I giggled softly, pouring our coffee in cups. And I’d thought I had it bad with all that sneaking around with Merritt.
“I think we’re all a bit jittery because of the lack of sleep. So we’ll have our morning dose and we’re all good,” I said to them, always the peace-maker.
I put the cups on the tray and carried them across the room to where Ben and Joshua were sitting, serving them their coffee. Then I proceeded to Megan’s desk and left her cup before I took mine, leaning against her desk.
“Mmm, Camilla your coffee-making skills are out of this world,” Megan said after she sipped her coffee.
I let out a chuckle. “It’s just coffee, Megan. It’s not rocket science.”
Taking a sip of my coffee, I glanced at the desk next to hers, and the world stopped moving. I choked, my eyes widening when I spotted a tabloid sitting on the desk and spit out my coffee all over Megan.
“Camilla!” Megan complained, jumping up to her feet. “What the hell, girl?”
“I’m so sorry,” I mumbled my apology and grabbed the tabloid before she could spot it. There, in huge, white letters, wrote, “A Scandal in the Congress! Congressman Dawson Sleeping with an Aide!”, and if that wasn’t humiliating enough, they had pictures of Merritt and me in the bed all over the front cover.
Oh my God. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Those pictures were from my own cell phone. How did they end up on the front page of this tabloid?
I had to get out of here before my coworkers saw this and started giving me the third degree.
“Camilla? What’s going on?”
“Um…” I lowered the tabloid, making sure she couldn’t see the front page. “I’m so sorry for spilling my coffee on you. Here.” I grabbed a package of tissues from my desk and handed it to her. “Use them before the coffee dries on your blouse. I’ll get you a new one.” I was already close to the door. “I’ll be right back.”
Wasting no time on explanations, I rushed out of the office with the tabloid in my hand. I passed several colleagues, but other than nodding at me in greeting, they didn’t pay attention to me, which meant they hadn’t read the article. Good.
I went to the nearest restroom and locked myself inside, my heart pounding wildly.
Before I could stop them, the tears welled up in my eyes, and the shock wore off, letting me realize how terrible this situation actually was. I was right on the front page. Naked. With Merritt. Anyone could see this. My parents could see this. My brother.
My boss could see this. Oh God.
This was a huge scandal. I pressed my hand against my mouth, battling against a strong wave of nausea. I couldn’t panic. I had to go through this as calmly as possible…
But first things first. I had to read this article and see what they had written about us.
With trembling hands, I opened the tabloid, afraid of what I might encounter inside. How did they know about Merritt and me? We had been extra careful not to let this happen. So how did someone do this?
I found the story in the middle and I started reading, my pulse quickening with each awful paragraph.
“Is this woman Dawson’s latest conquest? They have been seeing each other for weeks… They act like they don’t know each other at work… They spend time at his or her place… Her neighbors claim they can hear loud screams coming from her apartment during their passionate moments…”
And much, much more horrible details. They knew everything!
I was blind with tears, and my chest hurt. For the first time in my life, I had no clue what to do and how to get out of this mess. This would destroy everything I’d fought for all these years. When I went out, they would eat me alive. I was sure my boss would fire me. Then I would have to face a public backlash…
Oh no. I went to the sinks and gripped the counter, looking at my pale face in the mirror. I was shaking terribly, unable to will myself out of here. I needed to prepare myself. I needed to prepare myself for whatever mess I was about to face.
This was exactly what I had feared when I decided to date Merritt. I should have known something like this would happen sooner or later. But how?
Did Merritt do this? He could have been angry with me for rejecting him after I used him to get me a job. Maybe he wanted to get even, so he hired someone to hack my phone and have those photos sold to that tabloid.
This would explain a lot of things. After all, he was a playboy who wasn’t used to hearing “no”. Maybe his ego was hurt, and he wanted to get back at me.
I pressed my hand against my chest, dejected. If that was true, then all these days, all those moments… They had been a lie. He had lied to me when he said he liked me and he just acted like he cared about me. He had pr
obably been using me for sex and now that he got tired of me, he was exacting his petty revenge.