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Did you hear about that time Allison Crenshaw interrupted Gabe’s lunch to ask for a job? It was hilarious. She dumped his chicken sandwich, fries, and coleslaw right in his lap.

Fuel for nightmares.

“Your lunch, Mr. Hudson.”

He looked up from his laptop, slid it over to make room for the plate, and thanked her with a smile.

“Are you new here? I haven’t seen you before.”

That’s because you didn’t watch my audition tape.

Carefully… oh, so carefully…she placed the plate on the table in front of him.

This is it. Don’t chicken out now.

“Actually, my name is Allison Crenshaw. I don’t work here, but I am so incredibly sorry for interrupting your lunch. I am guessing it’s the only downtime you get during the day, and now I’m messing that all up. I’ll be honest here. I’m looking for a job as a reporter at your television station. I dropped off a resume and audition tape a few months ago, but I never heard anything. I wanted to let you know I’m still interested, and I’d really like to discuss any career opportunities you might have. Did I mention how sorry I am for disturbing your lunch?”

A little bit of word vomit. Once she’d started talking, she’d spit it all out.

Gabe glanced over his shoulder to where Tate was standing by the bar, giving him - or her - a grin and a thumbs-up sign. If he was surprised or baffled by any of this, he managed to stay rather nonchalant about it.

“You don’t work here?”

“No, I don’t. I work at Winslow Financial currently. For Sam Winslow.”

“And Tate had you bring my food to me?”

“Yes.”

“You’re looking for a journalism job?”

“Yes, as I said, I dropped off my resume and audition tape already.”

A slow smile spread across Gabe’s face, and his eyes twinkled with mirth.

“Who did you drop it off with? Was it a blonde about twenty years old or so? Wears her hair in a long braid?”

“Yes, that’s her. She said she’d give it to you.”

“I can guarantee you that Delia did not,” Gabe said with an audible chuckle. “When you left the reception area, she probably tossed it all in the trash. I can guarantee you that I never saw it.”

Alli didn’t know how to respond to that. She’d jokingly said that the receptionist had probably just tossed it in the trash, but she hadn’t thought that it really and truly happened.

“You see,” Gabe went on. “Delia wants to be my next on-air talent, despite the fact that she has no journalism experience or background, and she only works in reception a few days a week. You must have come in on one of the days she was working, instead of Joyce, who is gray-haired and nearing retirement age. She’s worked at the station forever, but she wanted to go down to three days a week. That’s why I hired Delia. I only recently found out about her tossing resumes when she told other employees in the break room. They told me.”

“I am so sorry for bothering you during your lunch,” Alli said once again because she didn’t know what to say. “I just didn’t know how else to talk to you. I assumed that the receptionist wouldn’t put through my calls.”

“Do you have your audition with you?”

He actually wanted to see it? He wasn’t growling at her to buzz off and leave him alone?

“I have a few on my phone,” she said, pulling her cell from her blazer pocket. “Let me cue them up.”

He didn’t speak as he watched them, but he did watch them. In their entirety. He even watched the first one twice.

“What did you say your name was again?”

“Allison Crenshaw,” she said. “I have a resume, too.”