new owners wanted to talk with me and Lori, and that they would be contacting us soon, which is a good sign.”
“Yes, it is.”
“That’s why I was looking for Lori. I’ll catch you later.”
“Sounds good.”
I left the production studio and walked down the hallway, continuing my search for Lori. She knew we were going to chat, so she couldn’t have left yet.
“Ben!” Kyle called out from his office. “We need to talk.”
That didn’t sound good.
I entered his office and stood behind one of the chairs across from him. “What’s up?”
Kyle paced back and forth in front of the window, finally stopping and placing his palms on the desk. “What the hell happened?”
I stared at him, confused. “What do you mean?”
He blew out a breath. “Lori just quit!”
My heart rate picked up speed. “Wait, what? Are you kidding me?”
“I would never joke about something like that.”
I threw my hands in the air. “Why would she do that? This makes no sense whatsoever.”
This was a nightmare.
“Something obviously happened,” Kyle said.
I started biting one of my fingernails, deep in thought, as my heart banged in my chest. “We had a great show this morning, you heard it. And why would she leave when she just found out we have the number one show? I know everyone is scared about losing their jobs, but why didn’t she wait until we found out what was going to happen?”
“She’s going back to her old station.”
“What? To the night show? That’s a huge step down! And I thought they fired her.”
“The ratings were down over there since she left and they made her an offer she couldn’t refuse, at least that’s what she told me.”
I massaged my temples as the pounding in my head continued. “I don’t get it.” I held up my hand. “Hang on a second. This makes no sense, and I need to find out what’s going on now.” I pulled my phone from my jeans pocket and called her.
It went straight to voicemail, so I left a message. “Lori, it’s Ben. Call me. Kyle just told me you quit. Why did you do that? I don’t understand what’s going on but call me back right away. Please.” I hung up the phone and paced back and forth.
I had no idea what was going on, but I didn’t like it one bit.
My stomach started to churn like I was going to throw up.
Kyle pointed at me. “You need to fix this.”
I stopped pacing and turned to him. “This is not my fault.”
“She leaves without telling you? I’ve seen how you two look at each other. The kisses and the videos. You had to do something to make this happen. I told you that getting involved with her would be a mistake. But did you listen?” He shook his head in disgust. “Fix this. Now.”
“What can I do now if she already accepted another job?”
“I don’t care what you do, but just do it. Get her back on the morning show. She saved your ass and brought your show back from the dead, and now you’ve obviously done something to piss her off.”
That wasn’t fair. I took a deep breath, trying to calm down instead of going with my urge of grabbing something from Kyle’s office and breaking it.
I held up my hand. “Please. You and I both know the ratings were decent, so let’s not exaggerate here and say the show was dead. Yes, she helped the show get to the top and I couldn’t have done it without her, of course. I just don’t understand where all this came from and why she would quit, just like that. And why wouldn’t she even say goodbye? Did she already sign a contract with the other station?”
Kyle slumped into his chair and sighed. “That I don’t know. She called to give her two-week notice, but then Frank told me to let her go immediately since she would be working for a competing station. This is a disaster.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “This can’t be happening.”
If she left suddenly without telling me, without saying goodbye, most likely she wanted nothing to do with me either.
But why?
We had obvious feelings for each other, so why would she just throw that away?
I snapped my fingers. “Did you ask Debbie if she knows anything?”
“No,” Kyle said. “Good thinking. Go.”
I jumped up from my chair and ran to the lobby.
Debbie was on the phone when I got there, so I had to wait for her to hang up.
I