Page 82 of Fever Dream
Perhaps you should speak with Julia—I bet you can help steer her away from this.
Prepared to follow your lead here.
Sincerely,
Teri Baker
Story Producer
CHAPTER 24
Julia
ARINGTONE BLARES THROUGHmy car speakers.
Oh, good. Dick Wad is calling me.
I contemplate not answering. I’m almost at my mom’s house and desperately need some serious distraction from the show and from Emmett.
But I also don’t want to get on my boss’s bad side. And he has a lot of them. So with much self-loathing, I reach forward and tap the green circle to answer.
“Hello?” I singsong.
“Julia, it’s Richard.”
“Hi, Richard. What’s up?”
“I just wanted to have a quick chat with you about something.”
My stomach sinks, and I wonder if he knows about the kiss. Maybe he’s calling to fire me.
“Great. I’m all ears,” I say, trying to sound keen, but not too keen. Just regular levels of professional but eager.
“I can tell that Emmett has formed a certain… attachment to you. Would you agree?”
My heart thuds in my chest. “Like I mentioned already, I don’t know that I would take it that far.”
“You’re a reasonably attractive young woman, and as far as I can tell, single.”
In a panic, I blurt something I’m not even sure about yet. “Actually, his sister set me up with someone so…”
“Ah!” Richard soundsthrilled. “That’s good. We can’t have him going after the help. Make sure you let me know how that goes, hmm? I want to hear all the dirty details.”
My nose wrinkles. This man has the worst way with words, and I immediately regret saying that only to keep him off my trail. “Right. So what’s up?”
“I need your help keeping our bachelor on track. Maybe some gentle nudges when he comes to you. Evelyn is fantastic in front of the camera, so anything you can do to lead him in that direction will only earn you brownie points. And you’re going to have all the permits for the bar ready, right?”
My stomach falls hard and fast as I nod along with my boss. “Yeah. Sure. For sure,” I say, even though I don’t think I’m equipped to play this role. “The permits are close to being finalized, just need a signature from one of the owners and we’ll be good to go.”
“Great! Glad we had this chat. You have fun on that date! I’ll be checking in with you for an update.”
