Chapter 5
JUNO
Iadjusted the oversized sunglasses on my face and tugged the headscarf lower over my blonde hair. My eyes darted around the bar. It was dim but not dark.
I slid into the booth at the back of the bar. The place was quiet, which was exactly why I’d suggested it. Amber and Lena had shown up without question when I sent out the SOS. We went to college together, although we didn’t spend a lot of time together with all of us busy with our own careers.
Both of them eyed my ridiculous disguise with a mix of concern and amusement.
“Ms. Rat Piss,” I muttered into my first martini. Some teenager at the coffee shop had yelled it across the sidewalk like it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. I’d nearly dropped my cup running for the car. The words still stung hours later.
Amber reached over and squeezed my hand. “It’s already dying down. By tomorrow everyone will be obsessed with some celebrity split or a baby hippo at the zoo.”
Lena nodded, stirring her drink. “Remember that guy who yelled at the barista last month? Gone in forty-eight hours. This’ll be the same.”
I sipped faster than I should have. It was a terrible plan but getting drunk was the only idea I could come up with. That stupid video ruined my life.
I told myself not to read the comments. That was as effective as telling myself not to breathe.
The comments looped in my head. If I ever needed a one-night stand, I had plenty of offers. People were so vile. And they fed off each other. One would say something nasty and then some other dipshit would add to it.
“If you stopped reading the comments you could pretend it didn’t exist,” Lena said.
“How can people say such nasty things?”
“Because they’re assholes,” Amber said.
I finished my margarita and immediately waved the server over. The first took the edge off, but I could still feel the stress.
“Tell me what you guys have been up to,” I said. “Distract me.”
They talked about their jobs. Lena’s latest bad date. Amber’s cat. Anything that wasn’t Hollis Blackwell or smoothies. It was exactly the relief I needed.
By the third drink my words were slurring and the bar felt pleasantly fuzzy. Amber paid the tab while Lena ordered a ride. They each took an elbow and guided me out without letting the scarf slip.
They rode with me the whole way to my apartment. Lena made sure I drank water and gave me a couple of Advil.
“Go directly to bed,” Amber ordered. “Do not drunk text anyone. Do not get on social media. Go. To. Bed.”
“I know. I will. Thanks for coming out with me.”
“That’s what friends are for.”
I stumbled into my bedroom and kicked off my shoes. Then I stared at my bed and debated stripping or just going to bed as is. I managed to shrug out of my blazer and that was it. Soon after, the alcohol pulled me into a nice, deep sleep.
I woke up with the hangover I knew was coming.
Didn’t stop me from the last margarita. Calling in sick wasn’t an option, which meant I had to drag my ass into the shower.
I felt like roadkill but I put on some light makeup that did little to hide the bags under my eyes.
Then I pulled my hair up because I didn’t have time to mess with it.
But it would be fine. I kept my head down and made my way to my office. When I got there, I wished I could leave my sunglasses on but I didn’t want to look hungover.
Thank God I didn’t have any appointments. I’d order breakfast, drink a barrel of coffee, and then maybe slink home at lunch for a quick nap. More Advil. Maybe I needed something greasy. That was a hangover remedy that went against everything I preached.
I would kill for one of those magic drinks that promised to be hangover cures. Some actually worked, but I didn’t have any because I never needed them. Until now.
“Good morning,” Kari said.
I groaned. “Not today. Please go easy on me. And speak softly. I’m fragile.”
She grimaced. “Don’t shoot the messenger but your father wanted to meet with you as soon as you got in. And well, you’re in.”
“Tell him to wait. Tell him I’m missing. I got held up in traffic.”
“He’s partnering with a new business and he wants you to meet them.”
The haze cleared. Fear snaked through me. Had he decided I wasn’t worthy after the stunt at the expo? To be fair, I did that shit all the time. It had never blown up in my face before, though.
I was sure there had to be a lesson in that, but I didn’t have the brainpower to figure it out.
“Partnering? With who?”
Kari shifted her weight. “Only one way to find out.”
“Acquisitions is my job. He isn’t supposed to bring anyone else on without my input at least.”
Kari shrugged. “Maybe that’s why he wants you to meet them. To get your input.”
I grabbed my blazer from the back of my chair and shrugged into it, wincing as the movement sent a fresh wave of nausea through me. I felt like I’d been hit by a truck, then reversed over for good measure.
“Do I have time to, uh, get coffee?”
“No.” Kari was already at the door. “He said as soon as you got in. Seemed pretty adamant about that.”
Perfect. Just perfect.
The walk to my father’s office felt like a death march. Of all the days. I was never not prepared—except today.
I reached his office door and paused, taking a breath that did absolutely nothing to steady me. Then I knocked.
“Come in.”
I pasted on a professional smile and walked in.
Motherfucker.
Hollis Blackwell was sitting in front of my father’s desk, dressed casually in a black fitted tee and dark jeans. And he smirked at me.
