[the one with the gossip blogger]
Tanya Denali isn't like the rest of her family. Oh, sure, she's driven (she goes to Stanford, just like her family always has), she's charming (her superlative has always been Most Popular), and she's attractive (duh) - but in some of the ways that matter, Tanya Denali is night and day with all of her blood relatives. It's because they all like business and Tanya, who doesn't have a head for math or a single care for sales marketing, only really cares about news.
She'll consume it in any form she can get it, but her favorite news is popular culture. She has backdated issues of Rolling Stone, Cosmo, and Times from all the way back in the 90s; she follows all the top blogs for celebrity news; she pays annual subscriptions for her local newspaper, as well as all the best long-standing newspaper publications (except for the Wall Street Journal, because ugh, math). She's been in every journalism club, as a writer or an editor, ever since middle school.
It's not an exaggeration to say that Tanya Denali lives and breathes the news - and she does it in spite of her father, who would have liked to see her in business school, and all the other relatives at Denali Corps who seem to think that Tanya has yet to grow out of some kind of teenage rebellion against family expectations.
But Tanya isn't rebelling. She simply can't imagine doing anything else. She wants to much to leave her mark on history by writing the kind of journalism that will have some kind of cultural impact. Her soft spot for trending beauty and fashion news has put her at the top of the list for headhunters at NYLON magazine, where they think she might be the right fit for their investigation and walk-through articles after she graduates. She's worked so hard for it that some days it's all she cares about, because Tanya is smart enough to know that being pretty now doesn't mean much for the future. She turns down modeling agencies and talent managers, and focuses on whatever journalism she can get her hands on.
So, yes, Tanya loves the news in all of its variations - which is why it feels like such a keen betrayal when one of the publications she writes for posts a story that might as well rend her heart in two.
She's in the Cardinal Trees break room when she first hears about it, poking at a selection of honeydew melons and cantaloupes that look on the edge, their smell too-sweet and turning her off her hunger. Tanya knows better than to get snooty about the snack selection - she knows it's something of a miracle at all that the Cardinal Trees blog isn't operating out of a basement. While not officially affiliated with Stanford, the school blog shares enough advertisers with the official Stanford daily paper that it can afford a little shoebox of an office just outside of campus. Frankly, it's a surprise that the tiny kitchen has any food at all; she figures Zafrina, the current editor, was using the office to clean out her home refrigerator again. Zafrina likes to brag that she can see everything (the kind of claim any self-respecting gossip journalist would make) but in Tanya's opinion, Zafrina can see everything except expiration dates. Tanya takes a second sniff of the melons, wrinkles her nose, and decides she isn't that hungry after all. She's only just about to go back to her desk to work on a follow-up piece about one of the Cardinal football players having a very loud, very public breakup with his girl friend when the animated conversation reaches her ears.
"Did you get it?"
"Obviously I got it! Who do you think I am, Zaffi?"
"A damned idiot if you think you can call me Zaffi again, Maggie. So?"
"So what?"
"The photo - did you get the photo? The proof?"
"You mean, did I traipse my happy ass down to that eyesore of a coffee shop just to verify if some café's social media post is accurate? Yes, I did. Didn't I just say that?"
"And?"
"And what?"
Zafrina makes one of her frustrated noises, the one that matches the intimidating smile she gets on her face when one of her bloggers is being difficult, which knowing Maggie is exactly the point. Tanya lingers just beside the break room doorway, her curiosity burning as she pieces together what's happening on the other side of the door. Zafrina apparently caught wind of some new story and sent their best in-house photographer out for verification. Based on the gloating in Maggie's tone, the story evidently had merit.
Zafrina seems awfully invested in the validation of the story, which is Tanya's first clue that one of the people involved must be high on their continual list of interesting people at Stanford. Who could it be?
"And they're definitely on a date. I mean it, heart eyes and all," Maggie says.
