Claiming Callie: Part one (13 page)

“You know…the full package? Or do you call it something else? All I’m saying is that I’m not turning you down.”

“How did you get my number?”

There is a pause on the other line, then he says, “The article.”

Sure, that explains everything!

“What article?” she half screams into the phone. Panic rises in her chest, a bubbling, growing thing that makes it hard to breathe. Before he can answer, her phone beeps. Once. Twice.

Another call.
Callie lifts it away from her ear and sees another call coming through—another number she doesn’t recognize.

What the hell?

When she hits the hold-call button and puts the phone back to her ear, the new caller is already talking. Callie squints, trying to make sense of his babbling, but she can’t. He’s going on and on about this article he read and it’s not until he says, “When I read about your business in the
Pitt News
, I figured I’d better get in on it before you either got too busy or were shut down.”

Callie freezes. His voice vanishes into the background. Anything she was about to say to him evaporates from her mind, and she can barely hear him through her blaring thoughts.

OMG. There’s an article in the
Pitt News
. About me. About the escort thing. And obviously a whole lot more.

The hand holding her phone drops to her side. She shoves it back into her pocket and darts to the door of Buzz. Her gloves shake and slip on the door handle. She can’t seem to pull it open, and she stands there, struggling with the door, until Jinny—like an angel in her black-and-yellow Buzz apron—opens it for her.

Callie practically bowls her over as she enters. Her eyes scan the café tables for a copy of the student paper that usually clutters the tabletops. Her teeth chatter as she spots a guy reading it at the far table, and she storms up to him and snatches it from his hands.

“Hey!” the guy starts, before he blinks up at her. “Hey, aren’t you—”

“Save it!” Callie barks, and glances at him with wide, manic eyes. She must look crazed enough to scare him off, because the guy raises his hands, grabs his books from the table and heads for the door.

“What’s gotten into you?” Jinny’s half laughing. “You totally just freaked that guy out.”

With trembling hands, Callie holds the paper. A huge picture of her easily fills a third of the front page, and it shakes so badly as she holds it, she can barely make out the words.

When she doesn’t respond, Jinny places a hand on her arm and her tone turns from humor to concern. “Callie?”

But Callie can barely hear her. She has tunnel vision. Everything around her is wiped out by the sight of the title on the front page of the student paper. The one that boasts her picture and, in big, bold letters, reads “CAMPUS PROSTITUTE ON THE LOOSE!”

Her vision goes black. She can’t read any more. She grips Jinny’s arm in front of her. It’s all she can do to remain standing.

In the background, she hears Jinny’s voice. “Callie? Callie? What’s wrong?”

Her stomach pitches and rolls.
Breathe. Just breathe. Oh, God, I’m gonna be sick.

She presses a hand to her stomach.
This can’t be happening.
This, really, really can’t be happening…

Woosh. Woosh. Woosh.
She breathes in and out, but her head won’t stop spinning.

“What the hell? Are you doing Lamaze?” Jinny asks.

Callie giggles for a moment at the incredulous look on Jinny’s face, feeling her grip on sanity slip. Then her eyes tear up, forcing her to close them, and when her phone begins to ring again, she doesn’t even look at it. She can’t bear to, because she knows it’ll be another number she doesn’t recognize. Another caller from the very article she holds in her hands.

She manages to hold the paper out and whispers, “Read this. Out loud.”

*        *        *

“Oh. My. God.” Jinny says. She glances at Callie.

Callie swallows. The article is every bit as horrific as she feared.

“What do we do?” Jinny asks.

Though Callie appreciates that she includes herself in this dilemma, as if they’re coconspirators in life, she certainly doesn’t feel the unity in this predicament. She feels completely and utterly alone. Humiliated. Mortified. Dumbstruck…

There aren’t enough adjectives in the English language to describe it.

Callie says nothing. She just stands there, her mind spinning in a million directions, yet getting her nowhere.

What is there to say? I will forever be an abomination on campus. A joke. Some kind of money-grubbing slut.

“You could sue him for slander or libel. Whatever it is! He can’t do this.” Jinny’s voice is hurried. “We need to go to the paper immediately. They’ll print a retraction. They’ll remove all copies that haven’t gone out. Jason must’ve slipped this by them. Who knew that asshole is on the student paper? Either that or he has connections, but either way, they’ll revoke this issue and print a retraction. And he’ll probably get in a boatload of trouble for running lies like this.”

Callie glances at Jinny, at the concern in her eyes. She’s right, of course. But a tidal wave of anxiety rips into her as another thought, something far more terrifying than a sullied reputation on campus, crashes into her. “What if someone at GG Financial gets wind of this? What if they find out? I’ll have no chance at that job. I’ll lose my internship. I’ll—”

“No. Stop.” Jinny grips her arms and gives her a little shake.

Callie’s eyes glaze over, but she forces herself to listen, because she can feel the hysteria coming on, unraveling itself like a waking beast inside her, and she has no clue of what to do about it.

