He pushed his glasses back up and nodded. “Okay, then. I think I’ll do the same thing. Sex until I’m eighty. Sounds like a plan.”
I smirked. “Yes, but the difference isIwill have a partner.”
Take that!
Ben grinned appreciatively at my zinger.
My celebration of finally scoring a point against him was short-lived. The rest of the show, Ben didn’t let up the relentless pressure on me, looking for any opening to let me have it.
Who are we pretending here? This isn’t going to work.
At least I figured out what he was up to.
Ben was trying to get me to quit.
And I was running out of reasons not to.
Chapter Seven
LORI
After the show ended, Ben and I marched through the newsroom side-by-side toward Kyle’s office, like Siamese twins who had become mortal enemies and were ready to demand surgery to separate us.
As we approached the office door, I stepped in front of Ben and inside the office first. “This is not working.” I scooted up to the edge of Kyle’s desk. “Sorry, we gave it a shot, but your experiment failed miserably.”
“I agree.” Ben took a couple of steps forward until we were standing side-by-side. “Stick a fork in us. We’re done.”
“Are you kidding? You two kicked ass!” Kyle said. “The listeners are eating it up. They love you. Did you even see our social media?”
Ben glanced over at me and then back to Kyle. “Uh, no. I was a little distracted with someone else being in the studio with me.”
I glared at Ben. “Likewise.”
“Well, you need to see it for yourself because the traffic and engagement on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram is insane.” He flipped his laptop around until it was facing us. He came around the desk so the three of us could look at a software program that analyzed all the traffic and engagement that we were getting from every one of our social media pages.
Kyle pointed to the screen. “Look. Up five hundred percent compared to the same time yesterday. And people are still commenting and sharing. The numbers keep going up and up and up!”
Ben and I leaned closer and smacked our heads against each other.
“Ouch.” I rubbed the side of my head and winced. “You’re hard-headed.”
He massaged his noggin. “Likewise.”
We turned and inspected the live social media statistics, the numbers continuing to climb. We glanced at each other again.
I couldn’t tell which one of us was more shocked.
“The listenerslikeus?” I finally said.
How could they like us when Ididn’t even like us?
“But why?” Ben asked.
Kyle slapped his laptop shut and walked back around his desk to his chair, taking a seat. “Of course, they like you. The back and forth between you two was mind-blowing and so bizarrely in sync. It was like you had been together for years. Awesome chemistry.”
Chemistry? What was this guy smoking?
“If your first day is any indication, this is going to be huge. Anyway, right now I need to get corporate on the phone and give them an update. We can talk more about the future after your show tomorrow. Keep up the good work.”
