Page 1 of #Awestruck

CHAPTER ONE

“Someone in this room is going to prove that Evan Dawson is not a virgin.”

Even though my boss sounded completely serious, I couldn’t stop my snicker from escaping. This was why she had called an emergency meeting? Who cared? Evan Dawson had done so much worse than possibly lie about whether or not he’d done it.

“Ashton?” Brenda raised one eyebrow at me from behind her black-rimmed glasses. “You have something you wanted to say?”

The gaze of every intern currently working for the Portland, Oregon, branch of ISEN (International Sports and Entertainment Network) landed on me, and I coughed to hide my discomfort at being called out.

I fought the urge to pull down my ponytail and cover my face in a curtain of red hair. “No, I didn’t. Sorry.”

Brenda nodded briefly, satisfied that she’d shut me up so quickly. She was not a woman anyone crossed, for any reason. There was the minor fact that her grandfather owned ISEN, her dad was the current CEO, and she was his only child. Someday the entire national company would all be hers, and she never let us forget it. Her dad had required her to “work her way up,” and among other responsibilities, she was in charge of the intern program for this branch. It was common knowledge that if we played ball and made her happy, we would have the job of our choosing in whatever department we wanted.

Ever since I was a little girl, I’d wanted nothing more than to be the official announcer for the Portland Lumberjacks.

Brenda had the power to make that happen for me.

As long as I played along.

And apparently what she wanted was to discredit Evan “Awesome” Dawson, the quarterback for my beloved Jacks and one of the best players in the entire NFL.

Brenda went on. “For years Evan’s been playing up his aw-shucks, boy-next-door, wholesome white-bread routine to sell sports drinks, cars, and anything else that might appeal to flyover states. And I don’t believe him. I think he’s lying, and we’re going to prove it. And our ratings will go through the roof.”

Ah, the ratings. One night after work, Brenda had gone out with us lowly interns and gotten tipsier than she’d probably intended. She’d confided that she was determined to make our ratings skyrocket, forcing her casually sexist grandpa and dad to pay attention to her and what she was capable of. That she was sure if she could break one great story or scandal, they’d finally get over the fact that she was a woman, and she’d get promoted to a vice president position.

It looked like she intended to use Evan to get there.

An image of Evan flashed up on the screen behind Brenda, and I knew why she didn’t believe him. To say he was gorgeous would have been seriously underselling it. Tall, athletic body that looked like it had been carved from a boulder, chiseled jaw, bright-blue eyes, and dark-brown hair. A bank account that bred zeroes. And that all-American smile that still, after all these years, made me a little weak in the ovaries.

The world should have been his own personal sex-musement park to which he had a season pass. It was definitely hard to buy that one of the most perfect male specimens to ever walk the earth was an actual virgin.

But I knew what a jerk he was underneath that pretty, polished exterior, and I was down for whatever evil plans Brenda had. Especially if they meant my getting the chance someday to work with Scooter Buxton, voice of the Jacks.

“Isn’t that his story to tell or not tell?” Talia, the only other female intern, spoke up. “I mean, if he were a woman, this isn’t even a conversation we’d be having. We’d be applauding his commitment to his personal choices, not trying to prove that he must be a liar.”

Much as I was up for destroying Evan Dawson’s life the way he had once ruined mine, Talia might have had a tiny point.

Given that scary look currently brewing on Brenda’s face, she did not agree. “This is the story. Feel free to excuse yourself from pitching if you have such an issue with it.” I wondered whether Talia would be fired at the end of the day or if Brenda would be generous and wait until Friday. Our boss did not enjoy being challenged. “Pitches will start in twenty minutes. I’ll assign the person who can best show me how you’ll get this story. And you know I take care of people who deliver. Get to work!”

It was actually a little unfair how I was about to get assigned to this story and beat out every other intern. There was no conversation as everyone rushed back to their cubicles and started typing on their computers and phones. I did some cursory research on Evan’s stats for the season so far, but there was little else I had to do.

Because I’d gone to high school with Evan Dawson. I knew him. Not biblically, obviously. Because then I could have marched into Brenda’s office and won her approval.

But I’d known him. I’d been head over heels in love with him.

And he’d broken my heart in the most public, most humiliating way imaginable.

I’d hated him ever since.

No one in this room knew him the way that I had.

And no one else had the same kind of connections that I did.

I considered my options in exposing him as a liar. There was the obvious—seduction. Getting him into bed would be proof he wasn’t a virgin. And mildly tempting as that icky idea might have been, if gossip was to be believed, many had tried, but none had been chosen.

It shocked me a little that my mind went there first—considering doing something gross and unethical. But I’d played by the rules once before. I’d lost out on multiple internships while I was still in college to boys who were willing to do whatever it took to succeed. Who would lie, cheat, steal, and basically sell their own mothers if it meant getting the job. I’d tried succeeding on my own merits. It hadn’t worked. Ruthlessness and naked ambition superseded everything else, as one recruiter had told me, saying I wasn’t cut out for sports reporting.

But I had to succeed. It was all my grandma had talked about since I was a kid—how I would reach the highest echelons of success in this industry, something she’d never been able to accomplish. Which couldn’t happen if I didn’t find somewhere willing to take me on.

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