Calem didn't know what was happening. One moment he was walking down the street and the next some woman was kissing him in a way that curled his toes and did other things to his body that would be indecent to mention.

He felt on fire as her body pressed against him and her fingers gripped his hair, holding him in place while she tortured him with her kiss. His mind shut down, and his body took over. He dropped his take-out food and started kissing the woman back.

Hell, he may have just found the love of his life and he didn't want to come off like some inexperienced high school kid, so he gave her back all she gave him and more. Calem smiled inwardly when he heard her sigh in bliss, and that's where the fantasy ended.

"What the hell?"

Calem found himself pulled away from his siren and was now face to face with...

Jackson Brewer!

Calem looked down to discover the woman who was kissing him was none other than Evelyn Quinn, the fiancée.

"Oh, shit!"

It was too late. There was no way to avoid what happened next as Jackson's meaty fist hit Calem in the face. Stunned, he staggered backward. Calem could hear the clicks of phone cameras and began to panic, even though his dazed brain wondered: Why do phones make a shutter sound when they don't have a shutter?

Calem struggled to clear his thoughts. Not important, brain! What was important now was that he... what? Should he run? Should he stay? No! Of course, he shouldn't stay. This was a disaster.

Thankfully, Evelyn turned around, and slapped him in the face, drawing all eyes to the couple, and allowing Calem to slip away into the crowd unnoticed. He touched his eye which had already begun to swell. It hurt like hell.

He wondered. Should he go to the emergency room? What if he is being followed? As a tabloid snoop, he knew he'd want to know who the guy was that Evelyn decided to kiss so passionately on the sidewalk, and would take the first opportunity to find out.

Calem ducked down a back alley and a few side streets until he felt certain he was alone, and then hailed a cab to take him back to the office.

"Whoa, what happened to you?" the cabbie wanted to know. "You get mugged or somethin'?"

"Yeah, something like that. Could you just keep your eyes on the road, please? I've already been through enough today. I really don't want to add a car crash to my list."

The cabbie shrugged, like it mattered little to him, and kept driving.

Calem dared a peek at his phone. Oh, this is bad. This is really bad. Social media was blowing up like a fireworks display on the Fourth of July. There were pics, clips, and straight-up videos popping up everywhere of the kiss.

The kiss... What was he thinking? He wasn't thinking. Evelyn made it impossible to think. All he could do was feel. Then he watched as someone made a looped GIF of him getting socked in the face over and over and over again. It looked as painful as it felt.

Calem switched off his phone and threw some bills at the driver to cover his fare. He paid him fifty bucks extra for his sunglasses, which the cabbie happily handed over. Calem slipped the shades on and entered the lobby and made a b-line for the elevator.

He felt a stab of guilt when he pressed the close door button on the intern that was desperate to make it inside while running and trying not to spill the tray of to-go cups he was carrying. Calem, however, was not in the mood to share.

He took off the shades to examine his eye in the mirrored paneling behind him. "So much for today being a good day." He slipped them back into place. The moment Calem stepped off the elevator, Janice was there and up his butt.

"Big boss said the moment you came back, he wants you in his office."

"Have you been standing outside the elevator all this time?"

Wearing a "duh expression" on her face, Janice began pushing Calem in the direction he needed to go. "You weren't answering your phone. How else was I going to deliver his message?"

"Okay. Okay, Janice. I know where to go. Gather the team in conference room B. We need to have an impromptu meeting A.S.A.P. If anyone has left the office, call them back."

"Right!" Janice made a sharp right and called the editors out by name as she passed by their offices.

Calem's stomach turned, and his hand hesitated to knock on the door.

"Get your ass, in here, Calem!"

He had no idea how his boss knew he was standing there. Calem figured Janice probably texted him to let him know he was on his way, so Fennick knew she fulfilled her purpose.

"Shut the door," Fennick instructed.

It startled Calem to see how much older Alfred looked sitting behind his desk than he had an hour ago. Has it really only been an hour? A brief glance at this watch confirmed it was true.

"Have a seat."

Calem took a seat across from his mentor and boss.

"Let's have a look," Fennick said, tapping his own glasses to gesture to Calem to remove his. "Aw, hell! What happened?"

