Your Fierce Love (The Bennett Family #7)(9)

CHAPTER THREE

Clara



"Clara, Quentin is asking for you." Mona motions with her head in the direction of our lunch buffet. My boss, Quentin Meyer, is hovering in front of it, loading his plate.

"Thanks, Mona."

She shudders almost imperceptibly, then heads to the buffet herself, keeping her distance from Quentin. Nearing his forties with a nasty smile and permanently wandering eyes, most of the women at the studio do their best to avoid him. But alas, he's my boss, so I'm the one person who can't do that. I make a point to never wear anything even remotely sexy at work.

"Hey, boss," I say, loading a plate for myself. "Mona said you need me."

"Yes, yes. How well do you know the Bennett family?"

I pause in the act of biting into my burger. Maybe it's because Quentin watches me with his trademark nasty smile, but I don't feel like volunteering the truth.

"Not well at all, why?"

We move toward a corner of the room because it's getting crowded over at the buffet.

"You were at Alice Bennett's wedding. Someone tagged you on Facebook." He bites into his own burger, and my stomach plummets. I take a big bite, using the excuse of chewing so I don't have to answer right away so I can form a plan. Damn Facebook. I thought I had my settings on private so only friends could see what I post or what I'm tagged in.

"Of course I went. Nate and I are good friends, but that's all."

Quentin grimaces as if he accidentally swallowed lemon juice. "Damn shame. Ran into one of the heads from Entertainment Central, Ryan Shepperd. Pitched him our show for Our Picks, but he's not giving us the time of day."

Our Picks is a show that spotlights and reviews other shows. It pulls in incredible numbers for such a segment. Truth be told, it's pulling about ten times the numbers our flailing show is. If we'd be featured on it, our viewership would skyrocket.

We're barely scraping by in the rankings, but with a lot of hard work the show will climb up the charts...eventually. It's been on air for four months, and I've been here for two.

After Nate moved to London, I kept working on his show with the new executive producer, but then he left too, and the one who took his place wanted to bring in his assistant. I wanted to stay with the network because the pay is above what I'd get somewhere else. Quentin here just had his fifth assistant quit on him in two months, so they gave me the job. 

"So anyway, Shepperd said one of his people saw you tagged on Facebook in the wedding. They've wanted a scandal about the Bennett family for years for their We See You segment. Said he'd trade me: Juicy story on that family for a feature of our show on Our Picks."

My body goes cold.

We See You is nicknamed Gossip Central in the industry-a weekly evening show where they tear apart whoever is their subject, flaunting dirty laundry and scandals for the entire country to see. It pulls in even better numbers than Our Picks.

Over my dead body will the Bennett family ever be a subject on their show.

"Was hoping you'd know something about their skeletons. Have you heard anything juicy from Nate?"

He says Nate's name with disdain, and I grit my teeth. I don't know why he dislikes Nate-probably because he's made a name for himself even though he's younger than Quentin. And Nate never got ahead by selling anyone out.

"No," I say calmly. "From what he says, they're great people. No skeletons."

As if I'd tell you if they had.

"Please, everyone has skeletons. The press is dying for some dirt. A scandal."

Blake told me once that as time passed the press became more interested in their personal life rather than the company, and that they're always fishing for scandals.

"You sure you can't get closer to them?"

I don't think you can get any closer than living next to one and attending all their family events, but I shake my head, my hackles rising-no one is going to mess with that family.

"I have many press leads." I work as much positivity in my tone as I can muster. "We'll climb in the rankings, you'll see."

Quentin pays no attention, instead eying the ass of a passing assistant. I bite into my burger to hide my groan. I loved, loved, loved working with Nate. He was a great boss and mentor. More than a mentor, he was almost like a brother, and he accepted my crazy. That's always a bonus. Of course, lightning never strikes twice, so I wasn't dreaming I'd get another boss like him.

But is it too much to ask for a decent boss? One who does his job and doesn't look for shortcuts that involve selling people out? One who doesn't make my skin crawl?

Part of me regrets taking out the mortgage because I'll be stuck here for a long while until I can find something better. But then I think about how great it'll be to have my own place. That puts everything into perspective. When Quentin leaves, I take out my phone, pull up the Facebook app, and change my settings to private.