radio personalities had voted it the best ass in radio.
When he was gone, she sighed and headed down the stairs. So much for fantasy. She had to deal with the real world now. She wondered what Carl would say if she showed up at the Furniture Gallery wearing a granny gown and wool socks? That was her preferred winter sleepwear, but she was pretty sure it wasn’t what he had in mind.
ADAM HAD EVERY intention of taking a laid-back approach with Carl, making a joke of the whole bed-in project and somehow persuading him to rethink the idea of having Erica participate. He was glad Carl was giving her another chance at on-air time, but in bed—with Nick? Adam’s head hurt just thinking about it.
Since the fiasco with Bonnie, he’d made a point of staying away from office politics. But Erica was too nice to turn loose with a player like Nick.
By the time Adam reached the station manager’s office he had the makings of a migraine and the first words out of his mouth were “Are you out of your mind?”
Carl looked up from a stack of computer printouts. “Some people would say I’m always out of my mind. Are you referring to anything in particular?”
“This whole bed-in promo with Nick and Erica. It’s crazy.”
“I agree. It’s so crazy it’s brilliant. The listeners will love it.”
“You don’t think it’s going a little too far?”
“Hey, it’s for charity. And they’ll both have clothes on. It’s not like they’ll be having sex on the air or anything. They’ll be doing the regular show, plus live feeds throughout the day. Only they’ll be doing them from a bed.”
At the mention of Erica and sex in the same sentence he had to sit down. Not that he hadn’t thought of her in that context before. More than once he’d caught himself admiring her great legs and indulging in fantasies of them wrapped around him. Women like her—petite, blond and curvy—were definitely his weakness, one he tried to keep under control. It helped to remind himself she was just a kid. She didn’t look a day over seventeen, though he figured she was at least twenty-one, since she’d graduated college.
Still, ten years was too much of an age difference for him to handle. So when she was around he did his best to keep his mind off sex, difficult as that was sometimes. He rested his elbows on his knees and leaned toward Carl. “Why Erica? Why not someone else?”
“You tell me. Who else could we use?”
He shrugged. “Why not Bonnie?” As far as he was concerned, his ex and Nick made a perfect couple.
“Why not Bonnie what?”
Adam groaned as Bombshell Bonnie herself filled the doorway. Dressed in white short shorts, gold high-heeled sandals and an orange tank top, she looked as if she was on her way to a job at Hooters instead of her afternoon traffic report.
“Nothing, darlin’. Adam and I were just talking.”
The look she gave Adam could have frozen lava but he was used to it. “Hello, Bonnie,” he said calmly.
As usual, she ignored him. “What’s this I hear about a new promo with Mattress Max?” She perched on the edge of Carl’s desk and leaned toward him, giving him an eye-level view of her cleavage.
Accustomed to Bonnie’s tactics, Carl was unmoved. “Who told you about that?”
She smoothed her hair back and smiled slyly. “Oh, a lady never tells.”
Carl snorted. “Well, it’s nothing to do with you.”
“Who’s doing the promo?” She looked at Adam. Thank God he wasn’t involved in this sleazy scheme. Bonnie didn’t need any more reasons to hate him.
“Nick and Erica are doing the promo.” Carl turned to the printouts again. “Now if you people don’t mind, I have work to do. And so do you two.”
Bonnie frowned. “Who’s Erica?”
“The production assistant and intern?” Adam stood and joined Bonnie beside Carl’s desk. “Erica Gibson.”
Bonnie wrinkled her nose as if she’d smelled something nasty. “The one who cussed during the two car dealer ads on air? I thought you fired her.”
“Now, Bonnie, everyone deserves a second chance.” Carl said mildly.
Adam shifted, remembering the second and third chances Carl had given him. He certainly understood about giving someone the opportunity to redeem herself. “She has a degree in broadcasting from the University of Colorado at Denver,” he said.
Bonnie narrowed her eyes. “How do you know so much about her?”
“We’ve had a few conversations.” Not long ones, and Erica did most of the talking, but that was more than Bonnie bothered with. The Bombshell didn’t go out of her way for anyone unless she saw some benefit to herself. One of the reasons Adam had split up with her was because he’d been appalled at the way she treated waiters and storeclerks.
Bonnie turned back to Carl. “I have more seniority than any intern. I’m entitled to any special promotion work. Plus our listeners know me.”
The thing about Carl was that he looked harmless until crossed. Now he stood and looked Bonnie in the eye, his expression hard and cold. “Last time I checked, my name is on that door over the title Station Manager. So I decide who does the promos and who doesn’t.”
Bonnie slid off the desk and stood. “Of course you do,” she said. “I only thought since I have more experience and the listeners know me—”
“You thought wrong.” He glanced at his watch. “Don’t you have a traffic report to do in five minutes?”
She pushed her lips out in a pout, but had sense enough not to say anything else. She turned on her heel and left the office with an exaggerated sway of her hips.
When she was gone, Adam turned to Carl again.
“Don’t say anything,” Carl said without looking up. “Erica’s doing the promo and that’s that.”
Adam knew when he was beaten. Carl hadn’t gotten where he was by being a wimp. “All right. But I’m curious. Why didn’t you give Bonnie the job? She’s popular with the listeners.”
Carl’s eyes met Adam’s, and his mouth twitched in the beginnings of a smile. “Nick refused to work with her.”
Adam’s eyebrows rose, registering his surprise. He’d have thought Naughty Nick would have been first in line to spend three days in bed with the Bombshell. “Did he say why?”
“He said he didn’t want her busting his chops the way she did yours.”
“Uh, yeah.” He didn’t like to be reminded of their very uncordial breakup.
“Hey, listen, I’m not trying to bring up a bad scene, but I don’t ever want anything like that happening here again. We got complaint calls for months. I mean, on the air she called you an effing rat b—”
“I
