Brad sipped his cocktail. “Sorry I’m eating a lot of your time with my romantic nonsense.”
“I asked. My bad.”
Brad laughed. “Well, thanks for listening anyway.”
“Let me get you a refill.”
***
Lindsay sat at one of the stations in theForumoffice and put on her headphones, although she didn’t play any music because she wanted to eavesdrop on conversations around her. She hoped she could pick up more information about the financial status at theForum, but so far, no one had said anything enlightening within earshot.
Erica walked over midmorning with a big grin on her face. Lindsay slipped off her headphones.
“I just got off the phone with a buddy of mine at the Food Channel,” said Erica. “Theylovedyou.”
“Oh, that’s great! I’m glad that all worked out.”
“That article you wrote about unusual food trucks was also fantastic. We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback.”
“Great. I’m glad.”
“But the Food Channel thing, just you saying you’re theForum’s food editor is bound to get the website some attention when the episode airs.”
“Brad Marks helped set it up,” said Lindsay.
“The cat café baker? That’s wonderful. I was meaning to ask if he’s as hot as he looks in his head shot.”
“More,” Lindsay said, feeling resigned.
Erica laughed. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“Brad and I have some history, is all. From our culinary school days. It’s nothing.”
“My friend Heather bombed with him.”
Lindsay balked. Brad turned someone down? “Really?”
“She’s a feature writer for theTimes. She’s been gunning for Ben Russo’s job now that he’s given up food writing to pen self-righteous op-eds, but I don’t think she’ll get it. Don’t tell her I said this, but she’s not that great a writer. But she’s my friend, so I support her. For the record.”
“Of course.”
“She did an interview with him about the cat café, but it kind of fell apart when she asked for a favor and he turned her down. She killed the story in retaliation.”
“You’re joking. Why did it fall apart?”
“Not clear, but if I’m reading between the lines, she wanted him to do her a favor the way he did a favor for you, and he refused.”
“Is that a euphemism?” Did this woman come on to Brad? Well, Erica couldn’t possibly know that Lindsay and Brad had slept together recently. Twice. So why was jealousy burning up Lindsay’s chest?
Erica laughed. “No, no. Heather’s a big fan of the Food Channel and has been trying to get tickets to something so she can write about it for the paper, but someone there must hate theTimesbecause they keep turning her down. And I think she took that out on poor Brad.”
Lindsay’s head spun. Brad had really done her a solid. She suspected that he only had so many favors he could get from Aaron. Aaron had been accommodating because he remembered her from culinary school, but Brad could talk his way into anything. Could he have gotten this Heather woman a judge position on a Food Channel show or set her up with an inside tour to write about one of the shows? Hell, he could have gotten Heather screeners ofMystery Mealand called it a day. But Brad had torpedoed it, probably for Lindsay’s sake, and blown up a good publicity interview with theTimesin the process.
She was touched. She knew he wanted her back. And he’d done this nice thing for her, knowingly sacrificing publicity for himself, and he hadn’t mentioned it when she’d gone over to his apartment to thank him. If Brad had wanted her to know about it, he would have said something.
As she turned that over in her head, Erica said, “I’m sure you’ve heard we’re going to have to do some reorganizing.”
That brought Lindsay’s attention back to the present.Reorganizingwas just a fancy word for layoffs, but Lindsay nodded.