“We’re going to the paper right now. You hear me? We’ll fix this. As for people finding out, I’m guessing only a quarter of the students actually read the paper. It’s early yet. By the time they start talking, the retraction will be printed. As for GGF, they won’t find out. They’re on the other side of Pittsburgh. It’s not like they get the student paper, and the other two interns go to Duquesne, not Pitt. Just trust me, we’re in the clear.”

Callie nods, and the nausea in her gut lessens.

She’s right. Jinny’s right. This doesn’t need to be the end of the world. I just need to remain calm.

“You think we can still do damage control?” Callie asks, needing to hear it again.

“Absolutely. Hang on,” she says and leaves Callie. She disappears into the kitchen and returns with two trash bags. “I’ll call the
Pitt News
while we go from building to building. We’ll collect every damn paper we can find, then burn them. In the meantime, we’ll get them doing the same, while also printing a retraction. Come on.”

She wiggles her fingers for Callie to follow. Standing on rubbery legs, Callie takes a deep breath and grabs one of the trash bags from Jinny’s hands. “We need to do it together. I can’t go off alone.”

Jinny nods, her eyes fierce, the set of her jaw rigid. “Of course. I just need to call Dean and let him know. Whether he likes it or not, I’m closing up until he can get here and cover.” Jinny grabs her phone and dials.

She lifts it to her ear, but lowers it the second the doors to Buzz blast open. “Uh, no need,” she mumbles.

Dean propels through the doorway into the coffee shop like a torpedo. His eyes are enough to set the place aflame, and every tendon in his neck stands out. A vein in his forehead pulses to the beat of his heavy breathing.

“I guess he’s read the article,” Callie says.

“I’ll kill him.” He seethes. “I will abso-fucking-lutely rip him limb to limb.”

All Callie can do is stare wide-eyed, but Jinny interjects. “Hold up. Settle down, Rocky. You’re already in enough trouble as it is for your little stunt in the gym the other day.”

“Yeah. This is proof I should’ve done a whole lot more—”

Somehow Dean’s anger makes it easier for Callie to think. She jolts from her stupor, the fog in her head clearing. “Jinny and I are taking care of it. We have a plan. We’re calling the newspaper right now.”

“I’m gonna do a whole lot more than call the paper.”

“Stop!” Callie spreads her arms out. “You need to stop. For the first time, I can understand and appreciate your anger because this,” she says, nodding to the paper in her hand, “pretty much takes the cake, but you can’t fix this. You can’t just jump in and save me. I need to fight my own battles.” She can feel the ache in the back of her throat now, the sting of tears in her eyes, but she can’t be weak now. There’s too much to do.

“This is my battle too!” Dean yells. “He’s doing this because of me.”

Callie crosses her arms. “What are you talking about?”

“We have this…kind of rivalry going. We’ve never liked each other and we’ve sort of started this competitive
thing
on and off the court. The other day, we were playing ball and I won a bet. For money. Not long after that, he happened to hear Emmett and me talking. I think he heard me mention you and Jinny, how you’re best friends and how I…” Dean and Jinny exchange a look Callie can’t read. “I think he may have heard me telling Emmett how much I hated this thing you’re doing. It was later that day I found out he called you and asked you out.”

“Wait a minute,” Callie says. “Let me get this straight. Jason never had a crush on me? This was all for some sort of vendetta against you? That doesn’t even make sense. Why would going out with me, paying me for a date, and trying to get me to sleep with him, get back at you?”

The tension melts away from Dean’s face and he shrugs, his cheeks turning pink. “I don’t know. He might have heard me mention that you were like a sister to me. I think he figured since I hated him so much that I’d be pissed if you went out, then further pissed if you actually took him up on his disgusting offer and slept with him… And he’s not used to girls turning him down, so when you threw wine in his face and rejected him, then I bashed his face in at practice, I think—”

“That’s what made him publish this story. To get back at both of us,” Callie finishes for him.

“Yes.” Dean’s lips press into a tight line.

Unsure what to think, Callie, pushes the news aside. She tightens her grip on the trash bag and sticks the newspaper she stills holds into it.

It doesn’t matter how this all started. Does it? The outcome, the reality of the situation, is still the same. The point is that it’s happening. And Jinny and I need to stop it. We need to do whatever we can. There’s no point in mulling over the ‘why’ of it. Not now.

For the first time since she received that call minutes ago, the aching anxiety fades. Callie’s head clears, and her resolve strengthens. She stands up taller, her arms rigid at her side as her whole body tenses, ready for action.

“Okay. You want to help?” she asks Dean.

He nods.

“You call the newspaper. Inform them of the article. Jinny and I have a feeling Jason somehow slipped this through. Let them know the story is unequivocally false and that we’ll sue for libel if they don’t immediately print a retraction and ensure it gets in the hands of every student on campus, while they also immediately remove all papers with the old story. In the meantime, Jinny and I are going on our own to collect all the papers we can find.”

“But—” Dean steps forward.

“No buts,” Jinny interrupts. “You’re not going near Jason again. Look at where it got you and Callie in the first place. Stay here and make the call.”

Dean slouches and shoves his hands in his pockets. “Fine.”