Page 48 of Hot Mic

Sienna groaned softly. ‘Oh, God. What now? Are you sending us to a lesbian orgy?’

‘Chance’d be a fine thing,’ Robin cracked, keeping her eyes on Zoe.

‘Actually,’ Zoe said, her voice dripping with satisfaction, ‘Date Six is going to be a lot more intimate.’

Robin blinked. ‘What, like the cottage? We’ve done that. Sounds kinda boring. Where are you sending us?’

‘Oh, it won’t be boring,’ Zoe promised. ‘And it will take place right here in Studio B.’

Robin frowned. ‘Right…’

‘You will both be hooked up to polygraph machines. A live lie detector test, on air,’ she declared.

Robin honestly thought she was kidding. ‘Zoe, come on. What are we really doing?’

‘Exactly what I just said. It was a very cool idea by our producer.’

Robin gaped. ‘You’re serious?’

She glanced at Sienna. She had gone paper white.

‘What’s the point of that?’ Robin asked.

‘Well, we had an idea that you might not actually be as open with the listeners as you pretend to be,’ Zoe said, leaning back with a smug grin. ‘You’re both pretty guarded in these debriefs. The whole pitch for Date Six was to break down that wall and get some proper dirt. It’s just a bonus that we’ve now got a scandal to grill you on.’

‘Scandal?’ Robin said, her mouth going dry.

‘Yes. Kiss-Gate. The listeners want the facts. And Violet Audio is committed to giving them what they want.’

Robin looked at Sienna. Sienna looked back at Robin.

They were both making the same expression. The wide-eyed panic of two animals staring down the front bumper of a speeding lorry.

Thirty-Nine

Sienna walked to her office in a daze. A lie detector. Rigged up in the middle of the studio, designed to lay every pulse spike and every suppressed emotion out in front of anyone with ears and a smartphone.

It was absurd. It was unethical. It was a complete, hostile invasion of professional boundaries.

Her concerns had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Sienna had spent the last few nights staring at her bedroom ceiling, reliving three seconds of Robin Croft’s mouth against hers in a corridor. It had nothing to do with the terrifying, undeniable fact that if anyone asked her when she was hooked up to that thing if she had kissed Robin, the needle on that machine would jump off the paper and set the studio on fire.

Sienna snatched her phone off the desk, hit speed-dial, and pressed the receiver to her ear so hard her knuckles turned white.

Gemma picked up on the second ring. ‘I’ve been waiting for your call.’

‘It is unacceptable,’ Sienna said. ‘It’s a cheap stunt, Gemma, and I will not subject myself to this circus act for the amusement of an app audience.’

‘You work in entertainment,’ Gemma replied coolly. ‘Don’t kid yourself. Amusement is all you’ve ever given anyone. This idea of Dora’s is just more of the same. And I suspect it’s gonna send your career skyrocketing. You won’t be just “queer podcast” famous. You’ll be touring, selling merch. You’ll make ungodly money.’

‘I’m refusing,’ Sienna said, stopping at her window and staring out over the rain-slicked city streets. ‘I’m pulling out of the final date.’

Gemma let out a short, dry laugh. ‘You don’t get to pull out, Sienna.’

‘Try me,’ Sienna said, her jaw clenching until her teeth hurt. ‘If you insist on doing this, I’ll terminate my contract with Violet Audio today. I will take Dating by Design, my backlog, and my subscriber base to an independent network that knows where the line is. Oh, and I’m taking Pip too.’

‘Sienna,’ Gemma said, her voice dropping into a chilling executive tone. ‘Did you actually read your employment contract when you signed your last budget renewal last year?’

Sienna frowned. ‘I am well aware of my intellectual property rights—’