Page 4 of Let's Kiss and Tell

“No, it’s company-wide.” Jonah grabs his coffee and adds a packet of stevia. “It’s a good networking opportunity,plusthere’s free food.”

It doesn’t take much persuasion on Jonah’s end. Networking, free food, and hanging out with one of my best friends on a Friday night? That gets me off more than the idea of using the Cleo.

I’m patiently waiting inside one of the conference rooms for my managing editor, Eman. She’s your typical older millennial on the cusp of Gen X who secretly thrives off being everyone’s best friend at the office. When Eman enters, she sits back, crosses her legs, and lets out a signature exhale like she has the best gossip on the tip of her tongue.

“How was your weekend?” she asks in a singsongy tone.

“It was fine.” I smile. “How was yours?”

“Oh, you know.” Eman gets a text on her phone and starts responding. “Had some friends in town so we went up to Solvang.”

“I love it up there.” I lean in, excited to talk about SoCal’s little Danish-style town. “Was that your first time?”

“Hm? Yeah, it wassocute! Loved it.” She continues typing and then finally sets her phone face down. “Okay, so I have an update.”

I do my best to maintain a poker face becausean updatecanquite literally mean anything if it comes from Eman. One timean updatemeant that we were going from two to five days in office, and another time it meant that she tried out this new Botox place.

The fate of my career is at the forefront of my mind, but I remember what Jonah said earlier. In the three and a half years I’ve worked here, I’ve never missed a deadline, and my stories are some of the ones that have the most traction. I manifest that this is going to be a good update.

“Your column is amazing, Lucy. You already know that I love everything you write. Your voice, the topics, all of it.” Eman takes a sip from her obnoxious reusable water bottle. “You had an eight percent click-through rate when you started, which is unheard of.”

I smile because I already knew my column was one of the most popular columns atThe Rue.This recognition, though, really solidifies it.

“That’s amazing to hear, Eman, truly.”

“But the last three months your CTR has been at two percent,” she says.

My stomach plummets. “What?”

“Two percent isn’t bad! But there’s been a significant decrease lately.”

“Have we not been getting as much traffic?” I ask, concerned about what this means for us as a company.

“Oh no.” Eman shakes her head. “The Ruehas been fine. It’syourcolumn,” she says with a pang of regret in her voice.

“Oh…” I say, not understanding where this is going. “I-I had no idea.”

“I’m just going to be straight with you, Lucy. We need more clicks. We need more brands, and we need those brands to buy more sponsored stories.”

What most people don’t realize is that although my job may seem like all fun and sex games from the outside, I still very muchwork for corporate America. That means to run a publication and pay its employees,The Rueneeds money. Most of that money comes from sponsored stories. There’s a reason why we’re plugging five different vibrator brands next week in a spotlight placement.

I nod. “I totally understand. So, what can I do?”

“Well, to start, it’s a sex and relationships column and your stories are leaning moresexthan relationships.”

I frown. “I write about relationships all the time.”

“You write for womennotin relationships,” Eman says, correcting me. “Dating tips, overcoming a breakup, how to pleasure yourselfwithouta partner. The occasional ‘how to find a partner’…but never what happens once you do. Most of your pieces have been leaning a little more progressive, and it’s rubbing some of our readers the wrong way.”

I gape. It’s not my job to convince people that women shouldn’t be shamed for having casual sex.

“But that’s the interesting stuff!” I defend myself.

“I’m not disagreeing with you,” Eman says. “But we did a focus group. That’s just a small part of the issue. The readers that started off with you are now in relationships and they don’t find your content relatable anymore.”

My face scrunches. “You pulled together afocusgroupto talk about my column?”

“Among other things,” Eman says. “The partnerships team pulled numbers across all our verticals. We saw that seventy-eight percent of our readers are in relationships. They want to know how to deal with their current partners, not find new ones. That’s just a fact.”