Rumor Has It (Limelight #1) - New Adult

Rumor Has It (New Adult) - Chapter One

CHAPTER ONE

“Ellie, you shoved your pie right in his face!”

“I did not shove my pie in his face.”

“I saw the video. You really did.”

“I don’t want to talk about this, Katie,” I said.

“Can you believe your video already has forty-three million views on YouTube?"

I dropped my forehead down onto my desk. “It's not my video,” I ground out. “And I don't want to know how many people have seen it.”

“I think we can officially say it's gone viral.” 

I sighed. There was no use. Katie would do what Katie wanted. We’d become friends since I’d started working this crappy job, but she existed in a bubble of her own creation. She didn't seem to pick-up on social cues. This was the third time I’d told her I had no desire to relive the humiliating video of myself.

As much as she was annoying me, I didn't have it in me to tell her what I was thinking. Katie was a bigger girl with thick glasses. I got the sense I was one of her only friends. Which at the moment was debatable. Instead I glanced up from my computer and said, “I have to get these reports done before Jeff comes back and has a shit fit.”

“Enough said.” She grimaced, tucked a stray piece of her mousy brown hair behind her ear, and headed to the back of the building.

If there was one thing we did share an opinion on, it was our jerk of a boss. Actually, jerk might be too mild a word for him.

Pompous ass had a better ring to it.

I'd been working at his real estate office for nine months. I'd left Miami, where I went to college, to move to Virginia Beach with my mother and her latest and greatest husband, Ralph. Apparently a degree in Comparative Media Studies didn't scream “must hire” to potential employers. I couldn’t afford to live on my own anymore.

These days I worked at Jeff’s brokerage, pushing papers, answering phones, and being his gofer the rest of the time. I was still searching for that elusive job that would lead to a career. One that would allow me to pay my own rent, buy groceries, and pay off my student loans. If I was lucky after that I'd have enough to buy myself the odd Starbucks and night out with my friends.

The roar of a car engine brought my attention to the parking lot. Speak of the devil... Jeff raced his silver Mercedes SL65 into a parking spot and slammed to a stop. He got out of the car quickly, his face flushed. Whether from the early summer heat or agitation I couldn't tell. As he approached the doors separating the outside world from my reception desk, I saw his creased forehead and pursed lips. Definitely agitation.

As much as I would have loved to avoid being an outlet for his anger, I was one step up from a Walmart greeter. Saying hello to everyone who came through the doors of Beachside Realty was my job. If I failed my duties I might as well paint a target on the back of my blouse. Maybe if I said hello and looked busy he'd charge on past and find another victim.

Jeff almost ripped the door off the hinges and stalked inside. Show time. I began typing gibberish and concentrated really hard on the computer screen.

“Good afternoon, Jeff,” I said brightly.

He stopped in his tracks and spun on his heels to face me. “Ellie.”

Shit.

“I just got a call from the housekeeper who takes care of the Oceanfront Avenue property. The idiot locked the house before putting the key back in the lockbox and now she can’t get back in. The client who rented the place is due to arrive in the next couple of hours.”