Own the Eights Gets Married - Krista Sandor Page 0,3

then glanced off stage where Bobby Chen and Hector Garcia, the CityBeat lifestyle blog founders, now stood.

What were they doing here?

“Eight.”

She and Jordan had grown close with the tech power couple over the last few months, but there was no need for them to show up for this interview.

And then Georgie’s stomach dropped.

Hector and Bobby were known for adding a little twist or a touch of flair to any CityBeat related event. And they loved a good story. Especially something juicy for all the CityBeat subscribers to sink their virtual teeth into.

“Seven.”

And it wasn’t just Hector and Bobby waiting in the wings. Barry, one of the CityBeat producers, was with them. She shielded her face and caught his eye through the bright lights. He gave her a thumbs-up with one hand while holding his phone with the other, which was, most likely, livestreaming to the main CityBeat page.

“Six.”

She patted Jordan’s arm. “Bobby, Hector, and Barry are here.”

Jordan swallowed hard and nodded.

“Five.”

She turned to the hosts. “Are we getting punked? Is that even a thing anymore?” she asked the hosts, who, in return, greeted her with plastic camera-ready smiles.

“Four.”

A series of rapid clattering clicks off set caught her attention. She did a double take as her friend and bookshop employee Becca Murphy joined the CityBeat trio and had Mr. Tuesday with her.

“Why is Becca here with our dog?” she whisper-shouted to her boyfriend, then glanced around. “And why the hell is everyone smiling at us like a bunch of creepy wax figures?”

“Three.”

Georgie stared into the camera as the producer stopped voicing the countdown, held up two fingers, then one, then pointed at the female host.

“And we’re back. For all those just tuning in to Wake-Up Denver, today, we’ve got the CityBeat Battle of the Blog winners, Georgie Jensen and Jordan Marks here in the studio with us. Let’s take a peek at this montage of how they fell in love.”

Georgie’s jaw dropped.

What the heck? Nobody had said anything about a montage!

But she knew there was plenty of tape.

During the Battle of the Blogs, Barry, their assigned CityBeat producer, had recorded footage at several of the blog challenge events.

But nobody had told them they’d be doing a walk down memory lane this morning. She was all ready to introduce the book of the month and had emailed images to the morning show producer to use for her segment. Instead, the musical stylings of Michael Bolton singing “How Am I Supposed To Live Without You” blared as the screen behind them, seemingly the size of the side of a semi-truck trailer, flashed images.

First, a pic of Jordan feeding a baby goat after he’d conquered his fear of interacting with the tiny farm animal during a goat yoga session. Next, came a video clip of the two of them, sitting side by side in the grass, laughing while surrounded by a hoard of bleating animals.

So far, nothing terrible until, dark and grainy, another image flashed, and Georgie sucked in a tight breath. She could almost taste the six Jell-O shots that had preceded the night she’d lost her damn mind. There she was, super-sized on the enormous screen, strutting down a makeshift runway inside a seedy Denver bar as a wet T-shirt contest contestant in heels and Daisy Duke shorts.

“Here it comes,” she whispered, watching herself trip and then fall into Jordan’s arms.

“We really need to write a post about how, once something is on the internet, it never goes away,” she murmured to Jordan, who barely nodded and was still acting like he was in some sort of half-comatose state.

More pictures of the two of them carouseled through before a clip of her running in the Denver 10K Trot splashed across the screen. Jordan took her hand as they watched him catch up with her with a tube of vegan cookie dough and then profess his love for her.

Nothing is worth winning if it means losing you.

She blinked back tears, remembering when Jordan had spoken those words.

The clip ended, and she exhaled a shaky breath. They were still on live TV, and she wasn’t about to go full-on waterworks.

“What a story!” the male host offered.

“Yes, I love that moment when you’re power-walking, Georgie, and Jordan catches up to you,” the anchorwoman added, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue.

“I was actually running,” she corrected.

The male host shared a look with his co-host. “It sure looked like a power walk to me.”

Georgie sighed. This was simply not a battle she’d ever win. She glanced