Chapter 61: On the Kind of People You’d Want as President

“I’m back!” Octavia announced. She shut the door of her apartment behind her and dropped her duffel bag on the floor.

Gracie had stood the minute she entered.

“She’s back!” Gracie called.

Octavia glanced at her friend in confusion. Seconds later, the sound of a door banging echoed through the room, and Sierra bounded into the living room from her bedroom.

“You’re back!” Sierra exclaimed.

“Yes…I just said that,” Octavia said slowly, looking between the two of them with a puzzled frown.

“I hope you two had a good time,” Gracie said.

“Sure,” Octavia replied, “…why?”

“Because we couldn’t be sure. You know, from the pictures.”

“I never sent any pictures,” Octavia said.

“Didn’t have to.”

Gracie handed Octavia the newspaper that was in her right hand. Octavia took it from her warily and glanced at the front page article. There, the headline read:

^Off the Market!!! Billionaire Raemon Kentworth Has a New Girl in his Life…for Now.^

“Ohhhh fuuuccckkkk,” Octavia said. A grainy picture displayed the two of them, just when they were getting off the plane.

Raemon was tall and clearly visible, even with dark shades on and the long, black coat covering his muscular frame.

Octavia was only partially visible next to him, given that the hood on her oversized hoodie was up and her face was angled toward the ground whenever the picture had been taken.

She smiled. “Nice, you can barely see me.”

“I can’t believe you were wearing that in public,” Sierra said.

“What? I was dressed,” Octavia protested.

Sierra motioned to the paper in annoyance. “In a hoodie. You couldn’t have gone with the black silk dress? The striped skirt? Anything else I got for you?”

Octavia observed the image of herself in her oversized hoodie, black leggings, and the fuzzy rainbow socks peeking out of her Converse.

“I never dress up for plane trips,” Octavia said. “You’re lucky I didn’t go in pajamas. I definitely wanted to.”

Sierra rolled her eyes.

“Anyway,” Octavia said, “it doesn’t matter. You can hardly see me in this. Perfect timing, I think that was right before I tripped.”

Gracie was shaking her head solemnly. “Read the article.”

Octavia began to scan the words on the page before her with dread in her eyes.

~Billionaire Raemon Kentworth has reportedly found a new woman to keep his bed warm at night.~

~He was spotted recently leaving his private plane where it landed in Croatia for what appeared to be a romantic weekend with a date.~

~Who was the mystery woman in question? Contrary to most predictions, this woman was NOT the famous Lila Scott, supermodel and heir to the Bridlington-Scott fortune.~

~Lila and Raemon were pictured together at a private gathering at the Scott’s beach home recently, and it’s a well-known fact that the Scott company, Voyage Express, struck a lucrative business deal with Kentworth’s Icarus Tech.~

~But Mr. Kentworth has not set his sights on the supermodel Lila Scott. His new fling is no celebrity and certainly no model.~

~She has recently been identified as a Curie Software Designer, a person who Raemon has been working closely with for the Curie-Icarus launch.~

~The young woman is a software engineer by the name Octavia Clarice Wilde—~

“Noooo!” Octavia moaned. “There’s my name!”

Gracie nodded. “They found you.”

“But how?” Octavia demanded.

Gracie shrugged. “It can’t be that hard. You can find just about anyone with a simple web search.”

“Not me,” Octavia said, “I’ve made sure of that.”

“Then someone must have tipped them off,” Gracie said.

Immediately, both Gracie and Octavia looked to Sierra.

“Rude!” Sierra exclaimed. “I didn’t tell anyone about you two. Why would I?” She tossed her hair defiantly. “I’d only out Raemon Kentworth’s relationship if it was with me.”

Octavia sighed. “Not like it matters. My name’s out there. I’m fucked.”

“I’ll bet Raemon will have something to say about it,” Gracie said.

“Shit. Yeah, he will,” Octavia said. “I wonder if he knows about this yet?”

“I only picked up the paper a few hours ago,” Gracie said. “I’m surprised he wasn’t the first to know. It must be someone’s job to inform him of these things.”

“Well…,” Octavia said slowly, “we may have spent the last few days alone…in a hotel…and he may have given everyone orders not to disturb him. I mean…us.”

