Page 9 of And Now, Back to You

“Okay, but we’re coming back to this. I’m not going to forget,” she warns.

“I know you won’t.” Her mind is like a neatly organized file cabinet, armed with explosives. She gives me one last heavy look before she wanders back across the lobby. Mark’s attention sticks to her like glue, his hand moving to prop the door open above her head. She slides past him, tipping her face up toward his. For a second it almost looks like she’s going to smile, but then she bares all her teeth, hissing a loud sound from between them.

Mark jumps, flinching back into the doorframe as she glides past with a cackle.

I snort as I follow, rushing to make it through the door.

“How can one so small be so terrifying?” he asks, his eyes distant, color high on his cheeks.

“We may never know.” I pat his shoulder. “Listen, you don’t have to march me to Keith’s office. I can manage my way there just fine.”

He arches an eyebrow. “I don’t like being on babysitting duty, you know. This isn’t fun for me either.”

“I get it,” I agree. “We both have better things to do with our time.”

“Yeah. We do.” He watches me, considering. I’m so close I can taste it. “You’ll go to his office? Straight there? I don’t want to hear about it later.”

“Did he threaten your favorite camera or something?” I make a tiny cross over my heart. “I’ll go straight there.”

“Good. I’ll see you later, then.”

“See you—”

He’s already gone, buried in the labyrinth of the newsroom. I watch his dark hair disappear behind the sports desk.

“Later,” I finish with a sigh.

I bite my bottom lip and eyeball the distance between Keith’s office and the supply closet. There are some extra fundraiser T-shirts in there. I’d much rather be in one of those than in a poorly ventilated costume. I make it two steps in that direction before a hand stacked with shiny gold rings loops around my elbow.

“Delilah.” Simone Leeds, one of the anchors, gives me a tight smile. Shiny hair with a shiny personality to match, Simone always looks like she stepped off the runway and landed in the newsroom. She flicks her hair over her shoulder. “Keith is looking for you.”

God, this man. Has he told everyone in the newsroom that I need to report to his office like some wayward school student?

I glare at the closed door of his office. “On a scale from one to ten—”

“What’s his level of obnoxious today?” Simone smirks. “A solid eight.” Her eyes flick down my body, then back up. “This is a new look for you.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” Standing next to tall, pretty Simone, I feel even more like an idiot.

“It’s not a bad look,” she rushes to add.

I tip my head back and groan at the ceiling.

“It’s just an interesting one.” She drags me forward, closer to Keith’s door. “C’mon. You know if you keep him waiting, it’ll only be worse for you.”

That’s the thing, though. It’s only ever worse for me. It seems like Keith hoards all his animosity and personality issues for me specifically. I’m the one paying the price, and I don’t even know the crime I committed.

“You know we’re all rooting for you,” Simone whispers. “Don’t let him push you around.”

Yes, well, it would be nice if everyone rooted for me a little more publicly. I usually have to bear my humiliations alone. Everyone is too scared of Keith—or maybe too scared of becoming the new punching bag—to say anything.

Simone squeezes my shoulder and leaves me in front of Keith’s door. I stare at the shiny wood, wishing the floor would swallow me whole. Keith is the only one in the entire office granted the privilege of a door. I raise my hand to knock, wincing at the sleeve of my turtle suit.

“Enter,” a voice calls from inside.

I crack open the door and poke my head in. “You wanted to see me?”

Keith frowns at me from behind his desk, his face pinched. He always manages to look like he has a lemon stuck in his mouth, his ruddy cheeks sucked slightly in, his bottom lip pouted slightly out.