Beck had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach from the moment Jade left his apartment. He knew there was a chance she could do something with the information that she had, he just didn't expect her to do that something so quickly.
Within a few days, the new edition of The Measure, the magazine that Jade works for, hits newsstands. On the cover are pictures of Cat and Robbie together at the basketball game, and pictures of himself and Andre talking at the pier. 'Learn All About Hollywood's Famous Date Doctor' the headline reads. Of course, all of the information inside is false. The article is published without an author, so Beck can't really be sure if it was Jade or one of her co-workers that wrote the article, but they make claims that his specialty is helping desperate men get into bed with attractive women. It paints a horribly false narrative...all Beck does is help men unlock the potential that they already have. Unfortunately, he might never get the chance to help someone do so again...not after something like this.
Thankfully, the article doesn't publish his name. They also don't publish the name of the so-called 'source' that fed them all of their misleading information, so Beck wouldn't know how to start cleaning things up if he tried.
Cat Valentine is furious, of course, once she reads the exposé...and who could blame her? She thinks that Robbie only wants to get her into bed, and immediately calls him and ends things. Robbie then calls Beck and screams at him...even though deep down he knows it isn't Beck's fault. One of his clients had betrayed him, and it hadn't been Robbie...but he's so heartbroken over losing Cat he doesn't know how else to deal with it besides...well, being angry.
Beck is angry too, and sad, and upset, and a lot of different emotions he's having a hard time separating. Any chance he had of fixing things with Jade is very clearly gone, and now he's starting to lose business too. Any current clients he had been working with call and cancel on him, past clients are furious that their wives and girlfriends now have suspicions about their original intentions. The phone he uses to contact clients starts blowing up, so much to the point where he just decides to turn it off...and he isn't sure if he'll ever turn it back on again.
"I'm glad you finally agreed to come to one of these things with me." Tori smiles as she and Jade sit down
"Yeah, well..." Jade sighs "Something to do...right?"
Personally, Jade thinks speed dating is a bit old fashioned. That's what dating websites and apps are for now, but like she said...it's something to do. Tori invited her and she needs something to distract her from everything that happened with Beck.
She liked him...she really liked him. Finding out it was all a lie, one giant act, it might've destroyed her if she hadn't known she was protecting hundreds of other women from him and the services he provides the scumbags of Los Angeles.
"So how does this work?" Jade asks Tori "Do we move or do they?"
"They do." Tori tells her "We talk for a minute, then they talk for a minute, then the bell goes off and the guys rotate. If you think you have a connection with someone, write down the number on their badge and you can get their info at the end of the night."
"Sounds easy enough." Jade nods
At first, it is. The guys she talks to are kind boring, but all she really has to do is listen to them. Then, she hears commotion at the door and things become a little less easy.
"Excuse me..." A familiar voice says "May I interrupt?"
"This is my time." The man across from her, Jared...maybe, argues "Wait your-"
"I'll only be a minute." Beck assures him as he pulls him out of the chair and sits down instead "Hi."
"What the hell are you doing here?" Jade asks him
The long answer? He couldn't let her go without at least taking the chance to explain himself. She wasn't answering his calls, and he almost resorted to showing up to her office in an attempt to get her to just listen to him. However, he had been picking up dinner across the street and saw her through the restaurant's large glass windows, talking to other guys, and he knew he had to do something before it was too late. She doesn't want the long answer though, at least he doesn't think so. She just needs a simple explanation right now.
"I just want to talk." He tells her
"Great."
"Jade, I need you to listen to me." Beck practically begs "Robbie Shapiro is a good man. In fact, Robbie Shapiro is a great man. You guys tore his life apart, just so you could sell a few magazines...and then you get mad at me for what I do for a living?"
"Look, I've already got your number, okay?" Jade shakes her head "So how about you go...consult...your conscious?"
"Robbie is in love with her!"
"Oh yeah, just like William Abernathy was too? And all of the guys before him?"
"What do you have against Cat Valentine anyways?"
"Nothing." Jade tells him sincerely "My interest is protecting women from assholes like you!"
"You don't even know me."
"Hey man..." Jared tries to cut in "That's my seat."
"Just a second, please." Jade smiles at Jared, then turns back to Beck "And who's fault is it that I don't know you?"
"Jade?" Tori leans over "Do you know this guy?"
"Apparently not..." Jade sighs
"There are certain aspects of my job that are secretive, alright?" Beck admits "I realize that."
"And my job is to try and find the truth."
"The truth?" Beck laughs "Jade, you wouldn't know the truth about any of this if it kicked you in the head!"
"If Robbie Shapiro had to take the fall for all of this, then so be it." Jade snaps at him
"Why don't you say what's really pissing you off, huh?" Beck prods her
Jade stares at him with anger in her eyes as the bell goes off, signaling that it's time for the men to rotate tables.
"Can I have my seat back now?" Jared groans
"Yeah, sorry." Beck stands up "Here you go man."
"Thank you."
Beck moves to the next table only a few feet away and sits down in front of Tori.
"Oh..." She smiles nervously "Hi..."
"Hey there." Beck greets her "Beck Oliver, nice to meet you."
"This guy doesn't even have a badge!" One of the other men yells
"You are?"
"Um, I'm Tori?" Tori is very clearly confused by Beck's intrusion
"Hi Tori."
"I work at The Measure magazine downtown."
Oh great. Beck thinks to himself Another one.
"You handled me." Jade says to Beck, completely ignoring Jared now "You manipulated me. You looked me up and tried to use my past to impress me, but clearly that ended up backfiring."