A rush of adrenaline surged through Calem's body. Restless, he stood up and began pacing the room.

"I don't know. I was coming back with your burger and some woman grabs hold of me and starts kissing me. I know I should have pushed her away and called her crazy. I certainly shouldn't have kissed her back, but it was as if I were possessed, or having an out-of-body experience."

"Leave the myths and urban legends to the other tabloids, I'm looking for facts," Fennick demanded.

"Okay, I didn't know it was Evelyn Quinn kissing me until Jackson Brewer pulled me away from her. Before I had a chance to say a word, he decked me in the eye. I don't know what happened exactly from there, only that she slapped him in the face and the crowd got distracted. So, my first thought was a quick escape."

"First smart thing I've heard you say."

"How much trouble am I in?"

"That remains to be seen. You're the spin master here. How do you plan on handling this?"

"Me?" Stunned, Calem finally stopped moving. "What can I do? The whole reason I used a pseudonym is that I wanted to stay out of the limelight. Better for Sasha Miller to take the heat."

"Well, you're in the fire now, kid. So, what's the plan?"

"No one can know Sasha and I are the same person."

"Agreed."

"Evelyn has no idea who I am, so there is no chance of us interacting again."

"Okay, but what about your picture being plastered all over the internet?"

"Yeah, there is that?" Calem started to pace again.

"I can't let us get scooped by the other magazines... so. I guess that means I'm about to become the subject of my own column."

"Risky move."

"What choice do I have? You know I'm not going to let anyone take our number one spot. Besides having Sasha's report about me, names left out only would solidify that she and I are two different people, keeping my identity as the leading gossip safe."

Fennick let out a long sigh. "You pull this off, and you'll get the promotion, and run this magazine."

Calem nodded. He opened the door to get to that meeting and back to work.

"But Calem?"

Calem paused with his hand on the door handle.

"Screw this up and I'll have no choice but to terminate you. You'll be compromised and therefore useless to this magazine. Am I understood?"

Calem's heart plummeted into his stomach. All his hard work, all his dreams... "I won't fail," he asserted. "I can't."

The moment he left Fennick's office, Calem leaped into action.

"Janice, everyone gathered in the boardroom?"

"Yep, you're all set."

"Good. Bring your laptop. I'll need you to sit in on this one to take notes."

Janice scooped up her computer and followed closely in Calem's footsteps. Calem entered the boardroom and heard several gasps from the occupants.

"Yes, the videos are true. Jackson Brewer decked me for kissing his fiancée. Well, to be honest, she kissed me."

"That's not what we saw," Brett Donaldson snickered.

Calem glared at Brett in a way that caused Brett's smirk to vanish and his eyes to divert to the floor.

"Keeping Sasha Miller's identity a secret is our top priority." Calem looked to his team. "Thoughts?"

The room went silent. Everyone was looking around at one another without a clue what should happen next.

Janice looked about the room and then shyly raised her hand.

"Janice?"

"Is it possible to run a special edition? Then we can get the news out before the rest have a chance."

Calem smiled then winced as pain shot through his eye. "We're going to make it possible, and it's going to run tomorrow.

"What tomorrow? That's crazy! There's no way we can ..."

Calem ignored Brett's outburst.

"Okay, Kate I need you to pay whoever you need to pay for the best pictures out there. Be sure to get them to sign a photo release, so we can use whatever photos we purchase across all social media."

Kate nodded, furiously scribbling notes as she flipped through the recently posted pictures and collected her favorites.

"I'll work on the copy, but Nick, I'll need you to work late tonight to edit the article when I'm done."

"You got it!" Nick said, texting his girlfriend that he won't make it to dinner.

Rashid and Tamara, I need you both to make sure the other departments step up their game and get me something by five tonight, so I can get it over to layout."

"Done," they said in unison.

"Brett, I need you on this one. We need to convince the printers to give us a place on the line. Tell them we will pay them handsomely to push aside whomever they were going to print to put us first. The magazine has to be ready to hit the stands first thing in the morning."

"Yeah, sure," Brett said with disinterest.

"So, we all know what we're doing?"

The team nodded. "Alright. Let's get to work."