"What are you doing here, then?" Zafrina demands. "If Masen Cullen and Bella Swan are on a date on Stanford property, I want photos! This is front page news for us!"
Maggie snorts, and now her voice is moving away, further from the break room and deeper into the office. "What do you think I came back for? I needed more film."
"Makenna could have brought it to you! What if you miss-"
"Didn't I just say heart-eyes. They're too busy mooning over each other to go anywhere anytime soon. Dollars to donuts they won't leave for hours."
"Maggie!"
"Oh, whatever. I'm going, I'm going. I'll text you updates."
"You better!"
Maggie probably throws in a last word (because she can't resist the temptation to backchat) but Tanya is too busy reeling to hear it. Her feet feel like lead as she stands rooted in place, trying to wrap her mind around what she's just heard.
Masen Cullen - unapproachable, devastatingly handsome, unapologetically icy, unparalleled Masen Cullen is on a date. With Bella Swan, the current campus beauty queen as voted by Cardinal Tree subscribers.
Masen Cullen is on a date with Bella Swan? Like, right now? At this very moment? Making heart-eyes at her, whatever that means?
Tanya feels the distinct need to sit down, but can't seem to make her feet move.
Tanya had been campus beauty for two years and Masen Cullen never went on a date with her, no matter how many times she put herself in his line of sight and made it known she was available.
How did Bella Swan get so lucky?
A piping hot thread of jealousy strikes Tanya right down to the core. Tanya Denali has never had cause to be jealous of anyone in her entire life, but this is the second time Bella Swan has taken something Tanya wanted. Is Bella really so much better than her? Tanya doesn't think so - and yet.
It's some minutes before Tanya can encourage her feet to move, until the shock wears off and the envy starts setting in, rearing its ugly green head and making Tanya's brows pinch together in consternation. She doesn't really feel like writing about football player breakups right now, so she makes a half-baked excuse to Zafrina, promises to meet her deadline, and then flees from the shoebox office. Her phone is out of her purse the second her heels hit the pavement and it doesn't take long to find the story Maggie is chasing.
Masen Cullen and Bella Swan look good together. Like, match-made-in-heaven kind of good.
It's a massive bruise to Tanya's ego to admit it, and even worse one to admit that she's actually envious of another girl to the point of emotional hurt. She's equal parts disbelieving and angered over this - this date. Masen Cullen wouldn't even look at Tanya once, but here he is, gazing at this freckled little computer geek like she's the only thing that exists in the world -
And, well, it's not like Tanya is in love with Masen Cullen or anything, but she does like him. The fact that someone she's attracted to is not attracted to her is a tough pill to swallow. Her self-esteem takes a serious hit, even as she spends the rest of the night following Maggie's updates and finally reading the early-morning story sketching out the details of the Cullen-Swan date to all the Cardinal Trees subscribers.
Masen Cullen had held Bella Swan's hand for, like, three hours. They'd been seen together all over campus, apparently just strolling so they could keep talking. Their date had apparently lasted all day.
It's so romantic it hurts.
Tanya, feeling roughshod in the morning after scraping together her deadline by the skin of her teeth, decides that she could use a solid ego pick-me-up - one that isn't flavored with the pitying looks Irina and Kate, her roommates, keep throwing her way.
So Tanya waves goodbye to her roommates, climbs into her sporty little car, and makes the drive back home to Concord. Or, well, back to the family business in Concord where her favorite older cousin will surely have the answer for her bruised ego.
After all, nothing discouraged James. He didn't see rejection as anything but another opportunity, and Tanya could honestly use some of that bullheaded resiliency right now.
Tanya bypasses the reception desk at Denali with a wave of her fingers and goes right for the elevators. It must be nearing lunchtime, because as she walks through the halls on James' floor, she can see the jittery tells of employees who are already mentally checked-out and waiting for the lunch hour to start. Tanya hadn't even realized the time, but that's okay. Now she has the perfect excuse to explain her presence.
