“Fantastic idea, Joe,” I agreed. “I’d really love to know what the point of this meeting actually is.”
“Well,” he said and glanced at Miranda. “Would you like to take the lead on this one?”
She laughed and shook her head. “Yeah… No. This is why you have that cushy office. Because you get to deal with these kinds of things.”
“What kinds of things?” I asked and looked back and forth between them. When no one responded, I knew Joe was trying to push something off on Miranda. She was his favorite professional buffer.
The last time she’d played this role, we’d ended up with one less columnist on our team…
My eyes went wide. “Oh. My. God. Are you firing me?” I stood up from my chair in absolute shock. “Holy shit! You called me down here to fire me?” I shrieked.
“Jesus.” Joe’s hands went to his ears. “Your column is a favorite among our female readers. You’re not getting fired. So please do me a favor and avoid making that sound for the rest of my life.”
I looked at Joe and then at Miranda. “Okay, so then, what’s going on?”
“Have you happened to go online at all today? Like, Facebook…Twitter…YouTube?” Miranda asked.
I shook my head.
“Sit back down,” Joe instructed, and surprisingly, I listened. He flipped Miranda’s laptop back open and tapped the keyboard a few times. “So, this YouTube video has gone viral, and it’s well… Just watch it first.” He turned the screen toward me, and I was faced with a guy, smoking a cigarette and talking directly to the camera.
Holy hell. Who the fuck is this guy?
I mean, I was pretty sure he was talking…speaking words…something along those lines, but I was focused on his face.
Vivid blue eyes.
Firm jawline.
Dimples in his cheeks that appeared when he flashed a sexy little half smirk.
Seriously, he was really, really good-looking.
He was one of those guys that every woman would do a double take just to believe he was real. Lucky for me, no double take was needed here. I could continue to stare at him like a creeper, and he would be none the wiser. I honestly had no idea why Joe and Miranda wanted me to watch this guy’s YouTube video, but why question motives that led to eye candy like this?
He glanced down at the newspaper in front of him. “Sex Says…The byline reads Lola Sexton…” His insanely blue eyes looked at the screen again. “…and if you are, in fact, a real person, Miss Sexton, I entreat you.”
It took a few seconds for his words to register in my brain, but when they did, my eyes went wide and I looked at Joe. “Wait…what? Did he just mention my column?” And when he started into some diatribe about me dictating to my readers, I stopped gawking at his stupid looks and started to get really pissed off.
“Is he bashing my fucking column?!” I shrieked.
Joe winced. “Apparently, this guy isn’t a fan of your column.”
I mean, I didn’t expect everyone to love my column, but I also didn’t expect someone to so blatantly call me out when they had a differing opinion.
What in the fuck was this guy’s problem?
This had to be the biggest asshole move I’d ever witnessed in my life.
Fuck this guy. I didn’t care how good-looking he was. He could take his blue eyes and cocky smile and shove them straight up his ass.
“What the hell?” I muttered as I continued to hear the bullshit spew from the dickhead’s mouth. “He hates my column so much that he made a YouTube video about how much he hates it?” I shrieked again, and Joe covered his ears this time.
I jumped up from my seat, knocking the leather chair my ass was resting on to the ground, but my eyes stayed fixated on the screen. “You’re an asshole!” I shouted and pointed at the screen. “No, not just an asshole, you’re a fucking asshole!”
But he couldn’t hear me, obviously, and just continued talking until he brought his hate parade on home with the last words, “And Reed This, Sex Says: There’s someone out there for everyone, but good luck finding the right person for you when you’re pretending to be someone else.”
“What in the fuck did I just watch?” I glanced at Joe and then at Miranda. “I mean…seriously… What was that?”
“Well…if it makes you feel any better, he managed to bring a lot of publicity to your column. My phone’s been ringing off the hook all day,” Joe updated.
My eyes narrowed. “How did this stupid video bring publicity?”
Instead of answering the question with words, Joe showed me with the cursor of the mouse, slowly dragging it across the screen until it rested below…