Page 45 of Cakewalk
Courtney sat, and I hoped the lack of further questions meant she was happy enough with our answers. I had expected a much harsher reaming, knowing how protective the two sisters were of each other. Considering myself lucky, I went to return the microphone to the podium.
“One more thing,” a man’s voice echoed through the hall, and I heard Jade groan beside me.
I turned back to the audience, seeing a young brunette man with a camera strapped around his neck. “Thomas Gordon, from the Calhoon Times.” He pulled out a folder and asked, “May I use the projector?”
The town hall organizer hurried up the stage and grabbed the microphone. “You didn’t alert me that we’d be needing the projector.”
“Just for a moment.”
Everything about this guy’s attitude screamed “gotcha journalism,” and I gave Jade a concerned side-eye. She whispered as the town hall organizer fussed with the projector equipment, “That’smy ex.”
“Dear Lord,” I mumbled.
Thomas spoke up again, “I was simply going to publish this, but I figured it’d be fair to let you comment on it first.”
I whispered to Jade, “Somehow, I doubt the kindness of that gesture.”
With the old projector fired up, the town hall organizer waved Thomas up to put on full display whatever it was. And then it struck me what he might have on us.
I approached him just before he slipped his photographs into the projector. “Now, is this necessary?”
“Such inappropriate acts between a boss and his employee shouldn’t be swept under the rug, no.” Thomas proceeded to slide the first photograph into the projector.
I stared hard at the photo as the audience gasped at the projection. Somehow I felt relieved. It was a distant photo zoomed in through the blinds of my apartment, showing only enough to make it obvious what Jade and I had been up to.
It could have been the park. At least it wasn’t that sordid little adventure.
Knowing it could have been much worse, I remained collected. “You’ve been stalking your ex-girlfriend, Thomas?”
He glared. “I’ve been keeping watch onyou, Mr. Reed. And it seems you live up to your reputation.” He turned and addressed the audience. “He’s Jade’s boss, and as you can clearly see here, he has forced her into a situation where she could have lost her job if she didn’t cooperate.”
“Jade is an independent contractor, and at worst, we’re colleagues. Peers.” I snatched the photo off the projector, and Thomas merely shrugged.
“I’ll be publishing copies in Sunday’s newspaper, along with all the other causes for concern regarding both you and Jade.”
It took everything in me to not deck him. Lowly, not for the audience’s ears, I said, “Try me, Thomas. I’ll have you dealing with charges of harassment and stalking if you dare attempt to drag her name through the mud any further.”
“You’re threatening me?”
“Report all you want about me, but yes, Thomas, I’m threatening you if you’re going to be so petty as to try to end the career of a woman who simply made the mistake of loving you. Her private life is of little relevance to the public, and I’ll have you painted as the vindictive little man you are if you so much as print her name, let alone any photos of her.”
Thomas stared up at me, mouth in a thin determined line, but it was his gaze that faltered first. “I’m still printing a story about you taking advantage of your position.”
“Just get the facts right, asshole.”
I must’ve had murder in my eyes, because Thomas didn’t challenge me any further, instead storming off stage and out of the hall.
I had been so laser focused on him that I hadn’t noticed the reality going on around me. Nobody was sitting down now, a few phones were out recording the whole scene, and Jade was chasing after Courtney who was pushing her way through the crowd.
With a heavy sigh, I grabbed the mic from the flabbergasted town hall organizer, and I said, “Sorry you had to see that.” With that, I grabbed Patches’s cage and headed out to find Jade and her sister.
* * *
The sceneoutside wasn’t much better. Courtney shoved me back when I approached her and Jade, then she gasped and apologized to Patches for rattling the little guy, then she called me a pig and left for her truck, peeling out before anyone else. Jade’s hands were in fists, and her cheeks were red, but she looked more pissed than anything.
I put my hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry that happened.”
“It could have been worse, I guess.”
