“That wouldn’t happen to be Micah Beddingfield, would it?” I asked.
She looked over at me with widened eyes, and I sighed as I merged into another lane.
“He’s a massive competitor of mine,” I said. “Up and coming. Really trying to cut into the market I created with his new product. There have been whispers and rumors that have made it into my office about that kind of thing, but no one’s been able to prove it.”
“That was the issue,” she said. “The story ran with the ‘anonymous source’ shit. I don’t know what in the world that writer was thinking. I guess he thought that since I handed him the story, I’d already vetted it. I got it down before it made massive waves, but the magazine still has to issue an apology. It’s disgusting that the story might actually be true and that the magazine had to apologize anyway.”
“It’s a small world honestly,” I said.
“How so?”
I looked over at her and her big, bright eyes before I turned my gaze back to the road. I had been looking to hire a publicist for quite some time, especially since I had someone now trying to chomp into my market space like Micah Beddingfield was. He was a shark and lacked any business integrity. He was in it for the money and nothing else. I could see it in his sly smile every single time he popped up in the media. I had people constantly calling my secretary for quotes and all sorts of rebuttals to his public statements.
“Well, I got a phone call from my secretary while I was still in San Diego,” I said. “Something about reporters really harassing the office over this last public statement Beddingfield made. It really ruffled some feathers and apparently spooked my investors so much that they felt the need to get in touch with me.”
“What did he say?” she asked.
“What Beddingfield is trying to do is the equivalent of what Twitter tried to do. He wants to take a very specific aspect of my overall platform and refine it. Specifically, he wants to take the podcast forum that I’ve started and use that same platform to refine it. He’s trying to paint me in the media as biased toward more seasoned entrepreneurs.”
“What kind of ammunition is he using?” she asked.
“The fact that the podcast platform is only there for seasoned businessmen and women to give their advice. He thinks that any entrepreneur ever should be able to post a video and give their advice. But that’s not the point of the platform. It’s not supposed to be a YouTube for entrepreneurs. It’s supposed to be more like a lecture forum. We vet the people who want to give a lecture or post a video, so we know the people who download these podcasts aren’t being fed wrong information. Beddingfield’s twisting that concept and accusing me of pushing a very specific business agenda and a very specific way of growing and beginning a business.”
“So how does that make him a tech mogul or whatever?” she asked.
“He’s creating his own podcast materials. Everything from professional cameras and microphones to green screens and lights. He’s specializing in the ‘portable podcast,’ where you can take all the things you would need to create a decent podcast and put them in a suitcase to take with you wherever you went. That’s his technological platform.”
“It’s very smart, if you think about it,” she said. “In this day and age, everything is all about portability and accessibility to the masses. That doesn’t mean what he’s doing isn’t wrong. He shouldn’t be trying to drag you into a dog fight, so to speak.”
“Exactly. When I got that phone call from my secretary and watched the interview, I realized I’d need to hire a publicist to help me navigate this. I’m terrible with the media. I don’t like cameras at all.”
“So no podcasts from you?” she asked, grinning.
“Nope. No podcasts from me, though I think it would be welcomed if I pitched it. I said it was a small world because you seem to be a publicist-like figure in need of a job, and I have an opening and a need for one.”
“So, what are you asking?”
“I’m offering you a job, if you’d like,” I said.
I knew it sounded crazy, but the truth of the matter was, she had integrity. She had her own moral compass, but in the end, she was willing to abide by the moral compass of her company. And that was the type of person I needed. Someone who had morals they were guided by, but would ultimately respect the morals of my company and how I wanted to be portrayed.
Which wasn’t at all how Beddingfield was portraying me.
“A job,” she said, smiling. “That’s very generous of you, given the fact that you can’t stand me.”
“It’s not that I can’t stand you,” I said. “We’re just two different people with traits that get on one another’s nerves sometimes. That’s all.”
The broader her smile got, the warmer I felt inside. I didn’t expect her to answer me now, but I was hoping she would think about it. I wouldn’t mind seeing her a bit more, especially with the physical connection we had. It would present more opportunities for me to get to know the strength she hid underneath her giggling form, and maybe it would give me another opportunity to explore her some more. I couldn’t deny the desire we both had for each other back in that hotel, and I couldn’t lie to myself about it any longer. I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed exploring her with my lips and feeling her body cling to mine.
I
