Page 9 of Hot Mic

Sienna still didn’t look at her. ‘Very possibly. Public brawl at a work event? Breach of conduct, easily.’

‘Fuck,’ Robin said. She loved this job. She wanted to do it forever. ‘But it wasn’t really a brawl. No one laid anyone out. It was just a debate panel gone a bit… off-piste.’

Sienna turned at last to look at her, and laughed, dead-eyed.

Robin sighed. ‘I know. It was bad,’ she muttered. ‘But if we present a united front, maybe she’ll just suspend us instead of—’

Before Sienna could reply, the door clicked open. Gemma walked in, holding her tablet. ‘Good. You’re here.’ She didn’t bother with her chair, instead leaning against the front edge of her desk to look down at the both of them with an expression that reminded Robin of an old headmistress whose office Robin had come to know too well.

From Taylor Swift to a naughty schoolgirl in the span of an afternoon, Robin thought.

‘Gemma,’ Sienna said immediately, sitting up even straighter to mount a defence. ‘If this is regarding the end of the main-stage panel, I assure you, this won’t happen again—’

‘If?’ Robin cut in. She turned to Gemma. ‘We’re both sorry,’ Robin said.

‘I can apologise for myself,’ Sienna said curtly.

‘Stop,’ Gemma said, turning her tablet screen toward them.

Instead of a formal HR termination notice, a live analytics screen was glowing on the glass. The metrics graph wasn’t just curving upward; it was a vertical red line piercing the top of the grid.

‘Twenty thousand live stream viewers was a really good turnout,’ Gemma said. ‘But your argument was clipped and distributed within minutes and currently has ninety thousand shares. So far. I think you even trended at one point. I want more.’

Robin blinked, the heavy lump of anxiety in her throat vanishing, replaced by sheer bewilderment. ‘Wait... you’re not sacking us?’

‘Sacking you?’ Gemma scoffed. ‘You two just generated the highest engagement surge Violet Audio has seen in three years. I’m greenlighting a limited series.’

Robin was slack-jawed and baffled.

‘Of what?!’ Sienna asked.

Gemma grinned. ‘Head vs Heart. You two go on dates to prove whose approach actually works.’

Robin and Sienna turned to look at each other directly, their first moment of true eye contact since the panel. It was pretty clear that, for once, they were of one mind.

Robin turned back to Gemma. ‘Wait... dating each other? Absolutely not, Gemma.’

‘My calendar is full,’ Sienna added, her tone clipped as she pushed her folder back an inch. ‘I have guest prep and edit checks for Dating by Design. I don’t have the bandwidth.’

‘Your schedule definitely allows for it, Sienna,’ Gemma said, putting down her tablet. ‘Besides your weekly podcast, you’ll record the date episodes on location and then debrief with a third presenter back in the studio, making it twelve episodes over six weeks. Dora Jenks, one of my best producers, has the whole thing in hand already. We’ve been discussing it all afternoon,’ Gemma said, leaving zero room for argument. ‘And Robin, relax. They aren’t dates in the traditional sense. It’s simply a format where you treat the scenario like a real date.’

‘No,’ Sienna said coldly.

‘Agreed,’ Robin said.

Gemma smiled. ‘You thought you were coming in here to be fired, which I absolutely could. And I’m giving you more airtime and more money. You’re really gonna refuse me?’

The implication was clear. And Robin couldn’t let Meet-Cute get slaughtered. The show was her entire life.

‘You’re serious?’ Robin asked. Silly question.

Gemma leaned back against her desk, crossing her arms. ‘The premise is simple. Sienna, you’re on a mission to prove that careful choices are better than winging it on vibes.’

‘Because it does,’ Sienna said automatically.

Gemma turned to Robin. ‘And Robin, you’ll do your gut instinct thing. You’re trying to show everyone that real romance isn’t something you can calculate.’

Robin looked sideways at Sienna. Her head was now in her hands.