Every fiber of my being told me how awful it would be if I stepped one foot inside that conference room, but I couldn’t stop myself. I needed to see the impossibility of an Alex Kavon actually showing up.

I walked out right before Trager. I wanted to leave him in my wake.

My feet faltered as I stepped into the conference room, and I braced my arms on the door to keep from falling face first into the rug. Every person that worked for the magazine had to be sitting inside that conference room waiting to meet the all-powerful Alex Kavon. My cheeks heated. I couldn’t even imagine what was about to happen.

I watched Jameson and his father move their way through the crowded room to sit at the head of the long conference table. People shifted excitedly in their seats as I walked into the room further. They looked right past me, behind me, next to me—right freaking through me.

“Come on, Kevin,” Sophia called from the front of the room, cocking her head to look behind me.

I turned to look at Kevin and shock kicked me in the throat. Kevin’s eyes were glued to the floor as he walked past me with a large portfolio in his hands. I wanted to throttle him.

“Was her ass made of gold?” I hissed as Trager slid past me. I wanted to kick the son-of-a-bitch. I knew that portfolio. “Was she that much better than me that you could hurt me like this?”

“You left me, Lexa. Remember that. I still wanted to get married and you went on our honeymoon with him,” he snapped.

“Well, then I can’t wait to meet Alex Kavon.” Truly.

Kevin walked up next to Sophia and sheepishly slid the all too familiar portfolio onto the table.

A ball of burning anger swelled in the pit of my stomach. Was he serious right now? There was no way I was going to let him hurt me again. No way.

No way.

I stormed through the conference room and sat down opposite Kevin. I wanted to make sure he was looking directly into my face when he did whatever he was going to do. I wanted to stare him down.

The coward glanced up at me and quickly averted his eyes back down. I laughed loudly when the first beads of sweat glistened across his upper lip. Wimp.

I crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes into slits at him. His hands started trembling as he fumbled with the portfolio, trying desperately to open it. He couldn’t even do it correctly.

Sophia stood next to him, beaming down at him.

“Miss Willington, can we please get to the heart of this meeting?” Remington Holt demanded from the head of the table. “You promised us Alex Kavon.”

“And he is sitting right here,” she cackled dramatically.

He is?

Who? Trager the Mailroom Jackass?

I laughed aloud again and held myself back from throwing something at her head. Was she really going to tell everyone? Was she really going to do it?

I kept my eyes leveled on his and stared daggers at him. Sophia squeezed his shoulder in some sort of warped misguided encouragement, and I couldn’t wait until I heard what their plan was. Then sit back and watch how it would backfire on them both.

Kevin couldn’t look at me. The coward was sweating profusely now. He pulled at the collar of his five-dollar knock-off designer shirt and tried to talk in his stuttered, asinine way, getting all tongue-tied. Then finally, his gaze met mine.

“Go ahead, Kevin,” I leaned forward and whispered across the table. “Go ahead and tell everyone what you have to say.” I blinked back tears and cursed myself for letting him see even a hint of them.

Kevin’s whole body stiffened. “I can’t do this,” he said quietly. He dropped the papers limply on the table and a heavy silence filled the room.

James was watching me, and I guess it finally occurred to him that something was wrong. His head snapped to the front of the room right to where Kevin Trager was going to break my heart again. Unless he did the right thing for once and chose me. Kevin looked away from me quickly and started twisting his fingers together uncomfortably. Idiot.

“You can’t do what?” Jameson demanded.

“Kevin, darling, really? There’s no need to act humble. We spoke about this,” Sophia said through a tight smile.

“It’s wrong, Sophia,” Kevin mumbled back. Backstabbing loser.

His eyes rose back up to mine. “I’ve screwed up big time and lost someone I really loved. I can’t lie about this and hurt her more. She doesn’t deserve it,” Kevin said.

Tears blurred my vision. I tried to hold them in, but it was really hard.

“Sophia wanted me to pretend to be Alex—but I’m not. Alex Kavon is in this room though. I don’t know anything about blogging and writing. But I do know I can’t hurt anyone anymore.”

“That’s enough. I’m Alex Kavon!” Sophia yelled desperately. “I wrote all these articles. I didn’t want to…”

“She’s lying!” Trager roared. “She’s lying. And she’s only been sleeping with me because I told her I knew Alex. And when I told her who Alex really was she—”

“Shut up, you moron. You’re the one lying!” she screeched. Her face turned a sickening shade of bright purple. The people around us started murmuring and whispering loudly.

Jameson slammed his fist down against the table, immediately halting all noise. “Stop the games. Where is Alex Kavon?”

Sophia and Trager’s voices fought to be heard, tangling together and muffling each other. Other people yelled and cursed at Sophia for giving them false hope at keeping their jobs.

I stood up amongst the fighting. Somewhere to the left of me, papers flew up into the air. I slid my way toward the door. The only thing I could honestly think about was writing an article about how sexist assholes still exist or mean girls aren’t only in high school.

“Lexa?” I heard Jameson’s voice over everything else and it stilled my movements.

I leaned my palm on the door for support. This was going to end everything. This was going to cause it all to go up in flames. But he was leaving to go to California, wasn’t he? The three weeks were over and it was all just fun. Everything that led up to it. The texts. The talks. Everything. It was numbers 1-9 on the list. The thing is I needed more. I needed number ten.

I deserved it.

“Lexa?” he called out again.

“It’s me. I’m Alex Kavon,” I said.

23

Lexa

“The jig is up!” @Kavon #PeekABoo #UmSurprise

The chaos around us crashed to a screeching halt. People stopped in mid sentence, paused in mid stride, and everyone’s eyes snapped to me.

“How can you be Alex Kavon?” Remington demanded.

“Unscramble the letters, sir. Alex-Lexa. Kavon-Novak. It’s me. I tried to tell you. I emailed Remington dozens of times.” I shrugged and threw my hands up into the air. “Why open an email from some meager little fact checker, right?”

“There’s no way,” James said, standing up from his chair and leaning his palms down flat on the table. His face turned menacing. “Regardless of the unprofessional activities that have run rampant in this building, this is a business. People’s livelihoods are at stake here. The games need to stop. Alex Kavon is a brand worth millions. He’s been established for years. It can’t be you.”

“It was just a scrambled profile name. I started blogging when I was fifteen. It’s really easy to be someone else behind the cover of a computer screen, sir.”

“She’s a liar,” Sophia cried out, but Kevin shoved his hand over her mouth and urged her to sit down quietly. I watched their motions. She flung herself in defeat, collapsing against the chair. It rolled with the momentum and spun her around. Everyone else just watched me.