Filed to story: Watch Out, I’m The Lady Boss (Eleanor & Sebastian) Book PDF Free
I slowed my steps, forced myself to look at her without rolling my eyes.
“What do you want?”
“Eleanor, listen…” Harper gave me this ridiculously familiar smile and stood up, as though we were best friends.
“There’s been a misunderstanding. I came to explain everything to you.”
“Don’t try to be friendly with me. We’re not on first-name basis.”Harper’s eyes welled up a little, and her voice softened.
“I didn’t know Cassian had a girlfriend when we were together. If I had known…”I wasn’t buying it for a second.
“If you’d known, you still would have been with him. You’re not in love with him. You’re in love with the resources he gave you You don’t care about his relationship status or whether you were the other woman.”
“That’s not true!” Her voice rose.
“If I had known about Yvaine, I wouldn’t have agreed to date him. But… but now I’m in love with him. And he’s broken up with Yvaine. So… so it’s just bad timing.”
“Save it for someone who cares. You know, Yvaine’s my friend. You should’ve stayed the hell away. Yet here you are, trying to act all innocent and play the “true love trumps all” card. You really think I don’t see through it?”
“I…” Harper bit her lip again.
“I just wanted to make it clear that I’m not some homewrecker.”
“Tell it to Yvaine. Actually, don’t. She doesn’t want to hear it, and neither do I. No one cares. So you can shove it.”Harper’s face flushed as if I’d slapped her.
“I’m not going to bother her,” she sniffled.
“I came here because Cassian asked me to and also… I thought maybe we could talk about custom jewellery.”
“You’ve got to be kidding. I already told you-no. Priya, show her out.”I turned on my heel, walking up the stairs without sparing her another glance.
Behind me, I could hear Priya trying-half-heartedly-to get Harper to leave, but I didn’t care enough to listen.
Once I was in my studio, I pulled out my phone and fired off a message to Sebastian.
[Tell your good mate to keep Harper the hell away from me!]
I tossed my phone onto the desk, but the silence was unbearable.
I picked it back up and started scrolling through videos to kill time.
Then I saw it.
“Rising star Harper Foster’s custom jewellery request rejected!”The post went on to talk about how the designer was apparently acting like a diva, claiming she wouldn’t work with anyone who wasn’t an A-list celebrity.
There was a video attached, clearly a paparazzi shot, of Harper leaving my studio.
She wore a mask, her eyes red as if she’d been crying, looking like the world was out to get her.
The video was getting more views by the second.
I’d barely finished watching it, and the likes were already up to a thousand I was still watching when Prescott came rushing over, his usual cale replaced by something more urgent.
“Is this about us?”He nodded towards my phone screen, where the video was on pause.
“Apparently.”
“That’s messed up,” he muttered.
“That woman came here looking for trouble. What’s the issue with us not working with her? It’s not like we must accept every client who walks through the door.”
Priya dashed up the stairs, winded from the run.
“Harper left less than thirty minutes ago. How did the news spread this fast?”
“She staged the whole thing,” I muttered under my breath, my eyes scanning the comments, mostly negative.
“She’s twisting everything. Even if the paparazzi filmed her, they couldn’t have known what we talked about. She must’ve talked to them. Now, she’s making it sound like I flat-out rejected her because she isn’t famous enough.”I didn’t get why she’d be doing this.
Was it revenge for what happened yesterday at the club?
I frowned as I scrolled through the comments.
Most of the posts were from Harper’s fan base, ripping into me.
[HF’s at the peak of her career. What kind of designer refuses to work with her?]
[It’s that @MVanceJewels from before, right? I think her name’s M something Vance. Used to be with Nyx Collective. Guess she’s gone solo now.]
[Oh, so now she thinks she’s too good for a rising star? How cute.]
[I said it before, her designs aren’t that great. Turns out her personality isn’t either.]
[Harper’s on fire right now and some random designer is throwing shade? What a joke.]
[@MVanceJewels must think she’s the next big thing. Newsflash: nobody knows who she is.]
[Avoid this designer! Big red flag!]
I scrolled down, feeling the heat in my chest as they dug deeper into me-my real name, my background, even some old school comments I’d posted ages ago.
They were digging into everything.
The comments had turned from random insults to something personal.
The tone was getting nastier by the second.
Priya was shaking.
“This is so wrong. I thought she was a nice woman. I even made her coffee!”
“This is ridiculous,” Prescott muttered, tapping away at his phone.
“I’m reporting this. It’s completely fabricated. She’s barely even been famous for five minutes. How does she already have this many unhinged fans?”They both kept furiously reporting the video, and within minutes, it was taken down.
Not just the video; whatever account posted it was deleted, too “We did it?” Priya and Prescott looked at each other.
“We did it!”They high-fived each other.
My phone buzzed “I’ve had them take the video down,” Sebastian said, his voice calm but tense.
“But there are still a lot of reposts out there, and it might be trickier to clean up. What exactly happened? Did Harper Foster come to the studio?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“She wanted a custom piece. I told her to leave. Next thing I know, she’s all over the news.”
“She did that on purpose.”
“No kidding. She’s probably getting back at me for yesterday.”
“I told Cassian not to let her anywhere near you. And now she’s pulling this behind his back.”
“She said Cassian sent her to me,” I bit out.
“So, who knows.”Sebastian’s tone grew even deeper.
“I’ll go talk to Cassian.”He hung up.
I refreshed my feed, but the video was gone, nothing left but a few scattered reposts, quietly disappearing one by one.
“The media’s got some sense,” Prescott remarked, scrolling through his phone.
“They know it’s a load of crap, so they’re cleaning it up.”Priya nodded.
“Yeah, lucky it didn’t blow up more. The power of the “report” button, eh?”
I snorted, flicking my phone off.
“It’s the power of money.”
“What do you mean?” Prescott asked.
They both looked like they thought they were the ones responsible for getting the video taken down.
I didn’t have the heart to burst their bubble, so I just shrugged.
“You two were awesome.”I muttered a quiet thanks to Sebastian in my head.
Without him stepping in when he did, the whole thing would’ve spiralled, and the studio would’ve taken a hit to its reputation.
It wasn’t a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but I knew I’d be pining for custom orders for a while.
That thought was barely out of my head when my phone buzzed again.
Cassian was practically falling over himself apologising.
“I swear, I had no idea about any of this. It’s got nothing to do with me.”I wasn’t in the mood for niceties.
“Harper said you sent her to me. So, who’s lying-her or you?”There was a brief silence before he spoke again, a little hesitant.
“Look, I’ll deal with Harper, don’t worry about that. But about Sebastian, could you put in a good word for me? He’s pretty pissed off.”
“He has a right to be. As do I.”
“So… is that a yes or no?”
“I’ll think about it.”I ended the call.
***
Two days later, I’d been half-listening to Prescott ramble on when he suddenly shoved his phone in front of my face.
“You’ve got to see this. Harper Foster’s starting shit again.”I turned away from my workstation and squinted at the screen.