by Avery James
“After all of this, the big shot called up the owner and tried to have the manager and the waiter who spilled the drink fired for screwing up his anniversary. I know this because the owner called us all in and told us this. The owner said he wanted to do the right thing, and offered to comp the big shot’s meal the next week. He also picked up the dry cleaning tab for the manager.
“Then, a week later, the big shot comes back in with the blonde. Knowing their date is comped, he gets the most expensive everything. You could tell he was really enjoying the power trip. Halfway through the date, the owner shows up and takes the phone at the host station. He calls the wife and tells her he has her dry cleaning, and that he’ll send it home with her husband.”
“Seriously?” Abby asked.
Amy nodded. “Twenty minutes later, the wife shows up and goes ballistic on the husband and the mistress. The whole place erupts as she chases her husband out into the parking lot. Six months later, they were divorced, and she got half of everything.”
“So in this scenario, am I the manager?” Abby asked.
“No,” Amy said. “You’re the guy who owned the restaurant, and I guess that makes me the wife, except I’m going to take much more than half.” She looked at Abby for a moment and shrugged. “You always take care of the people who take care of you,” she said. “End of story.”
As the doors to the elevator opened and they walked back into the offices of Haven Communications, Amy told Abby, “Get everyone in the conference room in ten minutes. I have to make a few phone calls. The wife is about to go ballistic.”
***
As Nolan entered the offices of Politicker for the first time since he’d leased the space, he barely recognized his surroundings. Where once there had been a blank expanse of drab carpet, there were now twenty something cubicles, an open conference room flanked by whiteboards, and a wall of televisions showing at least a dozen different channels of political news.
Erin and the rest of the staff were standing in front of the flat screens, watching something. For a moment, Nolan assumed there was something wrong, because every TV seemed to be tuned to the same channel, but then he realized they were all picking up the same live feed. Senator Ruth Heck was standing next to a man he didn’t recognize.
This was either really good or really bad.
“Who’s the guy?” Nolan asked.
“The Attorney General,” Andy, a young guy with glasses and messy hair, answered. He looked like he was still in high school.
“This is unbelievable,” Cassidy, a young woman with a pixie cut and a zip up sweatshirt said. “This can’t be a coincidence.” Either these staffers were getting younger every year, or Nolan was getting older.
“I don’t think it is,” Erin said. She stared at Nolan like she wanted to throw him out a window.
“Erin, let’s talk in private,” Nolan said.
He led her to one of the offices on the far side of the room. “Say whatever you’re going to say.”
“What the hell were you thinking?” Erin said. “This team has spent weeks working on this story. I’ve spent months on it, and you just threw it out the window because your girlfriend works for Ruth Heck?”
“Careful,” Nolan said.
“You said you’d be hands off,” Erin replied, “and here you are getting in the way. You talked a big game, but politics isn’t the same as celebrity gossip. There are real stakes here.” She was pacing back and forth across the office with her arms crossed.
“Do you think I don’t know that?” Nolan said. “Yeah, I shared the story with Abby. Of course I did. It doesn’t change the facts of it. And it’s not like you weren’t going to ask for a comment. You have to know that I’m going to share that with her. Do you really expect I’d run that story without giving my girlfriend a heads up?”
“That should have been my call,” she said, “not yours.”
“I’m not here for a lecture,” he said.
“Well, maybe you should be. If it came down to it, would you choose her or the work?”
“I’m not having this discussion,” he said.
Nolan just stood there, dumbfounded. He couldn’t care less that Erin had just yelled at him. She had every right to, but what she said got to him.
She was right. When it came to Abby, he couldn’t be impartial, and he couldn’t be objective, and if it came down to choosing between her and a story, he’d pick her. This wasn’t what he’d set out to do. He had to figure out a way to make things work.
“Go back, and tell the team we have a plan,” he said.
“Do we have a plan?” Erin asked. “Because if we do, it’s news to me.”
“Go project confidence,” he said as he tried to do exactly that. He could feel everything crumbling around him as he tried to make sense of what was going on. He’d been building towards this moment for years, and, just as he was on the verge of having everything he wanted, it all threatened to implode.
Erin huffed and stormed out of the room, taking her place in front of the flatscreen. The other writers were nervously waiting to take cues. This was a complete mess, and, as far as Nolan cared, it was all his fault.
Shit. He needed to figure out a way to fix this. First, he needed to compartmentalize. He’d deal with the staff, and then he’d figure out how to make things right with Abby. He wasn’t even sure if he needed to make things right. He’d told her as soon as he knew, and she’d blown up and left. She hadn’t even given him a chance. At least he’d tried.
One problem at a time, he told himself. He was on the verge of losing the trust of his team if he didn’t handle this right. He couldn’t do that. He needed a silver lining, no matter how small. And he knew he wasn’t going to find it standing by himself in an office. He needed to rally everyone, and then he could figure it out from there. He headed back into the main space. He could feel everyone’s eyes on him.
