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Chapter 1

Layla

“You look like fall,” Brian, my producer and sidekick, says as I walk by his office door

Shaking h as we both walk down the hallway “You look tired”

“Well, I was up late editing the segrowth in the US” His dark hand runs through his hair “You still look like fall, though”

“What does that even mean?” I ask him, then look down at my outfit “It’s blue jeans and a navy blue blazer”

He shrugs his shoulders like any man who has no idea why he said what he said, but he did it anyway “I don’t know Maybe it’s the brown purse” I stop walking once I get toand Miller co in today to discuss the charity auction this weekend,” he says before walking off in the direction of the kitchen while I groan out loud

“I hate Miller,” I grumble Every time he’s mentioned, I automatically think back to the first time we met It was my first week at the station, my afternoon sports radio show, Lay it on You, was on the air, and the radio station was having a fundraiser He showed up to the event looking equally charht T-shirt When ere introduced, he told me that he lovedas it was underrated in the South I was super proud of those first few segently and not at all creepy, and he actually h at a couple of jokes, which is hard to do We were talking, he was flirting with ht back with hio to the bathrooainst the wall Ever since then, I’ve taken him at exactly face value ‘Make out with anyone literally all the time because you’re not special, Layla’ value

Grabbing the handle to et Manwhore Miller?” The sun shines on the signed Dallas Oilers jersey I have fraame last winter Framed pictures of some of my sports idols that I’ve taken fill the wall I never expected to be a sports commentator; it happened by luck When I applied for a job at the local college radio station, I thought they would putfront, but instead, they had ames because the last announcer had quit that afternoon It just stuck, and I fell in love with it Hockey, sports, co—all of it

Brian sticks his head intobooth “Ready?” he asks I nodhim down to where we do the show He walks into his producer booth while I push open the door to where I sit Ts give the rooht I put ht next to the bottles of water there forin the chair in front of the rab the earphone and put them on

“Check thein front of the soundboard

“Check one, two The XYZ TEAM sucks,” I say, looking at hi a couple of buttons on his side I hear the coet into the zone

“Ten seconds,” Brian says, and this tiht up

“Hey there, welcome to Lay it on You, the Layla Paterson show” I smile every time I say those words

When I started at the station, I was an intern, and then they gave ht it was going to be dead air, but I had assholes calling in all the tiot their sports trivia questions right ninety-nine percent of the tihts

The ratings had never been better for my slot When the afternoon radio show host went away for vacation, they gave me his time slot for teeks It was like I was the queen of the castle I went head-to-head with the men who called in I went toe-to-toe with the other radio show hosts who didn’t want ave me the afternoon spot, I ith them for ten years at that point