Chapter 240: Katie and her two bosses 039

Tyler:

After a restless night

following the scene with Jack Brice, I’m lounging in the jet on the way home with Katie and Austin. We’re all cuddled up on the couch.

We were relieved to find no evidence today of the damning photograph Brice took online or in the print publications. But that relief was only momentary – what if he’s just waiting to go public with it to torture us?

“This is all my fault,” Austin says, his head hanging in his hands. “If only I hadn’t asked Katie to play the sexy secretary angle, Jack never would have gotten the idea that she’s some kind of sex kitten. I’m such a fucking idiot.”

Katie reaches for him, trying to soothe him. “No, you’re definitely not an idiot, Austin Murphy. And hindsight is 20/20. We all agreed to your idea because it seemed like a good one at the time. We needed to have some kind of advantage in the initial meeting with Jack, and this was what we came up with. Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

“Besides, Katie walking around in a short skirt didn’t give that asshole permission to solicit her for sex,” I add. “What she wore has nothing to do with his violation of basic human decency.”

“I totally agree,” Katie says. “He had no right to think I’d fucking sleep with him because I wore some revealing clothes. He was totally out of line, and that’s on him, not on any of us.”

Austin nods his head, sighing. “Yeah, you’re right. And I suppose if he hadn’t pulled this stunt, it would have only been a matter of time before he did something else that made our lives miserable.”

“Like demanding we lay off 10% of our staff,” I interject, “or making other unreasonable orders.”

Austin groans. “I was just hoping he would be the answer to our problems. I guess we should have never looked him up in the first place.”

“Yeah, I had a bad feeling about it from the start,” I say, shaking my head. “I was afraid it was going to end in disaster.”

“I think from now on, you guys should make business decisions based on Tyler’s gut instinct,” Katie says, smiling. “He was spot-on.”

“Yeah, maybe we should give that a try,” Austin chuckles. “The other approaches haven’t been working lately.”

“So, wise one, what should we do about our next set of problems?” Katie asks, teasing lightly. “Let’s see: this deranged man has a compromising picture of the three of us that could further damage the company’s reputation, not to mention make things awkward for all of us, but especially me, at the office. And on top of that, said deranged man will probably withdraw the funds he invested in the company, which also damages its future.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty bad,” Austin says. “We could go bankrupt.”

I take a deep breath, and rack my brain for ideas.

“As far as the picture, I suppose he could have been bluffing. Maybe he doesn’t care about it so much that he wants to create a public relations nightmare for us.”

“That would be nice,” Austin says. “But we can’t count on it. He seems like the vindictive, petty type.”

“Well, in any case, there’s not much we can do about it. He’s either going to go public with it or not,” I say. “But what’s the worst that can happen?”

“Public ridicule, which I can live with,” Austin says. “But after the software glitches, we don’t really need more negative attention right now.”

“Yeah, we need to get our PR people working on this now,” Tyler says.

“I already emailed Sheila last night,” Austin says. “She’s on it.”

“Okay, that’s good. Maybe she can subdue some of the backlash a little,” I offer. “As far as awkwardness at the office, I guess we’ll have to play that by ear. I’d like to think we treat the staff so well they’d overlook a little indiscretion like this.”

“Yeah, I guess we’ll have to wait and see,” Katie says. “But I’m worried about the fallout I’ll see since I’m the woman here. We always seem to get blamed in these sorts of situations.”

“I’m not going to let that happen,” I tell her. “We’re all in this together.”

“Okay,” Katie says, but doesn’t look convinced.

“We’ll be by your side through this, Katie,” Austin says, giving Katie a hug. “We care about you so much and we’re not going to throw you out to the wolves.”

She nods her head. “I’ll let you guys protect me. I’m just not really looking forward to facing everyone at the office if that picture gets out.”

“We totally understand, but we’ll be there for you one hundred percent,” I assure her.

“Absolutely,” Austin says.

She gives a smile, but her face quickly falls. “Well, what about the loss of the contract with Jack?”

“Yeah, that’s a tough one,” Austin says, sighing. “I don’t know what we’re going to do without his funds. Jack Brice was our last-ditch effort. Got any brilliant ideas, Tyler?”

“Not yet,” I say. “I’m just hoping something will come to us soon.”

“It’ll take a miracle,” Austin says.

I nod in agreement, but maybe a miracle isn’t so far-fetched. I didn’t put much stock in miracles until Katie came along. But lately, almost anything seems possible.