"Oh, you're the guy who took her to Tony's exhibit!" Tori exclaims, finally now understanding the connection "That was very sweet in theory, not well executed though."
"Tori, not now." Jade rolls her eyes
"Excuse me, Jade? I'm on a date." Beck tells her "Tori, I just have one question for you. Does it ever occur to women that maybe a guy might like to have a plan? Because he's nervous. He's not sure if he could just walk up to you and you'd respond if he said 'I like you'."
He then turns to Jade and makes eye contact with her as he repeats the words 'I like you' in a louder and more serious tone. She rolls her eyes and turns her attention back to Jared.
"He has a point." Jared speaks up "I tried that once and it completely backfired on me."
"Yeah, same here." Another man agrees
"Who cares what you did? Because I liked you too!" Jade exclaims "I just didn't know I was being worked over by some kind of...of...professional! And you know what, Tori? The only time he was sincere or spontaneous is when everything was going horribly wrong, or when he was high!"
"I'm sorry to interrupt..." A man from another table leans over to Beck "Do I know you? Do you work at the bank?"
"Uh...no." Beck shakes his head "But I've been told I have one of those faces. Jade, do you want to see me be spontaneous?"
"Sure!" She laughs "Does anybody have any Benadryl?"
"Are you sure you don't work at the bank?" The same man asks him again
"No, he doesn't work at the bank." Jade says "But if this doesn't work out, give him a call and maybe he can hook you up with one of the Kardashians!"
"That's it!" The man exclaims "You're the date doctor! From the magazine!"
"Fuck..."
"You're the date doctor?" Tori suddenly looks hurt "Oh my god, you are! I recognize you now..."
"Is there a problem here?" One of the restaurant's security guards asks as he walks over and places a hand on Beck's shoulder
"Oh there definitely is!" Tori nods as she stands up and throws her napkin against the table "What the hell did I ever do to you, huh?"
"I'm sorry..." Beck looks to Jade for some kind of explanation "Am I missing something?"
She shakes her head and stands up, walking over to Tori and wrapping and arm around her shoulders.
"Sir, only people with badges are allowed in this event." The security guard says to him "I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
"Yeah." Jade scoffs "Why don't you go hit a strip club with your buddy Ryder?"
For a moment, Beck has absolutely no idea what Jade is talking about. Ryder? But then the details slowly start to fall into place and he's able to start making the connections. She means Ryder Daniels, the hit-it-and-quit-it guy he met with a few weeks before. Her friend Tori must have been the girl he was trying to sleep with, and he must've gone ahead with his advances even after he told him off.
"Wow..." Beck is stunned "Is...is he your source?"
"You buried yourself, Beck." Jade tells him
"Jade, I don't think you were listening..."
"I heard every word." Jade assures him, still holding onto Tori "You're a scam artist! You trick women into getting-"
"Into getting out of their own way!" Beck cuts her off "So that great guys like Robbie Shapiro have a fighting chance! I want everyone in here to take a good look at this right now, okay? Because this right here is exactly why falling in love is so fucking hard!"
"Sir." The security guard grabs Beck's arm "Let's go, please. Now."
Beck doesn't break eye contact with Jade as he is pulled away, and he can see that her eyes have started to water up a little bit. He feels hurt...hurt that she can't get out of her own way enough to see what he's trying to do. That he's not a bad guy, that he has good intentions and is only trying to help. If she can't see that, even now after all of this...maybe she was never really worth his time anyway.
"Ryder Daniels is a pig!" Beck adds "I refused to work with him! You need to get your facts right...It's because of jerks like him that I even have a job! Or...had a job...you guys have a good night..."
With that last comment, he leaves...walking out of the restaurant while a very stunned Jade stayed behind.
"Can you believe that guy..." Jade sighs, brushing a tear from her eye
"Actually..." Tori says quietly, turning to her friend "I think I kinda do..."
Deep down, Jade believes it too. She had acted impulsively because she was upset, which she hates to admit isn't all that uncommon. Her temper got the best of the situation, and she ruined the whole thing.
She fucked up...big time.
"Are you okay?" Tori asks, touching Jade's shoulder gently
"I..." Jade sniffs, "I think I'm going to head home, if that's okay..."
"Sure." Tori nods
Jade grabs her purse off of the back of the chair she had been sitting in and pulls it over her shoulder. She leaves the restaurant through the same door Beck had, hoping that she might still have time to catch him.
Thankfully Beck is still standing outside, staring at his phone while he waits for his Uber.
"Beck?"
He looks up to see who had said his name, and when he sees that it's her...he shakes his head and returns his eyes to the screen.
"I'm sorry..." Jade continues, even though Beck is sending her every signal to just walk away "I made assumptions based on nothing, apparently. I should've asked you about it before I let them publish anything."
"You're right."
"I'm sorry." Jade apologizes again "I never meant to hurt you."
"Don't worry, you didn't." Beck sighs
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Clearly he's hurt, at least a little. He wouldn't be acting this way if he wasn't. After putting up such a fight back inside the restaurant trying to get her to understand...how can he be acting like this now?
"It means I don't want to talk to you anymore." Beck tells her as his car pulls up to the curb "I've said everything I wanted to say."
"But I-"
"Go home, Jade." He says, opening the car door "Here, take this one. I can call another."
"Beck, can we just-"
"Go home, Jade." He repeats
Jade doesn't say another word, and nods silently as she climbs into the back of the car. She mutters a quick thank you before he closes the door, and then gives the driver the new address.