closing and locking the door behind me.
“Take a breath, Cleo,” I said, throwing my bag and jacket on the couch and kicking off my shoes.
Cleo’s short and naturally curly hair was standing up at odd angles. She started pacing around her apartment, grabbing at some of it.
Uh oh.
“Cleo, talk to me,” I said, standing in her way.
“The call on my calendar was to put me on leave. These fucking weirdo trolls haven’t been just calling us. They called my CEO. He was all, ‘We need to investigate these allegations’, and I was all, ‘You know what, fuck you and this fucking job, I quit’ and I hung up in his face. And oh, my fucking God, I quit my job. I quit my job and I have no heat, and I’m going to be on the street. I can’t live on the—”
My hands went to her shoulders, and I shook her.
“Cleo. Cleo. Stop talking. Stop!”
I shook her again until I heard her teeth chattering.
“Ow, that’s not helping.” Cleo’s hands went to my shoulders and we both started shaking each other. It wasn’t long before we both were rag-dolling each other around the apartment. Our frustration became laughter.
“What is wrong with you?” Cleo said, letting my shoulders go.
“What is wrong with you ?” I repeated, wiping the tears from my eyes.
“I can’t believe I quit my job,” she whispered.
My hands came to the sides of her face, and I smiled at her.
“What’s the plan?” I asked. She gave me a confused look and I continued. “We have a plan. Did you get that email from the owner of All Rage?”
She frowned and nodded, “Yes, and how did you—”
“So, she has work for you. And the next step of the plan is to work on your website, make sure it’s all good, right?”
Cleo nodded and I smiled.
“Good. See, we have a plan for you. Now we need a plan for the rest of this.” I pushed her shoulder.
“Let’s get a drink and figure this other shit out,” I said, walking towards her fridge.
“Funny story, I umm, have some stuff already. Hugh asked me to work on a few things for Foxx. I sent what I had to him the second I realized what happened.” I poured us both some rosé into water glasses.
“I know we’re in crisis mode, but we’re not animals.” She grumbled as I handed her the glass.
“Just drink it and shut up,” I said as she snorted into her cup.
Her phone was lighting up behind us. As I peeked over at it, she waved her hand.
“It’s been going off all day, but I blocked unsaved numbers so it’ll only ring when it’s someone important.”
“Okay, Cleopatra .”
Her eyes narrowed as she pinched my arm. Yowling, I yanked away from her, rubbing the sting away. If there was anything she hated more than Mrs. Cleo, it was her full name.
“What, I thought since Luc—”
“There’s a crisis plan that’s in the works for your job. The only thing we need to decide right this second is whether you want to ride it out or fight back.” Her stormy gaze told me that she didn’t want to talk about Lucian, and I groaned.
“We’re fighting back,” I said.
“Good, because we’ve got to find the right podcast to be featured on. I have a shortlist.”
“Yo, you’re kidding!” I yelled, watching as she shrugged her shoulders.
“Nope. You want to clear the air, that’s the place. With someone who’s going to ask you the hard questions and give you the soundbites you need.” She kept talking as I grumbled under my breath and threw myself on the sofa. “We also need to create an online presence for you so that this gets buried. We talk with some of the places you’ve volunteered, anything and everything that shows the good shit you do.” She put her glass down and started counting off her fingers.
“I also saw this woman make a bunch of fake profiles using her name with some random images. I guess we can use some fake AI ones and just muddy the water to obscure your old digital footprint.”
Falling to the couch didn’t feel dramatic enough, so I slowly slid down to the ground and flopped over.
“First things first, we contact any and every website that has our names, workplaces, and phone numbers displayed and politely ask that they pull that shit down. And that means getting your ass up off the floor.” Cleo kicked at me with her socked foot, and I stayed still.
When she reached down to grab me, her phone rang, and I stuck out my tongue as she walked over to grab it. She looked from me to the phone before putting it on speaker. Before she could say anything, I heard Hugh’s voice.
“She there?” he asked, sounding upset.
“Yep.” Cleo popped the p as she watched me.
“Let me talk to her.”
I gave a cutting motion across my neck and when she raised her eyebrow I placed my hands in front of me, pleading with her.
“You’re on speaker,” she said with a smirk.
I mouthed fuck you at her as he sighed.
“When I get back to SF, Denise…” he cleared his throat. He was pissed, but there was a little worry in his tone, and I felt a little bad for shutting off my phone. A smidgen. A crumb.
I could hear him take a deep breath before he spoke again, “Cut your phone back on. I’ll be by to scoop you up when I land.”
“I’m fine,” I said, feeling bolder in my rage. “As a matter of fact, there’s a bar down the street. I think Cleo’s out of wine. Maybe we can find someone who isn’t a demanding jerk face.”
“Yo, leave me out of it, Denny,” Cleo hurriedly whispered.
“Be pissed at me all you want, but if either of you leaves that apartment, you’re both going to regret it,” he growled.
“Wait. I didn’t even do anything!” Cleo whined as the line disconnected. She glared at me, and I glared back. “How are you getting me in trouble too, Denny? Damn!” Throwing the phone on the other couch, she put her hands on her hips.
“I tried to tell you he was on one.” I laughed as she kicked me in my sore ass cheek.
Leave it to me and Cleo to laugh when our whole world was falling apart. As much as I hated it, I reached into my pocket and powered on my phone. He was so fucking bossy, but the man definitely had a point. The phone needed to be on. I switched it over to do-not-disturb and double-checked that he was on my approved list.
I threw it on the sofa and kicked Cleo back. She eyed her phone and started typing on it.
“What are you doing?” I asked, looking at her warily.
“Texting Hugh. You’re not about to get me in trouble,” Cleo said, her fingers moving fast.
Watching her, I waited until she was distracted before leaping to my feet and grabbing her phone, running when she chased me.
“Friendship is all about getting into trouble together,” I said, running towardsher bedroom.
“Give it back, you silly bitch,” she hissed, leaping over her bed and falling on top of me.
I laughed so hard; I was sure I was going to pee on myself. As much as this sucked, at least I was in it with my favorite person in the world. But she was going to have to get off me.
“I think your elbow is in my kidney,” I said as she grabbed her phone from my grip.
“Serves you right. I should start throwing ’bows?”
She followed up her words by digging her elbow into my side.
“Get off me, Ludacris!” I yelled.
“What in the world is in that bag? What you got in that bag?” she screamed in my face before falling on top of me, laughing.
Now I really was going to pee on my damn self.