She raps on the door, a sign of cursory politeness, and steps in before she can be invited. James is at his desk, polished leather shoes kicked up on the glass top, phone in hand as he scrolls mindlessly through social media. Because James is the oldest of all the Denali brood - and because Tanya has no interest in the family business - he's been tapped as the next heir of Denali Corps. James is smart, but works quickly and slacks off when he's bored or not being challenged. If she had to guess, she figures he's probably all done with the day's work and is just lingering in his office as a show of responsibility. It would be a very James thing to do. He glances up when she clears her throat, the severity of his hawkish features lightening in genuine delight.
"My favorite cousin," he greets, swinging his feet from the top of the desk. "Shouldn't you be at school?"
"Can't I take you out for lunch?" Tanya feigns a pout.
James snorts. "Lunch is never just lunch," he says, and he's not wrong.
Tanya wrinkles her nose. "Just be nice to me," she orders. "I had a bad day and now I want to feel happy."
James stares hard at her with all the wisdom of his 26 years. He must reach some kind of conclusion, because he pops up from the ergonomic desk chair, slots his phone in his pocket, and lays his arm over her shoulders. "We can do happy," he says with a reassuring pat. "How about this? Lunch is on me."
"I wasn't going to pay for it in the first place," she simpers sweetly.
James rolls his eyes. "You never do and you never will. Anyplace in particular, princess?"
"Where ever is fine."
James follows her out of his office and straightens his suit jacket. "Tanya Denali isn't being picky about the food she's going to put in her precious body? Wow. You really did have a bad day, didn't you?"
Tanya purses her lips and flicks the hair out of her eyes, nose in the air.
James, as astute as ever, asks smartly, "Did you lose something you expected to win?"
Yes. She lost a chance with Masen Cullen and she expected to have one. Bella Swan has made that impossible.
Tanya says none of that. Not here, not when other people are around to listen. She turns to strut back to the elevators and her eye happens to catch on a somewhat familiar face scurrying back to a desk on the far end of the floor.
Where does she know that sweetly rounded face and that choppy pixie haircut from? Tanya, who has a great mind for remembering faces, easily recalls the context. It's that short girl she happened to glimpse James talking to at the internship interviews a few months ago. Tanya had barely been in the building that day, but she'd seen the way James had handled that girl's interview - she's honestly surprised the girl got the internship because her cousin had been almost openly hostile the one time she'd seen the two interact.
Tanya turns as her cousin steps up beside her, his gaze also locked onto the pixie-like girl. She can't quite place his expression, but she would class it as thoughtful in a James-way, which means its more shrewd than anything else.
"Do you know her?" she asks quietly.
James neatens his tie, draws his eyes away to guide Tanya to the hallway of elevators, and answers with a cryptic smirk. "That girl? I know her in a way. Doesn't matter."
That's not really an answer, Jamie, Tanya wants to chide. But she knows her cousin well enough to know that the subject isn't up for any exploration at all. It's best not to say anything at all.
Besides, it's not as if James would be interested in a girl like that who, while cute, is more homely than the women he usually goes for. His current girlfriend, Victoria, is a perfect example of the exotic, cold-spun beauty that usually draws her cousin's eye. And really, however James knows that short girl is the least of Tanya's worries.
She puts it out of her mind, dismissing the speculation in favor of spending the next hour being reassured by James that, no matter what she loses at, Tanya will always win at something else. She lets her cousin fluff up her ego and drops the issue of Masen Cullen and Bella Swan altogether.
Tanya Denali is too confident and too in love with her self to fixate on some boy who doesn't even like her. There are other fish in the sea - and, really, Tanya is too good for Masen, anyway.
Bella Swan can have him.
A/N: It's an early update, but don't mind me, I'm just prodding the plot along in the right direction. The next update should be this weekend, but it might be on Sunday instead of Saturday. Who knows? I never do.
As always, be brutally honest. I can take it. Stay home, stay inside, stay safe!
~Rae