Just Another Silly Love Song - Rich Amooi Page 0,10

girl for doing it, but it won’t happen again.”

Doug scoffed. “You don’t get it. This has nothing to do with the listeners and their engagement or even the music, although you shouldn’t have done those things.”

I scrunched my eyebrows together and studied him. “Then what are we talking about here?”

He sighed. “It has to do with one of your callers, specifically your boyfriend who called our top advertiser cheap bastards on the air, that’s what.”

I stared at Doug. “Oh. That.” I had completely forgotten. “Chew him out . . . he’s the one who said it, not me.”

“Why weren’t you using the seven-second delay so you could cut him off?”

The seven second delay was an intentional delay of whatever was being broadcast over the airwaves to prevent mistakes, profanity, and other undesirable material from making it to the air.

I shrugged. “The delay was on. I just wasn’t doing a very good job of paying attention and let it slip through.”

“That was a big mistake because Rolando Tech spends over two hundred thousand dollars with us every year on advertising and they’re the ones who help us meet our budget.”

“Come on. They probably didn’t even hear it.”

Doug ran his fingers through his hair. “The only reason I’m down here right now is because they did hear it. Frank got a call from Peter Rolando himself, saying he was thinking of canceling their contract with us.”

Frank was the general manager of the radio station.

“Anyway, Frank gave him a month of free advertising and said he would take care of you. Then he called me and told me I needed to take care of it, and here I am. I was already asleep because I have an early flight to Seattle in the morning.” He frowned. “Sorry.”

“What are you saying?”

“It pains me to say this, Lori, but you’re fired.”

“What?” I jumped out of my chair.

“Pack up your things. I need to escort you out of the building.”

“You can’t be serious.”

He held his palms in the air. “If it were up to me, I would give you another chance. Unfortunately, this is completely out of my hands and I need to let you go.”

“What about the rest of my shift?”

“I’ll have Tessa just program some music until midnight.”

I couldn’t believe this was happening.

Not saying another word, I hugged Tessa, gathered my things, and did the walk of shame out of the building.

I should’ve never gotten out of bed that morning.

What an utterly horrible day.

I bet having your boyfriend break up with you live on the radio and then getting fired from your job would have been good enough to get that parking spot in front of Peet’s Coffee.

Not that it mattered now.

Chapter Four

Two Days Later . . .

LORI

I pulled into the parking lot of Ramblin’ Rose Resort, the luxury retirement community that I had helped my grandma Joyce move into in La Jolla, a seaside village in San Diego County.

I should clarify that I help her financially each month and that I didn’t physically help move furniture or anything else, since her new place to live was completely furnished. I didn’t mind at all paying for part of her rent because the community she had been living in before was a rundown dump that I couldn’t wait to get her out of.

She’s happy now, which makes me happy.

However, after last night’s sudden and unexpected removal from my employment of over ten years, I was presented with an issue that had to be dealt with in a timely manner.

I needed to find a job, and fast.

Paying the monthly mortgage on my condo was important, but I was more concerned with continuing to help Grandma Joyce with her monthly rent at Ramblin’ Rose. I had a little bit in my savings account, but it wouldn’t last long.

Radio jobs weren’t easy to come by, but that hadn’t stopped me from spending all day yesterday looking for opportunities. I even bought a new phone to replace the one I had lost, and that set me back almost six hundred dollars.

The good news was, I did find one radio job opening that looked promising and I applied for it online. Hopefully, I would hear from them soon since I had the exact qualifications and experience they were looking for.

I knocked on my grandma’s front door and inhaled.

Bacon. Yum.

Bacon always made everything better.

Grandma Joyce swung the door open and smiled. “Right on time. Come on in.” She gave me a big hug and stepped aside for me to enter, closing