Some say getting out of The Friend Zone is hard. Well, try getting out of The Sister Zone.
Vanessa Hayes-Wong has been best friends with Oliver Morrison for five years, one month, and fourteen days. Just as she starts to realize her feelings for him...
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"Have you heard the news?" Blake the Gossip King murmurs from behind the closed door, halting my steps. "They said Oliver is in critical condition after that accident."
As the busybodies inside the break room gasp in unison, I let out a worn-out sigh.
It's been five days since the gossip magazines published the false report on Ollie's accident, and the rumors about us keep growing wilder and wilder. One theory even speculates that we were engaged in a foursome at the bar's supposed secret sex lair when Ollie got struck by lightning.
Seriously. How the heck do you get struck by lightning inside a building?
"I'm not sure about that, Blake." This time, it's the unmistakable raspy voice of Amber, Nicole's former number two whose wavy red locks always remind me of Princess Ariel's. "A friend of mine said her ten-year-old son spotted them having sex in Echo Park yesterday."
Excuse me? My jaw goes slack.
The rational side of me is aware that I should stop eavesdropping before things get worse. But as I peek through the glass panel of the door, the plate full of brownie cakes on the kitchen cabinet gives my legs a brain of their own.
"Oh, come on. That can't be true," Jules, my former protégé, chimes in. "This is Oliver Morrison we're talking about. He never even took a sick leave before this, and now he's missing five days of work? His illness must be serious."
"I know, right?" Blake's voice drips with false sympathy. "Poor Oliver."
"Poor Oliver?" Rachel, Blake's fellow receptionist, scoffs. "More like poor Celia. I still can't believe he cheated on her for the one-hundred-and-second time. What a jerk."
And you're just a bitter person who can't handle rejection.
When Rapunzel over there first started working here four years ago, she was drooling all over Ollie. She even asked him to dress up as Batman to her Catwoman for the studio's Halloween party that same year. But after Ollie politely said no and chose to go to the party as Jack Torrance alongside my Wendy Torrance, Rachel's attitude toward Ollie took a 180-degree turn.
If only she knew that miser chose that costume because he didn't have to spend a dime for it.
"Is it true they got back together, though?" Amber munches the brownie in her hand. "Celia said she's been single for six months."
In an attempt to rebuke all the rumors about us, Celia did an interview on The Late Late Late Show with Wyatt Nesbitt last night and tried to set the record straight. Yet for some reason, most people refuse to believe her.
"Yeah, right," the Gossip King replies with a laugh of disbelief. "Didn't you hear her new song last night? It's obvious she's still in love with him."
