Right, the frosting.
"No," I said hastily, sweeping everything into the trash. "I'm testing a new add-on for the air injector pump for the Christmas baking tools packages."
Liam looked over my work.
"This is pretty cool," he said. "Does it work?"
"Yes, but I need to borrow one of Dana's bakers to see if it's up to a professional's expectations."
"I should have brought one of them up here to cook," Gunnar said. "You have no food in your house. Just these sad little meals."
"They aren't that bad," I said. "Food is for fuel."
"You live such a gloomy existence," Gunnar told me in pity.
Dana tapped on her phone. "I've ordered for us."
"Sounds like a viewing party!" Gunnar said.
"How many viewers are you expecting?" I asked them.
"Honestly, I'll be happy with eight hundred thousand tonight. I think between the contestants' social media followings and the advertisements we've run, we should hit that number tonight. If we can make it to two million within a few days, then that should be enough to convince other advertisers to come on board."
"Did you already tell him about Platinum Provisions?" I asked Liam.
"Yes, the marketing team's already in talks with us," Gunnar said. He was setting the TV to the webpage and had a viewer counter up on his laptop.
"Is there a countdown until it's live or anything?" I asked as the security guard knocked on the door with our food delivery.
"No. It’s the internet, so we just wait for it to be uploaded."
Gunnar was pacing around my apartment while Liam and Dana sat on the couch eating. I was nervous too. I was delaying Romance Creative's rent on the promise that they would pay me once the advertising check came in. If this web series was a hit, then they would be able to pay. If not, Svensson Investment was going to be very angry.
"It looks like it’s live!" Gunnar said, refreshing the page and hitting the play button.
We watched the show. The episode was about thirty minutes long. It was beautifully shot and well-paced. It also made me look like a dick.
"I think it was decent," Liam said.
"We need it to be viral," Dana replied.
Gunnar pulled the counter up on the large screen, and we watched it. The numbers on the viewership counter were already at two hundred thousand.
"That's not bad," Liam said.
"We need more traction," Gunnar said, resuming his pacing around the living room.
I was also watching Chloe's social media feed. She had been tweeting and Instagramming about the bake-off premiere all day. I saw that Chloe had tweeted to her followers that the show was live and they needed to watch immediately.
The counter refreshed, and the viewer numbers jumped up about the same number as Chloe's followers.
"Yeah, we need her to make it to the finals," Dana said. She was monitoring all the other contestants' social media as well. The video page refreshed again; the comments were coming in fast and furious.
"They all loved Chloe," Liam said then chuckled. "Her fans hate Jack for being mean to her."
Dana wagged her finger at me. "You need to play nice."
"I have been."