I stared at my father. It had to be a joke. There was no way my father was considering Blackwell for a partnership.
When I looked back at Hollis, he was still flashing that infuriating smile. I had zero patience for his nonsense.
“Dad, what are you doing?”
“Hold on a second,” Dad said. “Hear me out.”
I was not going to have a conversation with my father in front of fucking Hollis Blackwell.
“I’d like a moment to speak with my father,” I said. “In private.”
Hollis smiled and languidly got to his feet. He stepped toward me, intentionally invading my personal space. “Thought you might,” he said.
Despite the anger raging inside me, I kept my expression neutral as he walked out of the office and closed the door behind him.
I whirled on my father the second the door clicked shut.
“Are you out of your mind, Dad?” My voice came out too loud. I winced at the sound echoing in my own skull. “You better not be partnering with that dick.”
“Juno—”
“No, seriously, Dad. I need you to explain this to me like I’m five years old, because I cannot comprehend how you could possibly think this is a good idea.” I paced in front of his desk, my hands gesturing wildly. “He put out that video mocking me!”
“I saw the video.”
“He humiliated me. He made me look like a lunatic in front of hundreds of thousands of people. Millions, probably, by now.” My voice cracked slightly. “He’s the reason I can’t walk down the street without someone yelling ‘rat piss’ at me.”
“It’s a memorable phrase.” He looked me in the eyes. “And you didn’t learn to talk that way from me.”
I scoffed. “Are you really going to partner with him?”
“We are going to partner with him,” he said.
“This is my job, Dad. Vetting partnerships is literally what you pay me to do. And you just went behind my back and brought in the one person I specifically told you was bad news?” I took a shaky breath and let it out slowly.
“Do you have any idea how that makes me feel? Like you don’t trust my judgment.
Like all the work I’ve done means nothing. ”
“Juno.” His voice was calm. That was my father. He took calm, cool, and collected to the next level. He was kind. Patient. Loving.
But I was furious. “What?” I snapped.
He looked at me with that patient expression that usually settled me down. “Do you trust me?”
The question caught me off guard. I stared at him, wondering why that mattered. My father had taught me everything I knew about business, integrity, and doing the right thing.
“Not right now,” I said honestly.
“Fair enough.” He leaned back in his chair. “Let me lay something out for you, and allow me to be blunt. You damaged the brand.”
My stomach dropped. “What?”
“The video made us look bad, Juno. Sales are down. We’re getting negative reviews all over the place. People are calling the office.”
“Dad!”
“I love you, sweetheart, and I love your fiery spirit. Unfortunately, it bit you in the butt this time. And now it’s biting the whole company in the butt.”
“That wasn’t my intention,” I said.
“Look, if it was just you and me, we could take the hit and not care.” Dad gestured vaguely toward the rest of the office, brow furrowed.
“But there’s a whole bunch of people out there who need their paychecks, and lost sales will mean layoffs down the road.
So we’re going to fix this before it gets worse. ”
I shook my head helplessly. “I don’t understand how things spiraled out of control like this.”
His voice remained gentle. “Your heart was in the right place. I know you thought you were protecting people. But when you went after someone as well known as Hollis Blackwell in public, in front of his customers, you should have expected a response.”
“It’s not like it hurt his brand,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“No, his sales are up. He just showed me the numbers.”
“So I had the opposite effect of what I wanted? Just great.” I leaned on the back of the nearest chair, feeling exhausted.
“Yes, plenty of our customers love him, too,” Dad said. “You might think he’s a fraud, but people that have tried his green shake swear by it.”
“Because his family is famous,” I said bitterly. “They’re kissing his ass.”
He nodded. “Yeah, most likely. That’s how the world works. We didn’t invent this system. We just live in it.”
“You know I hate that.”
“I know. Anyway, I’ve agreed to a limited partnership on a small project.”
“Dad, no!”
“It’s to stop this runaway train,” he said. “If we partner with him, the narrative changes.”
I crossed my arms and stared at him. “Let me throw him out the window. That’ll change the narrative too.”
Dad chuckled. “Let’s call that Plan B. For now, we’ll announce to the world that you’ve reconsidered your opinion, and we’ll be working on a new project together. That should clean up this PR mess. Especially since you will be overseeing this joint venture personally.”
I had to be in a nightmare. I was still drunk, passed out in my bed. Because there was no way my father would make me work with the man that had made my life a living hell.
Dad didn’t notice my emotional crisis. “In the meantime, you can vet him like you would vet any other potential partnership. I think he has good ideas.”
I wanted to throw something. Do damage. “Don’t tell me you’re falling for his charm like all those other idiots.”
“No,” Dad said with a chuckle. “This is purely a business decision. Do you understand?”
“Yes. But I don’t like it. Actually, I hate it.”
He smiled. “You can have your feelings, but don’t let them affect your work. You’ll be spending a lot of time with him.”
“You have got to be kidding me,” I groaned.