Free The Debt 5 by Kelly Favor Page A

lucky to have her.”
    Bri laughed, took a sip of water.   Suddenly, her eyes crinkled up.   “You look really familiar,” she
said.   “Do we know each other from
somewhere?”
    Raven stared at her.   “I don’t think so.”   And then it hit her.   The woman probably recognized her from
seeing a story about her on TV or maybe online.
    It seemed to dawn on Bri as well, because
she snapped her fingers.   “Yeah, I
just remembered.   I read about
you!   You’re that girl who’s dating
Jake Novak, aren’t you?”
    Raven’s stomach went cold.   She glanced around but nobody had heard
the question, thankfully.   “Sorry, I
don’t really feel comfortable talking about that.”
    Bri looked aghast.   “Oh, Jeez.   I hope I didn’t offend you.”
    “No, not at all.”   Raven tried to smile but it felt frozen
and fake.   “I just don’t really talk
about that stuff.”
    “Oh, totally.   I’m so sorry.”   Bri went back to eating her
sandwich.   “It’s just that I’m kind
of a closet Jake Novak fan,” she said, as if imparting state secrets.
    Raven tried again to smile, but now she
was looking around, trying to think of how she could escape the situation
without seeming too rude.   “Hey,
there are a lot of those,” she said, lamely.
    Bri appeared to sense the shift in
Raven’s demeanor.   “Listen, I didn’t
mean to put you off.   It’s
just—are you two still an item?   I’m so curious.”
    Raven looked at her.   Alarm bells were going off, for some
reason.   Why did this total stranger
keep asking about her and Jake’s relationship?
    As Raven stared at Bri, she noticed that
the redhead was carrying a laptop case.   It wasn’t unusual, but combined with her comment about “freelancing” and
the way she’d coincidentally approached Raven out of nowhere—everything
just clicked into place.
    “You’re a journalist,” Raven said, and
she didn’t phrase it as a question because she already knew the answer.
    Bri’s expression didn’t change.   Her beady, piercing eyes stayed trained
on Raven’s face.   “I didn’t mean to
mislead you,” Bri said, “but this is my job.”
    “Actually, you did mean to mislead me,
but it didn’t work.”   Raven tried to
control her mounting anger.   “And
you think it’s your job to follow me to a hospital and ambush me when I’m
taking a break from visiting with my sick friend?”
    “No, it’s my job to get the story that my
boss tells me to get.”   
    “That’s not my problem,” Raven said,
rising from her seat.   “Maybe it’s
time to find a new job.”
    And then she started to walk quickly away
from the table, noticed she had crumbled the foil with the remains of her
crappy burger still inside of it, and swerved to throw it away in one of the
garbage bins.
    As she exited the cafeteria, Bri scurried
up alongside her.   “I know you’re
angry, but we’re not done here just yet.”
    “Oh, yes we are.   We never even started,” Raven replied,
walking fast and looking straight ahead.
    “People are going to be writing stories
about you and Jake.   Wouldn’t you at
least prefer we get them right?   Don’t you want to respond to the awful things they say about your sex
tape?   We both know that you didn’t
have group sex with those boys at the party.”
    “I don’t care what they say.   They’re going to lie because people like
you eat it all up,” Raven said, and then shut her mouth.   She was angry at herself for even taking the bait.
    “I know you and Jake aren’t together
anymore,” Bri continued.   “I just
wanted to get your comment on the fact that he’s already seeing Courtney
Taylor.”
    Despite her better instincts, Raven
stopped walking.   She looked at the
smaller woman.   “Please leave me
alone.   Please.”
    “I know you find this distasteful,” Bri
said.   “But isn’t what Jake’s done
to you even more distasteful?   He
used you and threw you away as soon as your