A California Christmas (Silver Springs #7) - Brenda Novak Page 0,83
who can afford to participate in all the promotional things she tries to get the Chamber of Commerce to do. But she made a beeline for me when I was waiting to order the soup.”
Emery tensed. Susan had to be referring to Cain’s mother, who ran a drapery business, and Emery was slightly concerned with what she might have to say to Susan. “What did she want?”
“She said that you went out with her son last night and asked me what you were like.”
This fortified Emery’s impression of Cain’s mom as a busybody, which didn’t ease her mind. “What did you tell her?”
“That you’re a wonderful person.”
“Despite the video.”
“That had to be what she was getting at, yes.”
After how Cain had behaved, Emery couldn’t believe she was the one who could be considered unsuitable, but she knew she’d probably face this with almost any guy she dated in the future. Modern feminism or not, fair or not, her reputation had been ruined.
Cain was so different from Ethan, and yet she saw a commonality—a vindictive streak in them both. After what she’d been through with Ethan, she definitely planned to steer clear of Cain. “Actually, she doesn’t have anything to worry about. I have no romantic interest in her son. We grabbed a quick bite to eat—but only as friends. We went to high school together.”
Susan rolled her eyes. “If he’s anything like his mother, I can see why you wouldn’t be overly excited about him. Margie thinks she’s better than everyone else. And he’s just as special, of course. Like I said, I haven’t had a lot of contact with her, but whenever I do, it seems she’s singing his praises. Is he really that great?”
Emery’s opinion of Cain was decidedly less flattering than his mother’s. “He has an interesting job,” she said, trying to avoid making a statement either way.
“That bad, huh?” she said with a laugh.
Emery couldn’t help laughing with her. “Yeah, that bad.”
“What does he do that’s so interesting?”
She started to explain how he dived into water tanks to suck up the sediment, but her phone buzzed, and when she glanced down, Caller ID showed KQLA.
They must’ve been served with the lawsuit. She couldn’t think of any other reason they’d contact her right now. No doubt management would be angry and shocked...
She told herself she shouldn’t answer it, but she couldn’t resist. Her curiosity was too great, and the only way to ascertain how things might go was to hear what they had to say. “Can you excuse me?” she said. “I can’t miss this call.”
She wasn’t sure she even gave Susan the chance to respond. She pressed Talk as she hurried out the back way and into the alley, where she could have some privacy. “Hello?”
“Emery, this is Heidi.”
She could hear the tension in her former producer’s voice. They must’ve been served, all right. “What can I do for you?”
“There must be some misunderstanding here.”
It was chilly, and Emery hadn’t grabbed her coat, but she could scarcely feel the cold. “What kind of misunderstanding?”
“The reason we had to let you go has nothing to do with the video that showed up online.”
Showed up online? Emery made a noise of disgust. “Heidi, nothing just shows up online. Someone has to put it there. Ethan loaded that video on a popular revenge porn site and then emailed a link from a fake email account to every local and national news station he could think of. This was a cyberattack, and cyberattacks are illegal.”
“He claims he didn’t do it, and there’s no way to prove he did, so how are we supposed to know who to believe?” she asked defensively.
“Common sense?”
“That’s between the two of you. We let you go because the chemistry between you and Ethan wasn’t right anymore, and you know how important it is for the two major anchors of any newscast to have a certain...rapport on camera. That’s part of what creates viewer loyalty.”
“You think viewer loyalty has been improved with me gone?” Emery asked.
“If we hadn’t removed you, we would’ve received complaints. And we’re still working on your replacement, so we’re in a building stage. But you have no right to sue us,” she insisted. “That’s my point. You were no longer the right person for the job, and we should have the right to make that decision.”
“I was doing an excellent job,” she argued. “There’s no way you can say I wasn’t. I was never late, I never missed a broadcast and I