Chapter Thirty-Five
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
The @picturesofjosie account is my gateway drug. Because I see myself trending, see users reposting content from TikTok, and I just can’t keep myself away from it all. My phone is filled with notifications—calls, texts, emails—but the only thing I can focus on is doomscrolling social media platforms. It’s like I’m a teenager all over again.
I never even liked the clothes
She’s really not that pretty IMO?
Imagine being Camila, in the shadow of your best friend’s success all your adult life. She prob got fed up and that’s why she’s leaving
The Revenant board needs to fire that bitch
The discourse is never-ending. It’s a pile-on fest, something that has snowballed into far more than one piece of bad press. Our sales have plummeted. Today is on track to be the worst day-over-day sales decline on record. I know, because I’m watching the numbers crawl upward at a glacial pace. I did more sales than this in my first year.
“Did you sleep here?” My head jerks from the computer monitor to the front of my office. Camila is in the doorway, concern cutting open her expression.
“No,” I say.
“That’s the same shit you were wearing yesterday.”
“I haven’t been home.”
“So, you did sleep here.”
“Didn’t sleep,” I mutter.
She walks over to my desk and grabs my phone. I swat at her, but she darts away and types in my passcode. “You downloaded the apps?”
“In a moment of weakness—”
Camila glares at me, tapping her thumb against my phone. “No,” she says, very simply.
“I need to keep up with the rumor mill,” I say. “For damage control purposes.”
She ignores me, continues tapping on my screen. “I don’t mean to put words in your mouth, but I think you might be on the verge of a full-on mental breakdown. So no, you don’t get to keep up with the rumor mill for damage control purposes. That’s my job.”
“I need to figure out how to do this without you!” I don’t mean to shout it, and I don’t, not really, but it comes out octaves higher than it should’ve.
“Well, put a pin in that, because I’m not leaving as soon as I told you I was.” She sets my phone back down on the desk.
“No,” I say.
“Yes.”
I stand, guilt slicing me in half. The last thing I want is Cami staying at Revenant out of obligation. “I can do this,” I say. “I can fix it.”
“And I can help.”
I walk around the desk, facing her. “You’re fired.”
She laughs. “That’s cute.”
“Cami! You have to go to New York with David! Fresh start! Space from your family! Graduate school!”
“I’ll defer one semester.”
“I am not letting you do that,” I say, even as tears prick at my eyes with how much I love her, how special it is to me that I have this loyal of a best friend. I’ve never deserved her, but if I can convince her to go, maybe I’ll start to.
“If I leave now,” she says, her voice soft, “it will only make things worse.”
“Sometimes,” I say, “things have to get worse before they get better.”
She’s wavering. I can see it in her eyes.
I go for the kill strike.
“All this,” I say, gesturing around, “is just a business, Cami. It’s just money. It’s just clothes. It’s just a big fat house of cards that can be blown over but can also be rebuilt. You’re going to have a brand-new husband.” I smile softly at her. “In no universe will I hear of any reality except the one where you go with him to New York City in all your newlywed bliss. It’s what you deserve. It’s what you’ve earned.”
She sighs out, long and slow.
Seconds pass.
More seconds.
“I hate feeling like I’m abandoning you in a time of need.”
I grab her hands. “That’s exactly why I can’t let you stay. It’s the same way you always felt about your little sisters, your cousins, your grandma. Which means you need to get the hell out of Dodge.”
She smirks. “Not yet. I’ve got one week left, and we’re course correcting. Everyone I’ve talked to out there is willing to do whatever it takes to turn the narrative around. I didn’t even have to ask them if what Margaret Dwyer said was true. They came up to me all on their own and assured me it wasn’t.”
I smile softly. I haven’t left my office except for bathroom breaks. I’ve been avoiding every single one of my employees like the plague. Hearing Camila say they’re supporting me is music to my ears, even though I can’t shake the feeling that Margaret can’t have completely fabricated what she said.
I’m not perfect. Not even close.
“The news about becoming a B Corp is going to help with course correcting. Our review call with the B Lab analyst is tomorrow.”
“Are you sure we’re going to pass?” Cami asks.
No. I’m not sure of anything, not anymore. But I need her to believe the answer is yes so she doesn’t change her mind again.
“Positive,” I say, lying through my teeth. “We triple-checked all our documentation and I know we’re well above eighty points. It’s in the bag.”
Thoughtfully, Cami nods and turns to go. “Don’t bother redownloading the social apps. I’m headed straight to Inez’s desk so I can ask her to lock you out.”
“How is that even possible?” I wonder aloud.
“Honestly, babe, the less you know about how thoroughly your devices are monitored, the better.”