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She bypasses that statement. “We need to talk about the podcast.”
“I think we need to talk about more than just the podcast, JoLo.”
“Don’t JoLo me,” she snaps. “Can we just…not do that yet?”
I hold onto that yet with all my strength. I think about asking her if that yet means we’ll do it at some point. If we’ll get it all out on the table and figure out how to move forward. I wonder when I should tell her I have someone tailing her ex. I don’t want to keep any secrets going forward, so full transparency seems like the best option here.
“Whatever you need,” I finally say.
“I need a job, and I’m continuing forward with the podcast, which unfortunately means that you and I are stuck together.”
“Unfortunately?” I echo.
“We need to put together a show to air on Wednesday. I pieced together what I could with an unused restaurant review and some back-up interview material we had, but I don’t have enough for this week.”
“Then let’s talk right now.”
“Right now?” she repeats.
“Right now,” I confirm. “I’m at the office. I can get on Zoom and you can have whatever you need for this week in the next few minutes.”
“Fine,” she mutters. “Give me twenty minutes. I’ll send you a link shortly.”
“I’ll be here.”
She cuts the call, and I wait. I try to get back into the film I was studying before her call interrupted me, but the truth is that my mind is racing with what the hell I’m going to say to her…with what the hell she’s about to ask me.
A link comes through from her, and I click it and pull on my headset as her face appears on my screen.
There she is.
My chest tightens and my heart races.
I take just a beat to stare at her before I start my computer’s video and audio.
She looks okay after the accident, and she looks as beautiful as ever. But seeing her face looming before me is a painful reminder of everything I’ve lost.
“Hi,” she says a little awkwardly.
I press my lips together and nod.
“How’s your head?” she asks, clearly looking at the cut on my head that’s no longer hidden beneath a bandage as it’s been healing up fine.
“It’s fine. Yours?”
“Fine.” She switches to business mode. “I have a list of questions to get through, so we’ll just sort of have a conversation around those, okay?”
I nod again. “Yep.”
“I know listeners will be tuning in to hear about what happened between us, so if we could just be…civil…and maybe keep private things on the private side so I don’t have a ton of editing to do, that would be great.”
“I will be more than civil, Jolene,” I vow.
“Okay. Recording now.” I see a light illuminate to let me know she’s recording.
She starts with some introductory stuff, the usual script we use, and she mentions our first sponsor. And then she gets into it. “Well, Coach, we’ve certainly made some headlines over the last few days.”
I offer a short chuckle. “That we have.”
