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Afterwards, Mark ran up to me before I could bolt out of the door.
“Olivia, we’ll need you back here in an hour when the next round of polls close,” he reminded me, still as nonchalant as ever.
“I’m going to have to change into more comfortable shoes then,” I replied.
I walked toward my desk to get my shoes, when Eric stopped me in my tracks.
“Whoa, you look like crap,” he bluntly said.
“Yes, thanks, it’s a new fashion trend right now,” I replied sarcastically, but not in a mean way. It was fun to banter with Eric, sometimes. He was like the glue of the newsroom. “Something you needed?” I asked.
Eric’s eyes then widened upon remembering why he blocked my path in the first place. Damn, did I look that stressed out that he forgot what he was going to say?
“Oh yeah, Johnson DuPont had some notes for you.”
I mean, of course he did. He was very good at commenting, that Johnson DuPont. I would never say it out loud, however, because it inflates his ego, but he did giveamazingnotes.
“Okay, sure, I’ll talk to him about it tomorrow,” I dismissed him, my feet still aching from wearing my heels all day. Finally, though, I made myself get out of the newsroom, and I took a detour to put on the flats I kept in my desk before going outside for a breath of fresh air.
Outside the main doors of the OVT Broadcasting Network building was a classy and impeccably sleek Rolls-Royce. I would stand there and marvel at the absolute beauty of a car, but my feet werekilling me, so instead, I got in the car as quickly as I could. As soon as my butt hit the chair and my feet weren’t standing in heels anymore, I quickly shook the footwear off, immediately feeling a rush of relief run through them.
Ben cleared his throat at the driver’s side. “I like how you’ve gotten comfortable in my car in just two weeks,” he commented cheekily, leaning down to fix where I threw my heels for me.
“I’m sorry, but you could never understand this pain,” I explained as I started to massage my foot. “I don’t have long before I have to be back.”
It had been an eventful time ever since the interview with Jebediah Olson. Of course, work didn’t slow down even when we resolved our crisis with him. It was still election season, and we were all still busy as bees. It probably would have been better to not throw that party in retrospect because we all came to work the next day with a massive hangover, and that was pretty much the energy we had in the newsroom for the past two weeks. The only significant difference was that everyone was genuinely happy, even when we still had several problems to address and fires to fight.
He chuckled and drove off, taking me to a drive-through. We parked on the street and ate our burgers and fries. Ben could introduce me to a million Michelin-star restaurants, but I would always still go back to my trusty burger and fries combo.
“Well, it just so happened, Olivia Taylor, that you spearheaded OVT into popularity once more,” Ben declared, but I only looked at him deadpan, not believing him whatsoever. “I’m not lying. Do you have any idea how many views your stories have gotten? Now, everyone’s watching our election coverage because you’re doing it,” he informed me, then started eating his food as well. It might be my fault that I was introducing Ben to a lot of unhealthy fast food. If I kept this up, he would lose his abs.
Ah, but I wouldn’t really care what he looked like anyway.
I gave him a once-over again, and he didn’t seem to be lying or teasing me. Taking the information in, I took a bite of my scrumptious burger.
“I told you, you should have assigned me the election stories all along,” I teasingly stated, earning an eye roll from him. “So, what does this mean for the company?” I followed-up, hoping for the best.
“Well, if this keeps up, we’ll be back on the green again, and it’s only up from there,” Ben answered with a mouth full of fries. I might also be teaching him a couple of bad manners. Oops.
But I relaxed into the car seat, relieved to hear that OVT was seemingly back on-track. That only meant that the company we worked so hard to protect would get to see another day.
“I’m glad,” I admitted tiredly, looking at Ben with admiration. Though there was ketchup on the side of his lip, I still found myself smiling because I was so in love with this man. This man, who was both serious and goofy at the same time. This man, who made me pull my hair out in frustration but also made me melt into pure bliss. This man, who I witnessed as a renowned billionaire President and as just a man that knew how to make me laugh.
“We’ve certainly come a long way,” I said as I wiped the ketchup off his face.
Ben looked at me as he heard the softness in my voice, and his expression softened as well as he saw me staring at him.
“Yeah. Remember when you were trying to hide from me in the newsroom?” he reminded me, making me blush and playfully smack his arm. “What? That’s what you did!”
I laughed out loud, shaking my head at how comfortable we were with each other. “You were so grumpy then,” I pointed out. “Now, we’re getting fast food and eating in fancy cars on the street. We’re living the good life.”
A comfortable silence fell between us, and I knew he was thinking of something, but I was just waiting for him to bring it up himself.
“So, I’ve been thinking...”
There it was.
“I established OVT with the tagline ‘the harbingers of unequivocal truth.’”
