Girl and Boys (#Wattys2015 Winner - New Adult Romance)

Chapter 13

I may not have run into Roxy in person that day in South Ken, but we were together everywhere in the showbiz and letters sections of the City Daily on Monday morning. Our names appeared in the same sentences and captions underneath paparazzi shots of Roxy.

I held my paper in front of my face on my way to work and peered over the top of the pages. I wondered if anyone on the train realised that I was the woman they were all reading about. A quick look around my carriage confirmed that everyone's head was buried in a copy of the City Daily bar one teenager listening to Dizzee Rascal on his evidently non-soundproof headphones.

The City Daily was offered free at every station in London during morning rush hour, so I wasn't surprised. Its showbiz editor had used Scott's quip for his headline, 'Storm in a D-Cup.' I saw those words on the page of the man's paper in front of me and the woman's paper right next to me. I was surrounded.

The City Daily article and all the online blogs I'd read over the weekend were, thankfully, sympathetic towards me. I was described as Verve's 'innocent and unsuspecting new editor' and 'fresh-faced ingénue' who was 'bearing the brunt' of Roxy's wrath. They all compared me to Larry Owen. I made a mental note to look up old episodes of Cash Surprise Chaos online when I got home. Better yet, I should look up online videos of his fight with Roxy.

I approached the Verve office and was both relieved and surprised that I wasn't met with hoards of paparazzi. Then again, the whole thing really was a storm in a teacup and the media had run the story now. What was the saying? Today's news is tomorrow's chip paper?

However, it was still news in the Verve office when I walked in. Roxy had apparently blasted out another tweet that morning.

Don't listen to @VerveFM's interview. Ratings at my expense! #boycottVerveFM #BoycottMikeyRollins #BoycottBethGeorge.

How could a person this famous act like she had no media training at all? Didn't she know that that tweet would just send more listeners our way? With the interview due to be broadcast in 20 minutes time, Mikey and Loz ran back and forth from the studio to their desks like they were in a baton relay. The batons were flapping papers and excited looks.

Eric, Cam and Scott's attention was focused on the bigger picture - the launch of Vernon Goode's rival station and website Lash.

'Such bad timing for him,' muttered Scott, rolling his chair over to sit between me and Eric. Cam stood nearby, tapping his foot. 'We've got a huge chunk of the UK tuning into our interview with Roxy right when he's doing an interview with a past X Factor contestant. Whoop-dee-doo.'

'You're our secret weapon against him Beth,' said Eric. 'Half the UK's on Team Beth so now's the time we need you to pump out as many articles as possible. You should see the comments on the articles you've already written. I approved most of them late last night so they're up now for you and the world to read.'

My entire body went hot and I felt like I was floating above my chair as Eric spoke. All I could do was nod as Mikey's voice boomed through the office and into cars and homes across the country.

'You're listening to Verve FM and that was Sneaky Sound System. Now, Loz, we've been in the papers this morning...'

'We have?' replied Loz. 'Sorry, I've been living under a rock.'

'Yes, we have,' continued Mikey. 'On Friday, we recorded an interview with former Castle Street actress Roxy Rogers, the day after news broke that she and her football player fiancé Bryce Long had called it quits. At the request of her publicist, we did not ask Roxy anything regarding her ex-fiancé. We instead played an innocent game in which we wanted to know who knew more about Roxy Rogers - her or her biggest fan in the office, our new online editor Beth George. The game came to an abrupt halt when Roxy took offence at a particular question in which we mistakenly referred to a failed audition she gave for Agents Undercover in 2001.'