Page 87 of The CEO I Hate

“Disagree,” Damien said, arching his eyebrow in a way that gave me the ick. “There’s nothing wrong with having someone around just to look good.”

Tanya glowered at him, but Damien hadn’t bothered to notice, trying to catch my eye.

“Fine, rewrite accepted,” Lyle said. “Use the previous dialogue.”

Jerome arched a single eyebrow but made the edits on his computer.

It was too easy. I narrowed my eyes. What was going on inside Lyle’s head? I was afraid to ask, given that I didn’t want to give him the chance to retract, so I hurried onto my next page of notes.

“I also think we need to add a bit more tension here, before the crew goes out on their call. Maybe we have the captain hesitate before giving the order.”

“Oh, yes,” Kait said. “Like he’s second-guessing himself.”

Lyle leaned back, rubbing at his chin. “Tension is too heavy in this moment. The captain is the leader. He wouldn’t second-guess himself in front of the crew.”

“Might undermine his authority,” Damien said, grinning.

I resisted the urge to glare at him. Now was not the time to stir up shit in the writers’ room. I focused on Lyle instead, determined to get these notes hammered out so we could all go home.

“I don’t think this will come across as undermining him though. It’s about making the decision not to immediately rush into this fire, to save one of their own, feel even harder. We’ve established hisconfidence in the field, but this is personal for him. We need to dial up the internal conflict.”

Lyle grew quiet, tapping the side of his clenched jaw—his thinking face. If I’d learned anything about Lyle since we’d started working together, it was that I had to be prepared to debate. And that’s where most people got steamrolled because he could be an unpleasantly controlling jerk. But he was genuinely brilliant, and he knew a good idea when he heard it.

Once we’d actually sat down to talk through my ideas, he’d admitted the choices I’d made for the first half of the season had kept the plotlines intact, which had surprised him. I’d taken that as a compliment even though he was still a massive perfectionist.

“No…” Lyle said after a beat. “Too much internal conflict now will detract from his reaction later. And we risk slowing the pace.” He nodded to himself. “This is a high-stakes moment; we need the action to roll.”

I nodded slowly, taking in his point. “I agree we don’t want the action to drag. But I do think we need a line or two where he acknowledges the stakes. What if we don’t have that happen in front of the whole crew but just with the lieutenant, right before they head off? I think that better sets the tone of the next scene.”

Lyle hummed, and I knew he could swing either way. I was starting to understand Lyle Clemmens—as horrifying as that thought was—and I was just stubborn enough tokeeparguing for this story I believed in.

“I want to see the new dialogue before I agree,” Lyle said. “Make it good. Something that will twist our audience up in knots. If you can give me that, we might have something there.”

“One emotional gut punch coming up,” I said, already exhausted but committed to delivering, even if I didn’t know how I’d make the time.

The release date for theHeart and Hustleprint run was coming upquickly, and I’d been trying to do as much promotion as I could, but it was hard to put together enough hours in the day, especially when nights in the writers’ room were running longer and longer.

Plus, I was still trying to find time to be with Liam, even if that meant sneaking around behind Jake’s back and keeping things coolly casual at the office.

“Feels like a good time to break for dinner,” Lyle said. “And then you can wow me with this new dialogue. See you all in thirty minutes.” He headed out the door. James and Damien followed him.

“We should have broken for dinner two hours ago,” Jerome yawned, getting to his feet. “I need sustenance if we’re going to be here this late.”

I sighed. If I couldn’t iron out this dialogue, we were never going to get through this episode—and itneededto be finished tonight to keep filming on schedule. Because if we didn’t keep filming on schedule, Liam was going to flip.

“You coming, Mia?”

“What?” I said, looking up.

“Pizza?” Jerome hovered in the doorway. Tanya and Kait were already gone. “It’ll be quick.”

“I’m good. You guys go ahead.”

“You want us to bring you something back?” he asked.

I shook my head. After going nine rounds with Lyle, I just wanted to sit quietly for a minute and go through my emails. “Nah, but thanks.”

Jerome nodded and disappeared, the room finally empty. Something from the snack table would tide me over until I could go home and raid the fridge. I opened my laptop and scanned my inbox.

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