“Everyone, gather round,” Nolan said. “I know you think this is a setback. I understand that. Our story just got blown to hell. We can work around that. Erin, Andy, and Cassidy, I need the three of you working together on a rewrite of this article.” What they were going to write, he didn’t know.
“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” he said. “And, right now, it feels like the rug’s been pulled out from under us. But that isn’t the case at all.” He turned and looked at the screen. The image of Ruth Heck standing neck to the Attorney General was playing on a loop. How the hell had she gotten him to lie for her? Nolan stopped and asked himself again. What does she know?
He turned back to the staff. “The senator just did us a favor. If we’d launched this story an hour ago, it would have gotten some traction, but it would have been an uphill fight. We needed something more, and now we have it.”
He looked at the confused expressions on the faces around him.
“A US senator just got on national television and lied. She got the Attorney General to stand up next to her and lie, too. What does that tell us?”
“She’s scared?” Andy said.
“Absolutely,” Nolan replied. “What else?”
“How many of you remember Watergate?” he said. He paused for a second and laughed. Including him, the average age in the room was probably twenty-five. “No, I wasn’t alive then either, but the lesson remains the same. It wasn’t the original crime that brought Nixon down, it was the cover up. We’re going to run the story with minor changes, and then we’re moving on to the next one. You see, Ruth just gave us something we didn’t already have.”
“Publicity?” Andy said.
“That, too,” Nolan replied, “but she gave us something just as valuable.”
“And what’s that?” Erin asked.
“Our next target. As soon as the story on Heck is out, I want you guys digging into her relationship with the Attorney General. Get everything you can find. Use every source you’ve got. It’s all happening right now. You want to make your mark? This is your chance.” As Nolan spoke
, he actually convinced himself that this was a good thing. He could tell he’d won over his staff, and he could feel the energy flowing back into the room. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go.”
As they headed back to their desks, Nolan took stock of the situation. He’d solved his most immediate issue, but the larger one still loomed. If his website’s main focus would be investigating Ruth Heck, how were he and Abby going to make things work? He picked up his phone and tried to call her. It went straight through to voicemail.
Chapter 26
As soon as the staff meeting at Haven was over, Abby wanted to go find Nolan. There was so much she needed to say to him, and she wanted to make sure they made things right before they got any more out of control. Usually, in a situation like this, a little distance made Abby spin out, getting herself more and more worked up about whatever little problem had caused the fight, but she was surprised to find that the opposite was true. She found herself seeing the situation from Nolan’s point of view and wishing she could make things right.
She knew he was working, and that this story had the potential to put Politicker in front of millions of readers, giving him exactly the big launch he’d been looking for. He was doing what he’d set out to do, exposing corruption and using the fortune he’d amassed over the years through his other sites to do something good. But she still didn’t like the way it had all happened, and she didn’t like the fact that the story put the two of them at odds. She wondered if she should just go to him and let the rest work itself out.
That wasn’t really an option though, at least not right away. Instead of seeing Nolan, Abby had to spend the better part of her afternoon meeting with a lawyer. It wasn’t the first time her work had placed her in need of counsel, but it was the first time Amy had insisted Abby seek independent representation. She’d insisted upon it for everyone who was even remotely involved in the case. Despite initially objecting that she didn’t need a lawyer, Abby decided to take her boss’s advice.
One of the beautiful things about working on K Street was that there was a high powered law firm on every corner. In fact, Abby didn’t even have to leave the building. She simply took an elevator to another floor. Her lawyer, a pleasant man with a graying beard and thinning hair, ran her through a slew of questions, asking for every possible connection Abby had to the Hecks and their alleged crimes.
When their meeting came to an end, the lawyer had two recommendations. First, as long as everything she’d said was true, Abby shouldn’t worry, as she hadn’t committed any crime. Second, despite the first fact, Abby should cut off all communication with anyone involved in the case, including Nolan.
That last recommendation had taken her by surprise. She was still mad at Nolan for the way everything had happened, but the suggestion that she should stonewall him completely made her inner contrarian take over. Abby decided then and there that she needed to see Nolan.
She reached the Dorset shortly after dusk. She wasn’t even sure Nolan would be there, but she didn’t know where else to go. She spent the whole ride over wondering what she’d say to him and trying to work her mind around the whole mess of feelings he’d dredged up by springing that article on her.
As she knocked on the door, she wondered if he was even there. She thought about everything he’d said to her, how he’d professed his love. She thought of how she felt when she told him she loved him, too. That immense, overwhelming feeling of joy, of connection. At the moment, it felt like there was a lot more than a hotel room door between her and Nolan. She knew she could feel that way again if she just told him exactly how she felt.
She raised her hand and knocked. Nolan opened the door before she could straighten her posture and decide what she wanted to say. Instead, she just looked at him. His shirt was untucked, and his hair was slightly mussed, and his blue eyes were focused directly on her.
