Page 17 of Hot Mic

Robin gave a small smile. ‘Ah. I see.’

‘Exactly. Actually, scratch that. We need to get even more boring. If we give her material—even cooperative, banter-heavy material—she’s going to extend this run,’ Sienna explained. ‘Do you want that?’

‘It wasn’t so bad,’ Robin shrugged.

Sienna raised an eyebrow. ‘I know you like to act like everything’s a game. But I don’t buy it. And I don’t think you want this to go on in perpetuity.’

Robin sipped from her very full cup, thoughtful.

Sienna took that to be as close as she’d get to agreement from Robin. ‘So, unless you want your strings pulled until we’re both total jokes, I’m proposing a bit of low-grade sabotage.’

Robin raised both eyebrows. ‘Sabotage?’

Sienna ignored that. ‘Here’s what I propose. When we do the debrief, we act irredeemably boring. We agree on everything; we offer zero debate. We talk like two strangers at a bus stop.’

Robin laughed. ‘Wow. I didn’t know you had an evil genius mode.’

‘No fireworks, no problem,’ Sienna concluded, holding Robin’s gaze. ‘Gemma will realise the show is pointless and let us see it out quietly. Or, best-case scenario, they cancel it there and then.’

‘So you want us to act like a wet weekend in Slough,’ Robin grinned. ‘Well, I can’t say I won’t miss causing you to make that face…’

Sienna’s brow deepened into one straight line. ‘What face?’

‘That one,’ Robin laughed. ‘The one where your eyebrows fuse together.’

Sienna smoothed her face out instantly. ‘Don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘Right,’ Robin chuckled. ‘Well, I agree with your scheme. From now on, you get nothing but boredom from me.’

‘Good,’ Sienna murmured. ‘Great.’

Fourteen

Sitting in the studio for the post-date debrief episode recording, Robin Croft was unworried.

Her strategy, as provided by Sienna, was simple: play it totally cool, nod along, and present Gemma with an episode like unbuttered toast. Something so mind-numbing that no one would listen past the first ten minutes. If there was no drama, Gemma would realise Head vs Heart was a dud, cut her losses, and let them go back to their normal lives.

Sitting at the head of the desk, adjusting her headset eagerly, was Zoe Moore. She was a low-level host from Violet Audio’s culture podcast, plucked from obscurity by Dora Jenks to act as host. Robin never saw her as she recorded late at night. She was good-looking in a delicate sort of way, but something about her was unattractive. Robin couldn’t put her finger on what it was. But she had a certain gleam in her eye that Robin didn’t care for. She looked far too pleased to be here, working in daylight.

‘Ten seconds to air,’ Sienna’s engineer Pip called from behind the glass, giving a quick thumb-up. Sienna had apparently insisted upon her. Robin didn’t much care either way. Leo was a decent engineer, but they weren’t buds. If Sienna needed a comfort-engineer, why not?

Zoe sat up straight, beaming as the red ON AIR light flicked to life.

‘Welcome to episode two of Head vs Heart!’ Zoe introduced, her voice ringing out with ambitious energy. ‘I’m Zoe Moore, sitting in with our two hosts, Robin Croft and Sienna Vance, as we break down episode one, the escape room. Now, as you may know, there was a poll taken on whose dating style was best, but before we reveal the results, let’s talk about the date. Sienna, how did you find it?’

‘It was a perfectly fine escape room. Very standard puzzle mechanics. Quite pleasant, really,’ Sienna said blandly.

‘And how about the date itself? How did you find spending time with Robin?’

‘She was a helpful teammate,’ Sienna said. And said no more.

Zoe blinked, her enthusiasm hitting a brick wall. She pivoted quickly. ‘And Robin, did you find that you had some tricky moments with Sienna? The internet was very interested in a moment where you seemed to feel Sienna slighted your intelligence?’

‘Nah, she’s alright,’ Robin added smoothly, leaning back in her swivel chair with her arms crossed. ‘I was just feeling a bit oversensitive that day.’

Zoe’s professional smile strained as she looked between the two of them, desperately hunting for a hint of friction—or literally any emotion—to build a show on.

‘Right! Well... moving on!’ Zoe declared, tapping her tablet with a bit too much force. ‘The twenty-four-hour app poll just closed, and the listeners officially voted Robin’s spontaneous approach as the clear winner for Date One!’