has quite the reputation for being too abrasive and moody. With his father’s charm out of the picture, no one wants to put up with them anymore.”
“But he’s not really like that,” I defended. “This is just a stressful time and…”
“Hazel, don’t you get it?” He cut me off. “You’re off the hook! We can publish your original article! You were ahead of things by even writing it in the first place, and now it’s all anyone is talking about. I owe you an apology. We should have published it weeks ago when you first wrote it.”
“But you said they paid us for a good feature.”
“I did, but now this is trending! We don’t need their money. If we claim our spot on the anti-Palmer bandwagon now, we’ll drive enough traffic to the site to more than make up for our deal with them.”
Except, of course, there was one big problem with all of this. I was no longer on the anti-Palmer bandwagon. Now I was very much pro-Palmer.
“No, I’m sorry. Joel. There’s no way I can publish that piece now,” I explained, vigorously shaking my head in a mild panic. “I was wrong about Chris, and I really think if people would just give him a little time to settle into his new role, he’ll be able to turn everything around.”
He let out an incredulous laugh. “We can’t publish a positive piece about them now, Hazel. Do you have any idea what that would look like? Now we have all the other publications bashing the Palmers and their commercialism and their floundering sales. Your original take on Chris and his family’s stores was spot on! It’s on trend and it’s exactly what we need to be putting out right now.”
I nodded in understanding, taking a moment to steady my breathing. I slowly stood from behind my desk and tried to spell it all out calmly. “I’m sure this is frustrating for you. In the beginning, I know I argued that lying for the sake of money was not something I was willing to do. And sure, maybe it seemed like having the go ahead on the original article would fix that, but…”
“But what?” he groaned.
“But...the tables have turned. Chris has changed...or, I don’t know, maybe I just didn’t see who he really was at first. I just know that publishing the negative review now would be no different than how I felt in the beginning. It’d be a lie. Because I know Chris isn’t all about the commercial side of things at all.”
“Changed!?” he gaped. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Hazel, I don’t care what’s going on with you and this guy or why you keep flip-flopping. But unless you want to end up with a business that’s floundering as hard as his, you have to snap out of it and publish this damn piece! Everyone already knows we had a behind the scenes article on them in the works, and now they’re all dying to see it! And what you wrote is perfect!”
I stood quietly, unable to look at Joel when he was all riled up like this. Veronica had grown quiet too, maybe noticing the piece of the puzzle that Joel couldn’t pick up on.
“Unbelievable,” he fumed at my silence before storming out of the room.
“Someone should really tell that guy that people shouldn’t talk to their bosses that way. He does remember I’m the boss, right?”
Veronica flashed a soft smile. “He’s just trying to do the job you hired him to do...but maybe going about it in the wrong way.” She came over and leaned on the edge of my desk, placing a hand on mine. “Hey, you okay?”
“Yes,” I exhaled. “Well, no. I don’t know. I feel like I’m being a terrible pain in the ass, but I don’t know what to do. Maybe it was wrong for me to have ever written that article in the first place.”
“Is something going on with you and Chris?” she asked cautiously.
I couldn’t bring myself to answer, but the look in my eyes told her everything she needed to know. She gave me a knowing smile and said, “Look at it this way. Whatever happens to those department stores and that company, Chris and his family are wealthy people. They’re going to walk away from it all just fine as far as their personal finances go. But you...You have this amazingly successful blog that you’ve worked so hard for. And if it goes down, you’re going down