Page 12 of Hot Mic

Movement behind the glass caught her eye.

Robin had stepped into the control room. Pip was trying to shoo her out, but Robin was ignoring her.

She had commandeered a giant yellow legal pad and a thick black Sharpie from Pip’s desk. With a wicked grin, Robin held up a nearly indecipherable handwritten sign pressed against the glass:

Do you want to go axe throwing tomorrow?

Sienna’s eye twitched. She cleared her throat into the mic, picking up a pen for something to hold. ‘Well, Sarah... while emotional pacing is vital, you must also evaluate—’

Robin flipped the page.

I bet you’d look great with an axe in your hand.

Sienna’s grip on her pen tightened until her knuckles turned white. Robin was practically vibrating with amusement, rapidly scribbling a third sign.

Robin slapped it against the window:

Like a very coiffed Viking warrior. Hot.

Hot was underlined twice.

That insufferable wind-up merchant, Sienna thought, her blood coming to a furious boil. The cool, analytical walls of her brain completely short-circuited.

‘Sarah,’ Sienna snapped into her microphone, her voice dropping its calm cadence and falling into uncharacteristic intensity. ‘Do you love this person?’

‘I… I think so, yeah,’ Sarah hesitated, clearly taken aback by the sudden shift in tone. ‘But I wanted to be sure before I said it. Like you always say.’

‘Then you march straight to her house and demand she explain exactly what she meant,’ Sienna declared. Behind the glass, Pip’s jaw dropped so low it nearly hit the soundboard.

‘Wait, what?’ Sarah gasped.

‘You heard me, Sarah!’ Sienna barked, her eyes locked on Robin through the glass. Robin’s hands were still pressed against the window, her dimpled smile melting into an expression of sheer, bewildered delight. ‘If a woman has the audacity to throw her chaos in your face without warning—Chaotic emotions, I mean—you don’t step back. You escalate!’

Pip’s voice replaced Sarah’s. ‘Sienna—’

But Sienna didn’t even hear it.

‘You go to her! Now!’ Sienna was leaning so far into the mic her breath was clipping the audio levels into the red. ‘You look her dead in the eye, and you force her to clarify her intentions! Does she want a future with you, or is she just an insufferable barbarian who exists solely to wreck your life?!’

‘I… I mean, she brought me soup when I was sick?’ Sarah said weakly, sounding entirely terrified.

Sienna threw her hands up. ‘Soup is a tactic!’

Robin was now clutching her legal pad to her chest, laughing so hard she was silently doubling over against Pip’s desk.

‘Soup is how they lure you in before they start writing absurd messages during your podcast… I mean, before they start messing you about! Do not fall for the soup, Sarah! You go to her right now and get the facts!’ Sienna roared.

The red ‘ON AIR’ light suddenly flicked off.

Through the headphones, Pip’s voice came through, deadly calm. ‘We are going to a commercial break. Early. And literally none of that made it to air.’

‘Wait... none of it?’ Sienna stammered into her headset.

‘Not a word,’ Pip said, nonchalantly adjusting a gain knob. ‘I used the delay when you started… Well. We’re still in the ads as far as anyone knows. The Mooncup ad will get played twice, but that can’t be helped.’

Sienna let out a massive sigh of relief. ‘Thank you, Pip. I don’t know what came over me—’

The heavy booth door clicked open.