Page 62 of Hot Mic

Then, at six fifty-five, the door of the green room opened.

A young runner stuck her head in, holding the door wide for someone right behind her.

‘In here, Robin,’ the runner said quickly, tapping her clipboard. ‘You can hang out until your slot time.’

Sienna turned to the door in horror.

Robin stepped into the green room, her leather jacket slung over her arm, coffee in her hand. She caught sight of Sienna and froze dead in her tracks.

‘Wait,’ Robin said, her voice dropping as she backed up a step. ‘This isn’t the right place.’

The runner glanced up from her sheet, tapped the paper with a pen, and blinked. ‘Oh, yeah, sorry. You were supposed to go in room B. Okay to share? I’ll make a note that you’re both in A, don’t worry! Marcus knows where to find you.’

‘No, wait, you don’t understand—’ Robin started.

‘Back in ten!’ the runner chirped, already stepping back into the corridor, letting the door swing shut.

Sienna stood petrified by the mirror. Robin remained stuck by the door. They stared at each other.

Fifty-Three

‘Classic,’ Robin muttered to herself. The first time in her life she’d ever been really early for something and look what happened!

Sienna swallowed hard, her dark eyes wide and wary as she watched Robin like she was a dog that might bite her arse. Though Robin had never had that privilege.

None of that, Robin told her brain. But it was hard. Sienna looked great. The same as always.

‘You’re here,’ Sienna said softly.

‘I noticed.’ Robin put her coffee down and threw her leather jacket onto the arm of the sofa. ‘I could get the runner back?’

‘They lock these doors, so hallway noise doesn’t bleed into the mics,’ Sienna replied, her posture stiff.

Silence fell again. Robin shifted her weight, searching for something to say that wouldn’t drag them straight back to that wet street six months ago. ‘So,’ Robin blurted out. ‘Why are you doing this crazy thing?’

Sienna blinked, caught off guard by the directness. She stepped away from the mirror, crossing her arms defensively over her chest. ‘I wanted to set the record straight,’ she said, her voice growing firmer. ‘About Gemma Bates, the pressure she put us under.’ Sienna paused. ‘What about you? Why did you agree to the interview?’

‘Money,’ Robin said honestly.

‘What? I wasn’t even offered a fee,’ Sienna said irritably.

‘They probably knew you were the type of sucker who could be paid in cleared reputation,’ Robin said with a half-smile.

That elicited a smile. And Robin felt a sudden, dangerous dip in her stomach. It was infuriating. Every single feeling Robin had spent half a year trying to shove down popped right back to the surface, bright and unbearable.

Before Robin could spiral any further, the door swung open, and Marcus Bell burst into the room. Robin knew him from a Zoom meeting they’d had to discuss the interview. He looked like he was five seconds away from a nervous breakdown, a sheen of sweat glistening on his forehead.

‘Great, you’re both here,’ Marcus said, not even noticing the suffocating tension in the room.

‘Yes, we both are,’ Sienna said pointedly.

‘I know, I know, the runner messed up. But you two being placed together has become slightly irrelevant.’

‘Irrelevant?’ Sienna said in a familiar icy tone that Robin was horrified to find made her nipples go hard.

‘We’ve got a massive nightmare in Studio C. A transformer blew; audio’s dead. We don’t have time to fix it before the livestream window opens,’ Marcus said.

Sienna glared. ‘Get to the point.’