I held in a smile as Ben sang along and pretended to play the guitar.
He had a cocky look on his face, because he knew I was watching him.
Ben continued to sing, and I couldn’t hold it in any longer.
I started laughing and shook my head at him. “You look ridiculous.”
He reached out and turned down the volume. “What?”
“I said you look ridiculous.”
Ridiculously cute.
He nodded. “I don’t have a problem with that.”
Ben slipped his headphones back on as the song ended and turned on the microphone. “Welcome back to Dr. Tough Love. Lori Martin is with me, and I must say, I really enjoyed talking with your grandma. That gal is so full of life.”
I nodded. “She’s full of something. Shall we take another call? I need to completely forget about what happened the last five minutes.”
Ben laughed. “Of course.”
Grandma Joyce with her attempt at matchmaking, along with her absurd dedication, really got to me for some reason. It was time to get back to business and help our listeners with their relationship problems.
“Let’s go to Karen in Encinitas, you’re on the air with Dr. Tough Love and Lori.”
“Hi, Dr. Tough Love. Hi, Lori. Love the show!”
“Thanks for calling, Karen,” I said.
“Thanks for taking my call, and might I say that is the cutest picture of you two in front of the sea lions in La Jolla. Your grandma is right, you make a gorgeous couple.”
“We’re not a couple,” Ben and I said together.
And so, much to my chagrin, that’s how the show continued until the end, listeners calling and telling us how much they loved us together, how cute our photo was in La Jolla, with one even going so far as to ask when we were getting married.
On a bright note, it really did feel like the listeners had accepted me as part of the show, and in some cases called and asked for advice specifically from me instead of Ben. There were even a few women who called in to tell me that they used to listen to me on the night show, but that they had started listening to this program now. It was great to know that I was contributing and holding my own.
At the end of our show, I unplugged my headphones and glanced over at Ben. “Another one in the can. Good job today.”
Ben nodded. “Yeah. Good show.”
“Except for the part with Grandma Joyce, of course.”
He laughed. “Especially the part with Grandma Joyce. She’s a hoot.”
“Just a barrel of monkeys . . . She was trying to set us up!”
He shrugged. “And we were talking about setting her up with my grandfather. We’re even. She cares about you and wants you to be happy. Nothing wrong with that.”
“I don’t need her help.”
“She may say the same about you helping her.”
“The difference is it’s them, not me. And you are the one who wanted to set them up. Now, I’m wondering if it’s such a good idea.”
He stuck his headphones in the case and grinned. “It’s a great idea, but we can talk about that another time. Kyle’s waiting for us, plus I have a surprise for you.”
“What kind of a surprise?”
“You’ll find out when I give you the surprise.”
The studio door swung open and Susan entered, the host for the financial program that was on next. “You two are so cute on the air together. And that photo!” She placed her hand on her heart and smiled.
Lori waved her finger at her. “Don’t you start.”
“I can’t help it. Just look at you two.”
“No, thanks. Have a great show.”
I walked out of the on-air studio, and Ben trailed right behind me.
“Hey,” he said. “Where are you going?”
I stopped and flipped around. “To Kyle’s office.”
“He can wait one more minute. I have a surprise, remember? You need to follow me.”
“Okay.”
“And can you at least try to pretend that you don’t think I’m the most repugnant man on earth when someone suggests we belong together or look cute together?”
I sighed. “Sorry. I don’t mean it that way. Look, you’re an attractive man and—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Are you giving me a compliment?”
“No. I was stating a fact and—”
“You think I’m attractive.”
“Yes, but . . . you know what? Never mind. Lead the way.”
He grinned and walked by me slowly, his eyes never leaving mine. “She thinks I’m hot, just like her grandma does.”
“Attractive, not hot, and it’s not even something I think about.”
“You would be more convincing if you said that without smiling.” Ben laughed and walked by me.
I touched my mouth.
Was I smiling?
That was something that really needed to be worked on. I was supposed to be pretending that I wasn’t attracted to him, which required a stern face and stiff shoulders.
Yes, he was hot. Hunky. Attractive. Whatever you want to call it. To be honest, I wasn’t sure why I was fighting it so much. Maybe because I had been wrong about him and my ego took a hit. Then again, he admitted he had been wrong about me.
Have you ever vehemently disliked something and then changed your mind?
Yes, Ben Baxter.
I was wrong about you.
It didn’t mean I was going to do anything about it.
I followed Ben through the newsroom to his desk. He opened the bottom drawer, pulled out a small box, and handed it to me.
I glanced down at it, curious. “How do I know that this isn’t a boobytrap?”
Ben arched an eyebrow. “Who needs to reboot their vocabulary?”
I smiled and carefully opened the box, my eyes opening wide before glancing back at Ben. “Cupcakes.”
He nodded. “You made it difficult for me to choose, since you love everything, so I decided to get you one vanilla, one chocolate, and one lemon.”
“Thank you, that was kind of you, but one would have been plenty.”
“Nah. You only live once. Okay, you’ll have to enjoy those later because Kyle is waiting.”
I nodded. “It will be interesting to hear what he has to say about the show.”
“Let’s go find out.”
We walked into Kyle’s office toward our usual spot in the two chairs in front of his desk.
He looked up from his computer. “Hey, guys. Have a seat and give me just one moment. I just got the Weeklies and I’m opening them up as we speak.”
I glanced over at Ben, my heart rate picking up speed.
Kyle had told us the show was amazing the last couple of days, and we still didn’t know what he thought of this morning’s show or if the ratings would mirror Kyle’s predictions.
For everyone in the corporate office—and in radio—it was all about the numbers.
Nothing was more important than ratings.
I held my breath as he scrolled through them, his mouth falling open. “Wow.”
“Wow good or wow bad?” Ben asked.
Kyle flipped his computer around for us to see. “I’ll let you see for yourself and come to your own conclusion.”
Ben and I leaned in together, both analyzing the numbers, the most important ones being women twenty-five to fifty-four.