What A Lie Looks Like | ✓

2.22: hayes

"So for the quarterly budget, we need to cut the expenses in this department by at least ten percent. I think that the expenses they are spending can be reduced significantly if they adopt the same-" I'm cut off by the large thud that shakes my office door. What the hell? I told Reagan not to let any distractions come through until I had finished with this meeting.

"Mr. Benson? You were saying?" A member of the senior board asks on the video screen, and I glance back down at the paper resting on my desk.

"Sorry, I was saying that the marketing department in London is using unnecessary funds with the amount of production they're producing when compared to the marketing department in the Tokyo branch. Their branch is producing at nearly twenty percent lower expenses-" Something slams into the door again, and my attention is once again distracted from what I'm saying. "I'm sorry, please excuse me for a moment." I try not to let the irritation seep out into my voice, but I've been here since six, and my patience is on thin ice today.

I've just barely clicked the hold button before the door slams open with Reagan trying to hold Ollie back, but he's twice her size. "What are you doing in here?" I demand, looking at him and then Reagan before going back to Ollie.

"I tried to stop him, but I couldn't call security because I was too busy blocking your door to try and keep this psycho from getting in." She huffs folding her arms, "I'm going back to my desk, you might want to take into consideration that I don't get paid enough to deal with body blocking people from getting into your office."

I rub my temples before focusing on Ollie, "What was so goddamn important that you interrupted my most important meeting of the day when you can't bother to pick up the fucking phone to call Sephine." Ollie and I might have stayed friends for the past six years, but we aren't good enough friends that I would be sympathetic after he's shut Seph out the past five days, with not even a text message.

"I know you probably want nothing to do with me right now, but you need to shut the fuck up and listen to me." The fact that Ollie just said that has me stunned enough that I'm willing to listen to me, but the other part of me is afraid of what he's going to say. "Have you checked any kind of news or social media outlet today?"

I roll my eyes, "What do you think? Reagan has blocked all of my incoming calls for this meeting that you've now interrupted!"

Ollie shoves his phone in my face, and a video starts playing on the screen. In tiny words, barely legible on the phone screen reads: Hayes Benson's fiancé isn't quite the sweetheart she appears to be, and my stomach drops.

What the hell?

Lesli Arnolds looks the same as always from the last time I was on her show two years ago. "Hey, guys! Welcome back to my segment, where we catch up on the latest gossip. If you haven't heard of Sephine Montgomery by now, then you must be living under a rock because she's been featured everywhere." A picture of us getting coffee in Austin floats up beside her before she continues talking again, "She's also known as the ballerina who recently stole billionaire Hayes Benson's heart. Yes, that Hayes Benson."

There's a smirk on her face, and an old picture of me pops up next, "I mean, look how in love they are in their engagement photos, folks." The photo of Sephine and I taking a break on the couch with her head resting on my shoulder and my hand on her leg shows along with two of the other official photos that weren't released to begin with. I'm not sure where they came from.

"Now we know for a fact that Sephine has been taking a break from dancing after she fell during a routine in Toronto two months ago, and I don't think I've ever felt sorrier for someone." A clip of Sephine dancing on stage fills the entire screen before she starts to run towards Ollie. She twists herself mid-air, and it looks as if Ollie is going to catch her. But then she slips through his fingers, and there's the agonizing cry she lets out from the angle she landed. I hear the gasp from the person who took the video as Sephine just lays there like a broken doll, and then the clip stops. "Now that certainly looks like it hurt. Poor girl." I couldn't bring myself to watch the video beforehand, and now I wish that I hadn't.