Her voice drones on in shrill tones, but I give up listening to stare at Dex’s tightly fisted fingers. The skin stretching over his knuckles is taut and pale, and the tension is making me squirm in my seat.
I don’t know how long we sit there as Gail reprimands and threatens everyone. I only know it’s over when people begin to trudge out of their chairs and shuffle out like they were just physically whipped.
I jump when Gail’s voice shrieks through my thoughts. “Jane! Dex! In my office.Now.”
Chapter 7
In her office, Gail sits behind her desk, hands steepled at her chin. I hesitate before walking in.
“Get in and close the door,” she says from behind the tips of her fingers. Dex sits opposite her with his back to me, his spine ramrod straight. My lips twist into a grimace as I shut us inside her office. It’s instantly too hot and the walls feel like they’re closing in.
Dex must sense it too. He shifts in his seat and rubs at the back of his neck with one hand.
Gail takes a long nasally breath. Her eyes dart from me to an empty chair and back to me, demanding me to sit without using any words. I lurch into the seat almost tipping the entire thing over.
Gail squints her eyes at me for a moment before she leans back and crosses her arms over her chest. “Thank you both for coming in.”
Like we had a choice.
“Do either of you happen to know the amount of entertainment blogs, ezines, print magazines, Netflix shows, movies, news or television shows out there in the universe?”
Neither of us answer, we’ve known Gail too long to think this is anything other than the beginning of one of her irate rants. “An infinite amount.Infinite. And both of you,” she says accusingly, pointing her blood-red nail-polished finger at us. “Both of you and your articles are at war with all of them, battling for the attention of viewers who crave to be entertained, all over the world.” She chuckles darkly. “And you’re not just competing against other magazines like Metro, and the rest of the crap I just mentioned, oh no-no-no. You’re up against social media, YouTube, that new one I have no idea how to use, online games, dating apps, and an impossible amount of gloriously free porn.”
She bolts up and softly touches the tips of her fingers to her desk. “Both of you are my top writers. Talented. Extremely skilled in your craft. With a legitimate following of people who know your faces and love every story you spit out.” Gail darts her eyes between us. “Your articles have goneviralworking here. Numerous times. But…”
Where is she going with this?
I squirm uncomfortably.
So does Dex.
We both see she’s about to pull the pin out from whatever grenade she’s talking around and toss it at us.
One of my legs begins to bob up and down.
Dex’s middle finger taps quickly on the armrest of his chair.
Gail leans forward, slanting her thin-framed body over her desk to level her gaze with ours. “But right now, you’re just two glorifiedtypists. You’re blindly tapping away at your keyboards hoping something intelligible comes out. Well,nothing has!” she shrieks. “What happened to the verbal battleaxes you would unleash for your readers? You’re boring them to death, whispering out into the void. You’ve both turned to shit.”
I gasp out loud. I want to say something, but I end up choking on my own saliva as the words cut dead in my throat.
“Neither of you have even been on social media.” Her gaze zeroes in on mine, and her brows pull together. “Pull out your phone if you don’t believe me, Jane. You ghosted all your readers. It’s been a month. You both had voices, now you’re just echoes. You can’t tell me you’re okay with being insignificant, with letting lesser writers jump in your still-warm graves.”
She’s being theatrical, but I know she’s right about social media. I’ve silenced myself. Once again, the corners of my eyes burn from the looming tears I’m trying to hold back. The last thing I want to do is cry in front of either of them. I pull my lips between my teeth and clench my jaw. So, I haven’t posted on any of my social media, life’s just been a little… I can’t even think of the right words.
“We’ve just had the worst two months in the history of this magazine. Since the release of the Damian Miles columns, everything has been steadily losing steam,” she sighs, heavily.
Dex grasps his hands over the edge of Gail’s desk and launches himself up. “This is bullshit. You can’t put this on me.”
Wow, okay. She can’t put this on him, but I guess it’s fine to blame me?I leap up off my chair. “But it’s okay for her to blame it on me, though, right?”
Dex whirls on me, eyes wide, jaw clenched tight. “That’s not what I said at all,” he growls between clamped teeth.
“But it’s what you implied, isn’t it?” I growl back at him. Suddenly I realize I’m too close to him and I don’t like the stupid charge of tension that I can physically feel tighten between us. I quickly avert my eyes to Gail and throw my hands up in the air, shifting my body away from his. “What aboutPippa’sstory? Why can’t you focus on that andhis,” I jab my thumb in his direction, “philanderingexploits with a known killer?”
“Christ, Jane. You have no idea about anything.” He angles his body closer toward mine which makes the tips of my toes tingle and I hate it. “Why don’t you write therealstory about you and Damian.”
“I already did, you piece of—”
