“Yes, that’s what people actually say. Just keep saying that until you hear back.” She came around Olivia’s desk and leaned in for a hug. “You knew this was going to happen, right? This will be fine.”

Olivia nodded slowly.

“I mean, I guess I knew it would happen eventually, but this was all so fast. I guess I just wasn’t ready.”

The phone rang again, and she and Ellie looked at each other. Olivia took a deep breath and picked it up.

“Olivia Monroe.” She paused for a second, and locked eyes with Ellie. “No comment.”

“I guess that’s what today is going to be like,” she said when she put the phone down.

“Olivia Monroe,” she said yet again, thirty minutes and ten phone calls later. She’d started answering the phone like that, instead of “Monroe and Spencer” like she had before, just to make these interactions move along faster.

“Ms. Monroe, this is Kara Ruiz from Senator Powell’s office.” Oh thank God. “I owe you an apology—I started getting calls from reporters about you about an hour ago, but I was outside of the office at a meeting where I couldn’t have my phone. I assume you’ve gotten some calls to this number?”

Olivia had assumed she’d like Kara, just from the way Max talked about her. But the competent, brisk, warm tone to her voice immediately made her feel better.

“Kara, it’s good to talk to you, I’ve heard a lot about you. And yes, there have been many calls to this number over the past hour or so. I’ve just said ‘no comment’ to all of them—was that right?”

This was definitely one of those rare times where she couldn’t wait for someone else to tell her what to do.

“Yes, that was right, just keep saying that. I’ll ask them not to call you again, and many of them will respond to that, but not all, I’m sorry to say. It’ll probably be best if you have your secretary answer this line, at least for the next few days. You’re pretty easy to find; this is the number on your website.”

Easy to find: great for business, bad for when you were trying to dodge the press.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have a secretary; it’s just me and my business partner. If it gets bad, she might step in, though.”

Ellie had offered to take over and blow off all the reporters for her, but she’d felt like at least one of them should be able to get work done today.