“I kind of did, actually,” Isabel said. “I wondered how you even knew that Mack and I were a thing. Or had a thing. Or whatever—you know what I mean.”
“Right,” Katya said. “Remember Andrew’s dinner party a few weeks ago? You left your phone with me and Sabrina at one point, maybe you were going to the bathroom? I don’t remember. Anyway. That was when you got a…let’s say, NSFW text from Mack. And I saw it on your phone, and I took a picture of it with my phone.” As soon as she said these words—ones she’d thought she might never say—she felt lighter, freer. Even if Isabel flipped out now, at least she had said them. She hadn’t realized just how much keeping this secret from Isabel had been bothering her, and then she asked herself why she was so consumed by this. This was what she—what journalists—did; they accumulated information and gathered intelligence and put together something that resembled the truth. At the very least, it had to resemble a truth that the journalist herself believed.
“You did what? No way,” Isabel said. Katya couldn’t tell if she was angry or admiring or a little bit of both. “That is badass. I mean, it’s fucked up, but it’s also kind of badass. I can’t believe…wow. So you’ve had that this whole time, then?”
“Um, yeah,” Katya said. She squeezed her eyes shut. Please don’t stop talking to me, she thought. She was so close to getting this story.
“Fucked up, right?” Isabel said, and Katya exhaled. “Like, can you believe he’d do that?”
“Do what, exactly,” Katya said. “Send you nudes?”
“Well…it’s a little more complicated, I guess,” Isabel said. “Look—I don’t know if I want this in the story, but we used to send each other nudes all the time. But on Snapchat. It was, like, kind of a joke. Or I mean, not a joke, exactly, but like, just kind of a fun thing we’d do during the day. It helped pass the time.” Interesting way to pass the time, Katya thought but didn’t say. “But after a while, it got a little boring. I just wasn’t that into him anymore. It wasn’t like we were exclusive either—I had definitely hooked up with other guys during that whole time, but no one seriously—but then it got to the point where I was like, Am I going to be the girl who just, like, hooks up with her boss? I dunno. It just wasn’t who I wanted to be anymore.”
It wasn’t who I wanted to be anymore. Where did Isabel Taylor get the idea that identity was so malleable? Not that Katya wanted her identity to be malleable, but it was fascinating how some people thought that the world would just go along with whatever they decided their lives were like at any given moment. “Right,” Katya said. “And…Mack disagreed?”
“You could say that,” Isabel said. “I tried to just gradually taper off, and this was even before Andrew and I started seeing each other. But he just, like…didn’t take it well. First he tried to pretend that nothing had changed, like just kept texting me and trying to get me to come over and stuff, and I would try to blow him off politely, and then I met Andrew and we just, like, fell for each other so quickly. I hadn’t felt that about someone for so long.” Isabel was quiet for a moment. “So then it was just over with Mack. It shouldn’t have even been a big deal, you know? Like he was always so clear about this not being a serious thing! But of course the second Andrew shows up on my Snapchat, it’s like, he can’t handle it.”
“Men are all the same,” Katya said.
“Ugh,” Isabel said. “Anyway, honestly, I wouldn’t have even really thought it was harassment until you said something. Did I tell you how he completely humiliated me in a meeting? It was like he was waiting to embarrass me in front of people.”
“So what are you gonna do now?” Katya asked. “Have you quit TakeOff?”
“I’m about to. And then I’ll file a lawsuit.” She paused. “Look, I didn’t want to quit my job. I loved TakeOff. I even used to love working for Mack. But no one should be treated the way I’ve been treated.”
“Wow,” Katya said.
“Wait, don’t put that in the piece,” Isabel said. “That I’m going to file a lawsuit. I haven’t, like, talked to a lawyer yet or anything.”
“Can I say that you’re considering legal action?”
“Umm,” Isabel said. “Oh, fuck it, sure. Why the hell not. At this point it’s not like I have anything to lose.”
24
Catch and Release
“DON’T LET ME interrupt,” Dan said.
Sabrina’s eyes popped open and—desperately, pointlessly—she pulled the covers up over herself. “I didn’t hear you come in,” she said, even though that felt like the most clichéd and inane thing to say, and she watched him look around the room and thought: Fuck-fuck-fuck. She was still holding the vibrator. She swallowed.
“Clearly.” He smiled, a funny little smile. “But really, don’t let me interrupt. I don’t think I’ve seen you masturbate since…maybe not ever, actually. It was kind of hot.”
Her face was bright red, she could tell. “Uh…thanks.” That was when he noticed the envelopes on the bed.
“What’re these?” he said, picking one of them up. “Jim Lowry, Daytona Beach, Florida.” He felt the envelope. “What’s in here, Sabrina?”
“It’s…” She wanted to melt into the sheets and disappear. When had her throat gotten this dry? And her palms so sweaty? “It’s underwear.”
“Underwear,” Dan said. “Your underwear?”
Sabrina nodded.