“What’s wrong?”
“I got a call today from my intern—former intern—at Helios.”
No. Oh no. Surely, surely they hadn’t called to win her back.
“It seems that despite my complete and total absence from Chicago and the entire professional marketing scene, despite the fact that I said nothing about the ethics violations Pierce engaged in to anyone outside your family and mine, Philip decided to hedge his bets and started a smear campaign against me. Two weeks ago. Which I knew nothing about because I completely unplugged from my professional life and have been hiding out in Mississippi. Two weeks, Cam, for all these vicious rumors to circulate without rebuttal or challenge.”
Shit. He didn’t know what to say. “How bad?”
“Bad. As in my entire professional reputation hangs in the balance bad. As in, I’m going to sue his ass for libel and slander and whatever else my attorney can come up with bad.”
“Jesus.” Cam scrubbed a hand over his face. Like she hadn’t had enough to cope with. “Look, come over, or I’ll come over there and we’ll talk through this. Figure out what to do next.”
There was another beat of silence.
“I’m already halfway back to Chicago.”
Which meant she’d been gone for more than half the day and she’d only just now called him. Cam absorbed that. Her professional life was falling apart, and she hadn’t looped him in on this until now. She’d gotten in her car and fucking left town without a word to him that she was going.
What else wasn’t she saying?
He held on to his temper. “Why didn’t you tell me? I’d have gone with you.”
“I didn’t even think to tell you. I was just so angry, I had to act.”
They were supposed to be in a relationship and she didn’t think to tell him about this huge thing that happened in her life. Didn’t come to him for comfort. Didn’t come to him for anything.
The silence between them stretched, grew gawky and strange.
“I’ve been on the phone with my attorney and various other people, trying to find out the extent of the damage.”
And this is where he fell in her priority list. Dead last. Or damned close to it.
“When will you be back?” Because they sure as shit needed to talk about this, and he wasn’t going to do it from five states away.
“I don’t know. I’m not sure how long it will take to straighten all this out. But I have to see this through. My professional reputation is all I have left.”
She had him, but clearly she didn’t count that on her list.
“I should know more after I meet with my attorney tomorrow. I’ll call you after.”
“Yeah, okay. Drive safe.”
He hung up and sat in silence, the phone all but crushed in his hand. A neat stack of her legal pads and multi-colored Post-it notes were arranged on the coffee table in front of him. The throw she’d adopted because he kept it frigid during the winter lay abandoned in the armchair, as if she’d just gotten up to pour a cup of coffee. Signs of her were everywhere. And yet after that three minute conversation, his house felt empty.
Hush, sensing his mood, laid her head on his knee and whined. Cam curled his fingers in her ruff and bent to press his brow to hers.
“Looks like we’re on our own for a while, girl.”
Hush whined again.
Cam sat up. “You know what? Screw this.”
She followed him as he stalked back to his room and began to pack a bag. “We’re going for a drive.”
Chapter 19
“Welcome to Starbucks. What can I get you?”