Better Scandal

<p>When a thirteen-second clip yanks speechwriter <strong>Elena Torres</strong> into the worst kind of fame-viral without context-City Hall wants optics not truth. Enter <strong>Gabe Park</strong> a rule-loving archivist whose natural habitat is quiet rooms and sharpened pencils. Their solution? A fake relationship that buys Elena time to work in the stacks-and puts the archive's rules on center stage.</p><p>What begins as damage control becomes a document-driven mystery: a misfiled hydrology addendum a routing-book dash a whiteboard snapshot that says <strong>DUMP HYDROLOGY ADDENDUM</strong> and a cassette where strategists swap <em>risk</em> for <em>concern</em>. With an FOI specialist a retired clerk who does minutes not gossip and a podcaster learning to love silence Elena and Gabe build a public evidence site with redactions and receipts-choosing process over spectacle pencils over podiums.</p><p>As the river rises and a fixer threatens injunctions their not-quite-pretend partnership turns careful and real. To save her integrity Elena may have to resign. To keep public trust Gabe must pick rules over comfort-then write new ones.</p><p><strong>Better Scandal</strong> is a smart slow-burn contemporary romance where competence is sexy transparency is heroic and love files correctly. Perfect for readers who like fake dating with grown-up stakes government-adjacent banter and happy endings built on receipts.</p>