Sabrina

I’m early for my meeting with Kermit. I read till he arrives.

He’s on time, showing up at three on the dot, and I close my e-book.

The spitting image of Seth Rogen down to the glasses, the unruly beard, and the curly hair, he sits across from me at a coffee shop. “It’s about fucking time,” he barks.

Be cool. Be professional.

“Hello, Kermit. You wanted to meet with me, and I’m here. But the first thing you need to know is I’m involved with Flynn Parker. It’s that simple, and my story isn’t going to run in Up Next.”

“Obviously, since they went under yesterday.”

I suppress the urge to roll my eyes. “Yes, they did. That means if you were going to try to hold the piece over my head because of something you know about Flynn and me, that’s not possible.”

He laughs derisively. “You think I have time for that shit?”

His response surprises me, but I stay the course. “I don’t know what you have time for,” I say, keeping it cool.

“I couldn’t care less who you screw.”

I blink. “Okay. Good. That’s how it should be,” I say, as evenly as I can.

He cracks up, scrubbing his hand over his beard. “Is that why you thought I wanted to see you? You can be blowing Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates at the same damn time for all I care. I don’t give a damn about your personal life.”

He really is a dick, but I weirdly admire it. He makes no bones about it. But even though he’s gruff, I like his standards—I’m thrilled that my personal life holds zero interest to him.

“Good,” I say with a professional smile. “I wanted to get that out of the way because I have a pitch for you.”

He raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms. “Go on.”

“I believe you were interested in covering Flynn Parker.”

“That’s fair to say.”

“I happen to have a fabulous story on him that’s well-researched, well-written, and, as you would say, absolutely fucking awesome.”

His brown eyes spark with laughter as I swear. I’m talking his language now. “Is it fucking awesome, Sabrina? Because I think I should be the judge of that.”

“Of course you should judge it. I have it with me if you’d like to read it and consider it for your media empire.”

He makes grabby hands, and I take the printed copy from my purse, handing it to him.

Ten minutes later, he raises both hands in the air. “Sold.”

“You didn’t even finish it.”

“I don’t need to finish it today to know I want to buy it. That’s why I’ve been emailing you. Not everyone has the guts to come up to me at a party and say they want to work for me. In fact, most journalists don’t. That’s why I gave you a hard time that night. One, because I enjoy giving people a hard time, and two, because I wanted to see if you had thick skin. Seems you do, and after the party, I looked up your work. You’re good,” he says, and he admits it begrudgingly. I suspect it’s hard for him to give compliments.

“Thank you.”

He heaves a sigh. “Look, I know I’m an asshole. But I’m good at what I do, and I know talent when I see it, hear it, and read it. You’re ballsy. I’ve been reading your stuff. That’s why I reached out to you.”

“And you’re fine, then, with running my piece on Flynn, as long as we disclose I’m involved with him?” I ask once more, doing my job to fact-check his offer on my pitch.

He waves a hand in the air. “Yeah. Fine. Disclosure. Good. But I want more than a piece on Flynn Parker. I want you working for me.”

Must get hearing checked. “Excuse me?”

“News flash. I wasn’t emailing you for any other reason. I’m not holding on to old-school notions of journalism. People meet these days in a million ways, including reporters who bang CEOs at parties. I hope you get good stories on Flynn, but the world is much bigger than Flynn Parker.” He stabs the paper with his finger. “I want to run this piece on the site, I want you to turn it into a long-form podcast interview, and I want a ‘top ten takeaways’ piece in video form.”

My lips twitch into a grin. “You do?”

“Yes. And then I want you to do that every other week on someone else.”

“You want me to do that regularly?”

“Yes. Insurance. Bennies. The whole nine yards. I want you to interview business leaders. I want them raw and unfiltered. I want to run them in their entirety. And then I want you to produce video reports on them too. I want you to work for me because these dinosaur newspapers and magazines are done. They’re toast.”

“And what about you? Are you un-toast?”

“I have money. I have advertisers and, most important, I have an audience.”

An audience. I nearly salivate.

“And you,” he adds, pointing to me. “You’re a determined Padawan. Will you work for me? I have another meeting in a half hour, and it would be awesome if you’d say yes right about now.” He taps his watch.

“What’s the pay?”

He answers, giving a highly reasonable rate.

I don’t know that I like him.

But I don’t really think it matters. I like that he’s so straightforward. I know where I stand with Kermit the Douche. I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I hold out my hand.

He shakes.

“I accept.”