“Ugh,” Sierra remarked with another dramatic eye-rolling.

“What on earth were you doing?” Gracie asked in wide-eyed innocence.

“Discussing philosophy, obviously,” Octavia replied with a sweet smile.

“Anyway, I haven’t seen him since this morning. As soon as the plane landed, he went back to the office, and I headed straight here to take a long nap.”

Octavia paused.

“Well, I did stop by this one store for a bit. They were having a sale on sweaters. And I did happen to see another sale at the video game store, which reminds me, you’ll never guess what game I just got!”

“Octavia. Focus,” Gracie said sternly, “right now there are a million reporters trying to dig up all the information they can on you. You should probably call Raemon.”

Octavia sighed and pulled out her phone from her pocket. “Oh shit! Thirty-seven missed calls!” She cringed. “I’m guessing he already knows.”

Gracie and Sierra stood in front of her, watching her face as Octavia dialed a number and put the phone up to her ear.

Raemon picked up almost immediately. “Where are you? Why haven’t you answered my calls? Are you all right?” his voice demanded.

“I’m fine,” Octavia said. “I just got back to my apartment. And I forgot my phone was on silent mode.”

She heard his sigh of relief. “Don’t do that to me, Octavia. I had no idea where you were or if something had happened to you.”

“I don’t do it on purpose,” Octavia protested. “I just kind of got distracted at the video game store—uh, I mean, at the place where I was.”

“You told me you were headed straight home,” Raemon said, “and then Yosef gets back to the office saying he left you in the middle of town somewhere.”

“Which I asked him to,” Octavia said, “and it was perfectly reasonable for him to do so since I’m an adult.”

“And just what were you doing in town while being an adult?”

Octavia paused. “Doesn’t matter. The point is, I got home safely.”

“I suppose I’ll have to be content with that,” Raemon said grudgingly. “I have some bad news.”

“I know,” Octavia said, “I’ve seen the article.”

Raemon’s response was distinctly angry. “I don’t know how this happened. I made sure security covered every area before our departure. The rat must have taken the picture when we landed in Croatia.”

“So that’s where we were,” Octavia responded. “I’ve never been to Croatia. And to think, I had no idea where we were the whole time. Hardly worth me saying I’ve been there at all.”

“Octavia, please concentrate on the matter at hand,” Raemon said, losing patience. “I’ll send the car for you immediately.”

Octavia frowned. “Why?”

“To come get you obviously. You can stay at my place until new arrangements are made.”

“Arrangements for what?” Octavia demanded. “And why would I need to stay with you?”

“You can’t stay in that hovel you call a home anymore. It’s not safe,” Raemon said bluntly. “By tomorrow morning, there’ll be a swarm of reporters at your door.”

“They don’t know where I live,” Octavia said. “Trust me. Try and get your tech guys to find my location if you want. According to the internet, I’m a ghost.”

“Octavia, please. I will not argue about this. You have to move out of your current apartment.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you do.”

“No, I don’t!”

She heard a sound like a fist slamming on a desk.

“Why do you always make things difficult?” Raemon demanded.

“I was about to ask the same thing,” Octavia replied calmly. “Look, I’m not going anywhere. And there’s no way anyone’s going to find where I live. They couldn’t even find a picture.”

“They got your name,” Raemon said through clenched teeth.

“And I have no idea how,” Octavia said, “but it definitely wasn’t from a Google search. And that’s all they will get.” She straightened up.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go double-check certain cybersecurity measures on my personal information.”

“We’re not done discussing this,” Raemon said.

“We can talk about this later,” Octavia replied, “but the outcome probably won’t change. Goodbye.”

When Octavia hung up, she looked up to see the faces Gracie and Sierra were giving her. Sierra was looking at her in dumbfounded shock, and Gracie was as impassive as ever.

“I can’t believe you talked to Raemon Kentworth like that,” Sierra exclaimed. She shook her head gravely. “Do you have any idea how powerful he is? How much he’s worth?”

“He’s not worth all the trouble he’s causing, that’s for sure,” Octavia said breezily. “I’m hungry. Do we have any peanut butter?”