Page 23 of Sugar

Fucking misogyny.

I have enough sports knowledge to get me through, but Marc sure as hell doesn’t have the investigative experience to get him anywhere, dammit.

I knew better than to voice my outrage or make the unfounded—albeit likely—accusation. If I did, I would end up out in the hall with Turkey guy.

The meeting continued, the smart board filled with scrawls of assigned stories or possible filler.

My name wasn’t next to any of them. He wouldn’t even call on me to hear my ideas, and I knew the meeting was about wrapped.

I’d just about given up when Joel suddenly said, “Mads.”

About damn time.

Letting the nickname usage go, I launched into my pitch. “I read?—”

“We need a profile.”

Feel good stories had their place. I didn’t mind the fluffy ones about rescued puppies or some random baby saying something cute. My issue was with the manufactured crap. The people whowere clearly only doing the good deed so they could go viral and get clout.

It made me jaded.

But even those stories were better than pucker-up pieces. And that was exactly what profiles were. Glowing articles that kissed ass.

First, I don’t get the betting story, and now I’m stuck with this suck-fest?

This meeting is going from bad to worse.

“Who?” I asked, resigned to my lackluster fate despite the far better ideas I had.

“Easton Wells.”

Never mind.

Maybe profile pieces aren’t so bad, after all.

Chapter 4

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Nepo

MADDIE

Be cool. Don’t ramble. Don’t giggle.

Go ahead and drool at the thought of him since he can’t see you, but at least sound like you’ve interacted with a human before.

Easy.

Punching his number into my phone, I flipped the business card between my fingers as I listened to it ring.

And ring.

And ring.

By the time I’d left the meeting the day before, it’d been too late to contact Easton Wells. Instead, I’d obsessively planned what I would say.

All that buildup, and it’s just going to go to voicemail.

There was a click before a woman greeted, “Wells Law, this is June speaking. How may I help you?”

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