Page 40 of The Crush Next Door

A minute later, however, we were back at it, talking away, my nerves mostly settling down as we really dove deep into our discussion, arguing back and forth just like we did in Josh's living room.

We were closing in on the thirty-minute mark, and neither of us had made any more errors, so it was looking like it would be a tie.

Right at the end, though, just before we were completely done, Josh messed up a name, and I corrected him.

Take that, motherfucker! Free dinners the rest of the week!

The minute our producer cut the mics, I was all over Josh. "You lost. You lost. Hahahahahaha. You're buying me dinner all week!"

He grinned as he began to pack up his bag, not saying anything, letting me goad him.

"I know you did it on purpose," I said when we walked back out to his car, nudging him with my elbow.

"Did what on purpose?" he asked innocently as he threw his bag in the trunk and walked around to the driver's side.

Shaking my head, I fastened my seatbelt, suddenly exhausted, the nerves all gone, leaving me feeling completely wrung out.

Leaning my head back, one eye on the traffic ahead of us, I asked Josh, "So how do you think we did?"

Stopping for a light, Josh looked at me. "I think we kicked ass, honestly."

That perked me up for a second. "You really think so?"

He nodded. "I do. It was way better than me just talking to myself for half an hour. I think people will actually enjoy it."

"God, I hope so."

As he took off again, I leaned back even more in my seat, letting my eyes close.

"By the way," Josh said, "you did a really good job."

"Aw, thanks. That's nice of you."

"Well, I mean it. It was fun."

"It was actually." I thought about how much I liked discussing sports. It was way better than fielding calls about chin implants. And once the nerves settled down, I might enjoy the experience even more. "Do you think anybody will listen to us?"

"That's the big question."

"Yep, that's the big question," I repeated. "In the meantime, I don't think I'm going to quit my day job."

Josh laughed. "Yeah, me neither."

Right before I began to doze, Josh said something that totally made me smile. "Well, at least you got to wear flip-flops to work for once."

That I did. That I did.

***

So yeah. We didn't exactly take the podcasting world by storm. Barely anyone even listened to that first one. And a few of Josh's regular listeners had a comment or two asking who the new chick was, one even saying he didn't want to listen to some girl talking baseball.

I mean, what a misogynistic prick. What was wrong with a girl discussing sports? What century were we in anyway?

But Josh and I talked a lot about it during the next several games—with my free dinners, thank you very much—and there were always going to be haters. We just had to ignore them and move on, do what we wanted to do. There had to be some people out there who would appreciate our shtick, the show we were now calling Josh and Jess Talk Sports.

In the end, I decided it made sense for his name to go first. After all, it was his show to begin with, and he did already have a presence in the sports world.

We poured tons of time into it, each of us chipping away at our to-do list, trying to come up with sponsors, advertising ourselves, putting our name out there, hoping to build it up bit by bit.

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