“Hey,” he said. His voice had a sound of hopeful surprise that put her at ease and brought tears to her eyes at the same time. She hugged him, wrapping her arms around him and pulling herself close like her life depended on it. Nolan rubbed her back and stood there in the doorway with her, giving her a moment to pull herself back together, or maybe he was awash in relief, too. She couldn’t tell, but she knew coming to him was the right move.
“How are you?” he asked.
Abby kept her head against his chest. “I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know. What are we supposed to do?”
“Come inside.” He turned her into the room, and kept a hand around her as he shut the door.
Abby decided she needed to regain control of her emotions. “I saw your story got picked up by the Post and the Times.”
“It’s been chaos.” His eyes darted to the desk on the far side of the room, the one where she’d left the post it with her number all those weeks ago. On the desk was a laptop and a whole mess of loose paper. It looked like the room had erupted. “This is my sixth website. I’ve had some massive traffic in the past, but this is the biggest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Congratulations,” she said. The comment came off more distant than she meant it to, and she tried to think of a way to explain what she meant, but Nolan spoke before she could explain.
“Abby, I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean for things to happen this way. You know the last thing in the world I’d want to do is hurt you. I told them to hold the story. I was going to get more information, and then all hell broke loose. After the press conference, we had no choice but to run with everything we could verify.”
“Yeah,” she said. “That makes sense.” And it did make sense. He’d been above board about everything.
“You know I wouldn’t have hidden this from you, right? If I had known this was the story, I would have told you. I wouldn’t have left you in that situation.”
His apology caught her off guard. She’d come to his room hoping to apologize for overreacting and blaming him for things that weren’t his fault. Instead, he was the one apologizing to her. The whole thing made her feel like a jerk for the way she’d stormed off earlier and for the way she’d assumed the worst. Abby felt tears welling up at the corners of her eyes. Why did he have to be so perfect?
“Nolan, I feel like there’s something I need to say, but I need you to just let me get through it,” she said.
Nolan looked into her eyes. He placed his hands on her shoulders and gave a slow nod.
“Promise me you’ll let me say what I need to say, and that you’ll respect my decision.”
“Abby,” he said.
“Promise,” she said.
“Whatever you need from me, you have it,” he said. “But don’t think I’m going to let you walk away. I’d give up everything for you.”
“That’s the problem Nolan,” she said. “Can’t you see that I don’t want you to do that? It’s just that I don’t want to be the person who holds you back. I went and I confronted Ruth, and she all but confirmed the whole story, and what was worse was she didn’t think it was a problem. She couldn’t figure out why I hadn’t gotten you to bury the story, like that was my job, to manipulate you.”
“I know you wouldn’t do that,” he said.
“But that’s the thing, I did do that, not intentionally, but I kept you from breaking the story the way you wanted because you thought you had a responsibility to me first. I love you Nolan, and I believe in you. I see you for who you really are, not for your fame or your money, but something deeper. And I don’t want to stand in your way. I see how smart and courageous and hard-working you are, and I want other people to see that too. I want your parents to see that. I want you to see that. I want you to know that I’m proud of you, and I want you to see that they’re proud of you, too.
“You think you’re this disappointment to them and that you have to make up for something you never could have prevented, but the truth is you are incredible, and I love you. I love you so much. And I just don’t want to get in your way.”
“Abby, if you
try to say you’re breaking up with me for my own good,” he said.
“No, it’s not that at all,” she said. “Here’s what I’m trying to say: in every relationship I’ve ever been in, I’ve wanted things. I’ve wanted to have fun, or I’ve wanted to be taken seriously or I’ve wanted to fall in love. All of those times, I’ve wanted things for myself. I don’t think I ever realized how selfish I’ve been until I met you. And now, you bring me into your life, and you show me this side of you that no one else sees, and I find myself wanting everything for you. I don’t want you to be a wonderful guy because it would make me happy. I don’t want you to make my life easier. I want you to understand how amazing you are. I want you to find that thing you’ve been missing all these years. I want that for you because I love you.”
“I love you, too.” He laughed. “That was much better than I thought it would be.”
“What I’m trying to say is that I’m proud of you, and I don’t ever want to get between you and something you want.”
“And I need you to know that you’re all I want, Abby. Are we good?”
There was so much in Abby’s life that wasn’t good at the moment. She still was still neck deep in a scandal that her boyfriend had broken to the world. And she didn’t see how she could come out of this unscathed, but at least for the moment, none of that mattered. “Yeah,” she said as she leaned into him, “I think we are.”
***
While there was nothing like home cooking, Nolan had a hard time finding a downside to room service. One phone call and it appeared. Then later, the dirty dishes disappeared. It was one of the few aspects of staying long term in a hotel that hadn’t started to wear on him. His suite had a little kitchen, but he’d been so busy since getting back in town he barely had time to boil water. If Abby was upset by this, she hid it well. In the week since the Heck story broke, Abby had ordered breakfast and dinner to the room almost every day. She claimed that she had come to the hotel for him, but she’d stayed for the eggs Benedict.
