Page 14 of The CEO I Hate

The following candidate had the opposite problem. He hadsomuch experience—and so much attitude—that he waltzed in, managed to piss off the staff writers, and offended Paula all within the first five minutes. I didn’t need another Lyle Clemmens situation on my hands.

“I don’t know if I can handle another one of those,” Tanya said. “Not without lunch.”

“I’m starving,” Jerome said. “I can literally taste the cream cheese and lox bagel.”

“Jay,” Tanya said. “You need to branch out. You can’t eat the same thing every day.”

Jerome made a disgruntled huff. “I can and I do. Why mess with a good thing?”

“We’ve got one more interview before we break for lunch,” I said.

A groan echoed around the room. “I know,” I said, as frustrated and dejected as the rest of them. “I squeezed it into the schedule. We’ll just get it out of the way quickly.”

Mia being squeezed in right before lunch meant she was up against a hangry team. Had I purposely planned her interview that way knowing they’d be eager to latch onto any fault they could if only to get her out of the room faster? That was between me, myself, and I.

Paula removed her glasses, putting them down on the table. “Who’s up now?”

“Mmm…Amelia Collins?” Jerome said, consulting the file.

Kit or Kitty rifled through the loose papers on the table. “Looks like we don’t have a résumé for her.”

I cleared my throat. “Late addition.”

Paula leaned closer to me. “Someone you know?”

I gave a little shrug. Telling Paula that Mia was my best friend’s little sister would earn me one of her patented arched-brow-eye-roll combos.

In all honesty, I was counting on this group finding something wrong with Mia the moment she walked in. Not because I thought she was a bad writer—I was man enough to admit that she was one hell of a storyteller. But working with her directly? No, I couldn’t do it.

It wasn’t just about protecting the show—it was about protecting myself.

Every argument, every late-night rewrite…I could already envision the tension simmering beneath the surface, threatening to boil over. I couldn’t trust myself around her, and I didn’t want to test how far that would go. I needed the team to be awful to Mia, to tear apart her credentials so thoroughly that I could go to Jake and say, “Hey, man, I tried. It’s not my fault the creative team didn’t like her.”

Then she’d be gone, and my job could go back to normal. Surely her inexperience, her style, or something professional about her would be enough to disqualify her. Then no one would need to know about the way my pulse quickened when she walked into a room.

Jake would be disappointed, of course, but he’d understand, and I’d get points for giving Mia the interview in the first place.

Carl knocked and popped the door open. “Mia Collins is here.”

“Send her in,” Paula said, waving like that would make everything go faster. “Let’s get this over with.”

Mia appeared, slipping past Carl through the door, looking a little sheepish. She tucked some of her hair behind her ears, and I couldn’t help but notice that she’d styled it differently for today’s interview. I almost missed the loose strands that would tumble down from the knot at the top of her head, especially when she got all worked up, arguing with me. She glanced around the room, a little surprised.

Paula clicked her pen repeatedly in her hand. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” Mia said, shaking her head. “Sorry, I just…I hadn’t expected there to be so many people in the room.”

“She does know what a writers’ room is, right?” Jerome muttered under his breath.

Tanya snorted.

“Hope she’s got more than fan theories to pitch,” Kit or Kitty whispered. She and Jerome exchanged a glance, barely bothering to suppress a smirk.

Mia walked up to the table, holding out her résumé to Paula. “I’m Mia Collins. Nice to meet you all.”

“Paula Jacobs,” Paula announced. She couldn’t possibly sound any more bored. “This is Liam, our CEO. And down the table you’ve got Jerome, Kait, and Tanya, our staff writers.”

Ah, right.Kait. That was her name. God, maybe I needed to get back on the coffee grind.