Page 45 of You Wish
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Georgia barely had time to catch her breath, let alone make sense of the events of yesterday, before the shitstorm hit.
One minute she was remembering Jake’s mouth on hers, the next she was sitting at the kitchen table on a video chat with not only Liz, but the entire executive team—and Whitmore. Voices were raised, fingers pointing and her phone buzzed like a hornet’s nest on the table. Headlines were already spreading, and photos of Jake at the shoots had gone viral. Their big launch, which was set for next week, had been snatched right out from under them.
And she knew exactly who the culprit was.
“We made it clear that it was to be a closed set,” one of the execs barked, shoving a phone in her direction like proof of her guilt. Jake standing in front oftheFerrari glared back at her from the screen.
Georgia’s stomach dropped, equal parts shock and mortification. “I didn’t know about this until you brought it to my attention,” she said, voice cutting through the noise.
“How could you not know? This is your project,” Mr. Whitmore said.
“Let’s give Georgia a chance to speak. I’m sure she has and explanation for all of this,” her boss, and always her champion, said calmly.
Georgia gave her an appreciative look, took a deep breath and then opened her mouth to speak, then snapped it closed when she realized she didn’t have a legitimate excuse. While she’d been making out like a teenager behind the bleachers, her entire project had gone to shit.
“This is an unfortunate situation, but I promise I can fix it,” she assured them.
“We’re past fixing it,” Whitmore said. “What’s the point of an NDA if no one abides by it? Do you realize how much money we put behind this campaign? Money you promised me would bring our foundation to the next level.”
“I do, sir.”
“Then who was it? I will have the attorneys draft up the lawsuit now.”
“Well, about that,” Georgia said, feeling like the rookie of the year. “The person in question didn’t sign one.”
“Oh, Georgia,” Liz said, and Georgia could hear the disappointment in her mentor’s voice. Her heart sank.
“Part of Jake’s team showed up unannounced and started taking photos,” she fessed up. At this point what was the point of sugar-coating things. “She assured me it was for personal reasons only, but I did ask her to delete them. She said she did.”
“Clearly, she lied,” Witmore said. “Who was it?”
It didn’t matter who did it at this point. The last thing she needed was Mr. Whitmore jumping into a game of pointing fingers when it would only jeopardize the rest of the campaign. Jake would side with his sister. Whitmore would rage on about NDAs and the project would die a fiery death. The only way tosalvage this was to handle it on her own and not let the different parties involved speak to each other.
“It doesn’t matter, just know that I am on top of this and I will make it happen. We can spin this as an early teaser for what’s to come. Kind of like how Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce dropped easter eggs leading up to their engagement. Fans will love it. We can turn the whole campaign into a fun game for the fans to play along.”
“That’s a brilliant idea,” Liz said. “Way to spin this to work for us instead of against us. Isn’t that right, Dad?”
Mr. Whitmore grumbled at his daughter’s positive tone but begrudgingly agreed.
“Great, I’ll have our social media team think up some creative ideas and clues that we can use to lead up to the actual announcement,” Georgia said, silently grinding her teeth at Rachel.
The Zoom call ended, Georgia closed her laptop and her phone immediately rang. It was Liz. She answered immediately.
“I am so sorry for the mess,” Georgia began.
“Don’t be. My dad can be a hard-ass. Plus, he missed his tee time for the meeting, so that made him extra cranky,” Liz said, and then left something unsaid hanging in the air.
“What?”
“Right before the meeting I got a call from Theodore Caldwell.”
Theodore Caldwell was the majority owner of the Circuit of America track in Austin. Henry had put her in touch with him weeks ago. He’d been excited, but Liz didn’t seem excited right then.
“And?”
