Good for You: A Novel (26)

“No way!” As horrifying as this prospect was, how wonderful it felt to talk shop! “James would have told me if they were thinking about something like that,” she said. But then it occurred to her that maybe he wouldn’t have if he didn’t intend to keep her on.

For the first time, Aly allowed herself to fully imagine the worst-case scenario: What if her leave of absence became permanent? A chill ran down her spine.

She was going to have to buckle down and make sure that didn’t happen. “Other magazines that have tried that ended up folding right away. It would basically be announcing the end of All Good.”

“I know,” said Jada. “Let’s hope it’s just a rumor, right?”

“Oh, I’m going to do more than hope,” said Aly. “I’m going to render any discussion of turning the magazine into an endless advertorial completely irrelevant.” She’d resisted the line of home products that James had insisted on creating. But now she saw the value of All Good selling its own items, rather than hawking other companies’. The latter compromised editorial integrity—and that was the backbone of their brand. So step one of her comeback tour would be to expand the All Good product line. What about hair care, or supplements? Or—

“Aly,” said Jada, breaking through her thoughts. “The reason I’m calling is because . . . well . . .”

Aly’s optimism vanished as quickly as it had arrived. “What is it?” she said.

“The video’s up again.”

Aly squinted; suddenly the sun seemed entirely too bright. “The video?” On the day of her meltdown, James and Linda said they’d have the footage down by that afternoon; no one was supposed to know about it. If Jada was throwing around the word again, then everyone knew about it. “They were supposed to remove it.”

“Girl, you know that’s not how the internet works—you can check out anytime, but you can never leave. By the way, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you curse like that. Or at all, actually. Nice job.”

Crap. The entire staff of All Good had probably already seen it. This was a problem. “When you say ‘up,’ do you mean the whole team has seen the video?”

“I’m not sure, but that’s probably a safe assumption.”

Stay calm, she instructed herself. The last thing you need is to lose your mind again. “Isn’t that a massive violation of privacy?” she said. “I could sue whoever posted it.”

“Pretty sure because it was taken in a public place, they have the right to post it. That doesn’t make it okay, obviously.” Something about the way Jada said this gave Aly the sense it was not the first time she’d discussed it. No doubt the staff had been talking and had probably watched the footage on repeat. Now Aly’d have to launch a redemption campaign from Michigan. She hadn’t cashed the check that Wyatt had given her, but now she would need to so she could buy a laptop. Because she had work to do.

“Do you know who took the video? Or at least who put it online?” she asked Jada. She was going to fix this. She was.

But first, she needed more information.

“I don’t, but James has already sent a company-wide email condemning it. He basically said that whoever posted it is violating Innovate’s policies and will be fired. The whole thing is a bad look for Innovate.”

Yes, yes it was. And that was on Aly.

“Listen,” said Jada, lowering her voice, “from where I stand, Meagan and Ashleigh are the real losers in this situation.”

Aly had put Jada on speakerphone, so she could open up the inbox on her phone. She didn’t see James’ email. Actually, there were no new emails awaiting her. She hadn’t looked in a few days, but how had she not registered that when she’d last checked?

Her heart seemed to skip a beat. Was she already halfway to being canned?

“Thank you for letting me know, Jada. I’m so glad you told me all this. It’s going to make it much easier to make things right.”

“Of course,” said Jada. “Listen, I’m really sorry about your brother. I wish you’d told us.”

Ugh. Of course Meagan had told everyone about Luke. She’d already proved she had zero loyalty to Aly, and she’d flat-out told Aly she didn’t think she should be “hiding” it from the team. As Aly had tried in vain to explain, it wasn’t a secret; it was private. There was a big difference—one that Meagan was apparently incapable of discerning.

“Thanks,” said Aly. She knew she was supposed to say something else, like she was doing as well as she could under the circumstances, or how she was taking it one day at a time. But her tongue was a stone in her mouth, and her lips were blocks of wood.

“Listen, my best friend runs a content marketing firm in Newark,” said Jada. “They’re doing really amazing work for places like the Natural History Museum, and the pay is pretty darn good.”

She swallowed hard and forced herself to speak. “Jada, I appreciate your concern, but I’m not looking for another job.” Not yet at least. Not before she tried to turn this situation around.

“Aly—” began Jada.

“I’ve got to go, but thank you for reaching out. I really, truly appreciate it. Tell everyone that I said hi and that I’ll be back soon,” said Aly and hung up.