“Okay, wow,” Holly said, her eyes a little wide. “That’s a lot to process.”
“Do I need to remind you that your contract clearly and explicitly says no romantic or sexual entanglement with on-screen talent?”
“No.” Normally, the fact that Finn was forbidden from asking any of the contestants out on a date was no big deal, and he understood the rationale. The last thing the production team needed was to have to work around the volatile emotions of a short and messy affair, never mind the fact that it gave all the staff a very convenient and welcome way to say no without brooking any argument. But now…
“Right.”
“I told you, we made a horrible mistake.”
“Eight weeks of blue balls won’t kill you. Remember when you and Paris broke up—”
Finn hissed, scandalized. “Holly!” She’d promised never to bring that up.
“I’m just saying. There’s precedent. Keep it in your pants, lover boy.”
Finally, Finn had let out enough steam that he could start deflating, like a helium balloon in fast forward. “Yeah, I know. I can. I will.” Obviously he didn’t go around hitting on random people, or feeling them up without their permission, or anything else skeevy like that.
But either Robbie was the world’s most natural flirt or…. “He seems like he’d be into it, though.”
Holly sipped placidly at her coffee. “Finn Graham, I know you’re not asking me to speculate on a contestant’s sexuality.”
“I would never!” Then, because he was only a man, he fluttered his eyelashes a little.
“You do have good chemistry, though,” she went on. “Which it’s my job to consider, as producer, because that makes good television.”
“Okay,thank you.” That was as close to acknowledgment as he’d get, at least at work. She’d probably be happy to go up one side of him and down the other once they’d gone home for the day. “I can behave myself.”
“You’d better, because we had to have the fraternizing talk with Chad already, and I don’t need to explain to you the hornet’s nest he’ll kick up if he finds out he’s not allowed to get his dick wet and Robbie is.”
Finn winced. “Already?” Poor Sophia.
“So far he’s mostly behaving since she told him no, but I told her she has free rein to fake sick whenever and we’ll have someone else stand in and they can practice independently, if he can’t behave. And I stuck Jeremy in to supervise and told Chad he was the intimacy coordinator.”
Jeremy was six foot seven and looked like he’d come toDance Your Ice Offdirectly from WrestleMania. “That’s something, I guess.”
“Mm-hmm,” Holly confirmed. “Don’t make me reassign Jeremy, is all I’m saying.”
“Oh my God.” If professionalism and a well-placed jock strap weren’t enough to kill any hypothetical boners, the idea of Jeremy scrutinizing his every move certainly would. “Seriously, Holls, it’s not—like, the physical stuff is fine, you know that.”
Her eyes softened. “Yeah, dumbass, I know the problem is what you’re like with your heart.”
He winced again, not sure if that was a reaction to the unaccustomed gentleness or the place she’d aimed it. Either way, it made Holly sit forward. “Wait. Finn. Holyshit.”
“Ughhhhhh.” He put his head back down on the desk. “Holly,” he whined pathetically.
“You havefeelings! Heart feelings! Not just penis feelings!”
Finn picked his head up and glared at her. “Say penis a little louder.”
“Don’t change the subject. You neverlikepeople.”
Wow, ouch. “I like lots of people,” Finn grumbled. “Sophia, Jeremy, you….”
“Don’t play dumb.” She tried to kick him under the desk, but her foot thunked against the wood instead.
He might as well get it out of his system now. “He’s funny,” he complained. “Not just goofy or whatever, but self-deprecating and theatrical. And he talks about his kid—his pseudo-adopted kid—like he might steal theMona Lisa, but he’s also so fucking proud.” It probably didn’t help that his family already knew and liked him. Imogen and Gail were both excellent judges of character, which meant Finn could trust his own instincts this time.
“Mm-hmm.” She tapped her fingers on her keyboard for a moment and then closed her laptop and reached across the desk. “Finn.”
