Page 81 of Just Another Silly Love Song

“No, it’s not a good one,” Kyle said. “I don’t know what’s going on, but it hasto stop.”

Ben nodded. “Of course. We don’t want to have a problem with HR.”

He waved his finger at Ben. “This has nothing to do with HR. This has to do with your show. We need to keep the integrity of your show intact. I can’t have you two start liking each other.”

I laughed but then stopped, most likely because I realized Kyle was serious.

“I told you before, the listeners enjoy the yin and the yang, the push and pull, the back and forth. You play off him and he plays off you. Your opposite personalities are what really makes this show fire on all cylinders. It appeals to male listenersandfemale listeners. If you start to like each other and fall in love . . .” He made a face, like he just had tasted something rancid. “Anyway, if you start agreeing with each other that would be boring radio. So this has to end. Got it?”

Ben and I both nodded together. “Got it.”

“And did you find the photographer yet for the promo shots?”

“Not yet,” Ben said.

“Well, don’t forget. Maybe you should do it now.”

Ben followed me out the door, and up the stairs back to the poop deck.

When Kyle disappeared, Ben turned to me, chuckling. “That wasallyour fault.”

I pointed to myself. “My fault? You’re the one who told me to follow you down to the dungeon just so you could get your hands on me.”

“Ha! Who kissed who?”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s like Kyle said, this can’t happen.” I looked away and shrugged. “We got it out of our system, and now we can return to our regularly scheduled program. We’ll be friends. Nothing more. Nothing less. I can’t afford to be fired again.”

“Friends,” Ben mumbled, shaking his head like it was the worst word in the dictionary.

“Yeah, we can do this.” I held out my hand. “To friendship.”

He glanced down at my hand.

“Ben.” I pushed my hand in his direction again. “Friends. You and me. Are you in or not?”

He glanced at my hand again and finally grabbed it and shook. “Fine. Friends.”

Honestly, I had no idea how we were going to pull this off. It was obvious we had feelings for each other, and of course there was that very strong attraction.

Ben had basically been the only thing on my mind recently. I wanted to get to know him even more and was looking forward to more of those out-of-this-world kisses. I guess I had no choice. I had to just focus on work and soon the feelings would just disappear. Easy as pie.

“Ben . . .”

“Yeah?”

I held up our intertwined fingers. “I’d like my hand back, if you don’t mind.”

He let go of my hand. “Oh. Right.”

Maybe this was going to be harder than I thought.

Chapter Sixteen

BEN

The next day, I ran a few errands after the morning show and then picked up Grandpa Wayne to head to Westfield UTC for our surprise lunch with Lori and Grandma Joyce.

Lori and I discussed the plan one more time after we got off the air and we were both certain that neither of them would suspect that we were trying to set them up. I was looking forward to the fun, and besides, I’d been wanting my grandpa to meet someone for a while.