Page 70 of The CEO I Hate

Her words hit me like a load of bricks to the head. And from the way her mouth pulled into a thin line, I knew she wasn’t finished. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “What else?”

“I just touched base with billing to get some basic numbers. There’s been a noticeable uptick in new subscriptions since this video aired. All the buzz has gotten a whole new audience interested enough to finally sign on and see what all the fuss is about.”

So the fans—and potential fans—were talking with their wallets too.Fuck.

“I don’t think we can slam this door in that man’s face,” Paula continued. “Despite how satisfying that would be. A move like that could?—”

“Hurt the show,” I finished for her. It could hurt the company. Put jobs at risk. Put people I cared about at risk. That wasn’t something I was willing to do, especially over a jackass like Lyle.

“I think we should take a meeting with him,” Paula said. “See if there’s some way to…”

“What?” I snapped. “Pacify him?”

She shrugged. “Keep all parties happy.”

Dammit!I hated the thought of inviting Lyle back here, letting him walk back into my studio after what he’d done. But Paula was right. This was what VeriTV needed. And that was priority, no matter how badly I wanted to send Lyle packing.

I leaned back in my chair with a sigh, raking a hand over my face.

That’s when I noticed Ash, still curled up at my feet.

“You’re not supposed to be here either, you know,” I muttered.

His tail thumped once.

“Fine,” I muttered. “But don’t get used to it.”

Two days later, Paula and I were back in my office with a studio lawyer, HR, Lyle’s agent, his own entertainment lawyer, and a PR specialist. Lyle Clemmens sat in the chair in the center of the room, surrounded by tension.

But I’d promised myself one thing before this meeting: I would hold onto my temper, andnotreact. Because the last thing I needed was togive Lyle fuel to run to the press with.

I could see the headlines now.Former Showrunner Ousted Again!End in FireGoes Up In Flames. Tensions Heating Up At VeriTV.

The puns would be unbearable.

No, I couldn’t let this go sideways.

I’d even gone so far as to task an intern with watching Ash for the hour, specifically so he wouldn’t come barging in mid-meeting and piss all over Lyle’s shoes. Tempting, yes, but I couldn’t risk it.

“What are you looking for here, Lyle?” I asked. Even if we kept talking around it, we all knewwhyLyle was here.

He’d been spooked by all the positive season two buzz. He’d really believed the show was going to crash and burn without him, and once he’d discovered that wasn’t the case, he’d framed the situation to make us take him back so he could get his share of the credit for the second season’s success.

His reasons were clear. Whatwasn’tclear was exactly what he expected to get. As Paula had said, we’d have to give him something, or we’d risk alienating the fans. But I wanted that something to be as little as possible.

“I thought that would be obvious,” he said.

I released a heated breath. “I’m gonna need you to spell it out.”

Lyle’s jaw tensed. “I want my old position back.”

“Showrunner?” I glanced at Paula. She stared at me, brow arched, waiting to see how I was going to handle that request. “Absolutely not.” I nodded in Paula’s direction. “You’re looking at our current showrunner. I have no interest in changing that.” The lawyers both scrambled to write things down.

“Paula’s done amazing work so far,” I said. “We’re not shifting leadership with half the season completed.”

“Even if I’m the only one who can properly tell this story?”

“I think we’ve proven that’s not true. You walked out. We kept working.”