“This is ridiculous. Who do you think you are?” he scoffs.
“I am the PR Director and I am here for a long time, so next time you see me, you can treat me with respect,” I reply.
“You can’t tell me what to do!” he starts yelling.
“Yes, she can.” Riley steps out from nowhere and settles beside me. “Come on, Geoff. No need to be an asshole about it. You fucked up, didn’t get here until late, and you’re taking out your disorganisation on Mabel. If you don’t leave now, none of the riders will do any more interviews with you.” Riley looks at me and winks.
Geoff looks between the two of us and then sees Alfie, the 1:00 p.m. interviewer, arriving to the side.
He mutters something to himself, probably crude and unfriendly, and starts throwing his stuff in his bag. Leaving without a word to either of us.
“Sorry for jumping in. You were handling it well, but he’s an absolute asshole to deal with. I was kind of hoping he would keep going so we could ban him and not talk to him again. All the riders would have loved that,” Riley says.
“I’ll try to piss him off more next time for you all,” I reply with a smirk, my head reeling a little at Riley’s unwavering and unexpected support. Normally, I would have hated someone swooping in to fight my battle, but he didn’t fight it for me. He backed me. Stood by my side.
Javi sidles up to us. “What did I miss?”
“Just Geoff putting Mabel through his usual shit,” Riley replies.
Javi throws his head backwards and groans, “Argh, he’s the worst!”
Alfie has set up and looks over at us, and I point Javi over at him.
“You all good?” Riley asks, concerned.
“Yeah, I’ve had to deal with jerks like that before. Water off a duck’s back,” I reply and smile at him.
“Sweet! Oh! I came to ask you if you wanted tacos for dinner? I do a crap load of fillings. It’ll be an explosion in your mouth. Of flavour! Explosion of flavour…in your mouth.” He sheepishly trails off, but I burst into laughter before realising people are recording and hush myself.
“Sounds good. What time do your interviews end?” I ask, moving him a little further away from said interviews being conducted.
“4:00 p.m. What about yours?” he asks.
“6:00 p.m.” I frown, sticking my bottom lip out. “Guess reigning champ is in high demand,” I tease.
“Ouch! Vicious.” Riley feigns hurt. “I’ll head back to the hotel and get everything ready, then.”
“Thank you! That sounds great.” I reply.
“No problem. Catch you tonight,” he calls out and heads off, but something happens that’s not happened before. My eyes trail down his broad back to his cute ass. Has he been working out more the last few weeks? When did that pop out? Did I just check Riley out?
Last interview was at 5:30 p.m. and it. Fucking. Dragged. On.
I have no idea how Javi can maintain his energy and answer coherently. I feel brain dead, and I didn’t answer any questions!
Thankfully, Rayna herds us into a cab and we head back to the hotel. She's in the front seat, eyes on her mobile. “Oh, Mabel. Looks like you had to deal with Geoff today.”
“Yeah, sorry, I was a bit abrupt with him,” I reply.How will Rayna take this?
“No, we all know what he's like. He comes in and thinks he owns the place. I am sure you handled him professionally and had to do what was needed,” Rayna continues.
“He was a Grade-A asshole, Rayna,” Javi adds. “Riley even had to pipe in and pull him up with Mabel.”
Rayna shakes her head. “We have wonderful visiting media, and it’s always one that makes it unenjoyable. And it’salwayshim. Hope he didn’t rattle you, Mabel?”
“Nah, dealt with far worse than him,” I palm off.
“Sorry to hear that, but I trust your judgement, and if anyone does the same and you need to pull out big bad PR bitch, you have my blessing,” Rayna offers, waving her hand around like she’s holding a little wand.
