Star Struck(27)
“Trevon is finally getting a dose of his own medicine. Here all this time I thought you were the player. At least you let the women know you weren’t ready for a commitment.”
“Finally, someone on my side.”
The phone rang interrupting the rest of the conversation. “I guess I better get back to my desk, before my boss fires me.”
“You better,” he said, right before answering. “GT Securities.” He paused. “Hold please.” He transferred the call to his accounting department.
He thought about some of the things Trevon said about Hailey. Would he be able to leave Hailey along? Did he want to leave her alone? Those questions and many more filled his mind as he sat behind his computer desk staring at the blue screen.
~ 16 ~
It was a typical Monday around the studio. To Hailey’s relief, nothing out of the ordinary happened. Brenda worked with Bach and his team on screening her mail and she went about her duties as if all was normal.
The guests arrived on time and the studio audience cheered for her when she arrived on the set. The show taped without a hitch. Her life to the outside world appeared to be perfect. After the taping, she returned to her office and surfed the internet. She googled herself and found out what some of the online gossip columnists were saying about her. Some of her colleagues avoided the gossip sites, but not her. She wanted to read what folks were saying about her. Sometimes it did upset her when the information was false, but for the most part, she blew things off.
She even had a few sites bookmarked for quick views like the popular Mad News, Brown Sista and Mrs. Grapevine blogs. She giggled when she saw the entry about her in JoJo’s Journal on the eSpot – Entertainment News blog. I guess Shareeka wasn’t the only one who thought she had gained a few extra pounds.
She attempted to access her fan site several times but she kept getting an error message. She called her assistant. “Jackie, can you find out why my fansite is down?” A video of her lounging around in a skimpy bikini begins to play. “What the…”
Jackie comes in the room. “I had our IT person check it out. I hate to tell you this, but someone hacked the site. He’s going to take it completely down for now.”
“Tell him don’t do anything just yet. I’ll send Brenda down to talk to him.” She called Brenda and relayed the information, while Jackie called IT.
There went the uneventful day. Less than an hour later, Brenda, Bach, John and Garrett sat across from her in the conference room. “We spoke with IT and it seems like someone hacked your site and sent the picture to everyone that was signed up on your site,” Bach said.
“At least I wasn’t totally nude.” She tried to look on the bright side of things. “It could have been worse.”
Brenda added, “We’re tracing the IP address now to see where the problem originated.”
“In layman’s terms please,” John insisted.
Garrett responded, “With an IP address, we can identify the person or location of the computer.”
“Hallelujah. My troubles are almost over,” Hailey said, as she held her hands up.
“Now, calm down. We don’t know if it’ll lead to the person directly. It’s possible that they used someone else’s computer or one in a public place,” Garrett said.
“I’m sure you’ll get to the bottom of it. I’m confident in GT Securities.” Hailey stood up. “Brenda, will you be accompanying me on my interview at Hotel Bel-Air?”
Brenda looked at Garrett. Garrett responded, “I’ll go with you. I want Brenda to follow up on the IP report.”
“Let’s go. I’m already running late.”
John said, “See what I have to deal with.”
“Oh I can handle her.” Garrett teased.
Hailey waited by the door and patted her foot. “Step. Step.”
Garrett opened the door. “After you.”
***
Hailey wished Brenda would have come with her instead of Garrett. Garrett sitting in the corner pretending to be invisible made her nervous. She was already nervous interviewing for the People magazine article. The ride over to the hotel lobby went smoothly only because they both avoided talking about anything personal. They spent the ride talking about her fan website and making small talk about the weather and traffic.
The brown-haired female reporter pulled out a tape recorder and asked her several generic questions to ease the tension. “I learned earlier today that someone hacked into your fan website. Is that true and how do you feel about it?”
Hailey responded, “It’s true and I apologize to my fans for having to endure receiving the mass email that was sent out about it. We have people working to resolve the problem and hopefully they can ensure that it doesn’t happen again.” She looked in Garrett’s direction.