The Ex Talk(35)

As soon as my bag hits the floor beneath my desk, Kent swoops in.

“My office,” he says with such urgency that we don’t waste any time following him there.

“Ruthie should be here,” I say when Dominic and I sit down in front of Kent’s desk.

“Here!” She rushes inside with two mugs of coffee, which she places in front of Dominic and me.

“You didn’t have to do that,” I say, but she waves a dismissive hand. My mug is a relic. 2003 KPPR FALL PLEDGE DRIVE, it declares in blocky purple letters.

I’m not sure how I feel about this new dynamic between us. I don’t want to be that kind of host.

There are only three chairs in here, so Ruthie sort of stands off to the side, making me feel even more awkward.

“Just a second.” Dominic gets up and leaves the room. A moment later, he returns with an extra chair, which Ruthie gratefully accepts.

“Shay, Ruthie, could one of you take notes?” Kent asks. I wait for him to add, “Or Dominic.” He does not.

“I’ve got it,” Ruthie says.

“Thanks.” Kent clicks a few buttons on his computer. “So. You may have seen a bit of an explosion about the show on social media.” He turns the screen to face us. It’s a Twitter search of our hashtag, with new results popping up every few seconds. Then he clicks over to our podcast page. “Look at the number of downloads. It’s about four times higher than any of our other shows that aired this week. That’s huge for a new podcast.”

“Oh my god,” I say.

“And we had a pretty steady stream of callers,” Ruthie puts in. “Plenty of people to choose from. That girl who talked about breaking up with her boyfriend in the middle of a road trip? Gold.”

“Suffice it to say, I was not prepared for this to happen right away, but I’m thrilled,” Kent says. “Really thrilled. These numbers could make a huge difference come pledge drive season. They could put us on the national map, too. Excellent work, you two.”

“Three,” I say.

“Right. Of course. Sorry, Ruthie.” Kent offers her an apologetic look. “I know you’d typically conduct pitch meetings on your own, but given the interest the show has garnered, I think you’ll agree it makes sense for me to be involved as well. I’d like to be part of them moving forward, at least for a while, if that’s okay with you three.”

A bit unconventional, but . . . “That makes sense,” Ruthie says. “I’m fine with it if Shay and Dominic are.”

We nod our agreement.

“I just—wow,” Dominic says, and it’s maybe the first time I’ve seen him struggle for words. “I didn’t realize it would be happening so quickly.”

“Believe it,” Kent says, “and enjoy it. But we can’t stop now. What do you guys have planned for your next show?”

“We were going to do live couples therapy to figure out what went wrong in our relationship,” I say. “And then the week after, we have an academic and a psychologist couple booked to talk about recent relationship studies.”

“Love it. What else?”

“Well . . . ,” Ruthie starts. “I hadn’t pitched this yet, but I thought it would be interesting to do something about interracial dating.”

“Pitch it to me,” Kent says.

Pink spots appear on her cheeks. “Every time I’m dating an Asian girl or guy, people look at me almost like it’s expected . . . And if I’m dating a white girl, or a white guy, people look at me in a different way. Like they’re wondering if the person’s only with me because they’re into Asian girls. Then if I’m dating someone who isn’t white or Asian, they’re completely confused.”

It’s the most personal she’s ever been. Three years, and I barely know anything about her.

I vow to change that.

“I’ve never dated an Asian girl,” Dominic says.

I think back to his Facebook. Mia Dabrowski. How many other girls has he dated? It was hard to tell how long they’d been together—at least a couple years.

“I’d be down to talk about that,” I say, and then to Dominic: “if you’re okay with it.”

He nods. “I’d want to have some other people of color on the show, too.”

“Great, great,” Kent says. “So you’re solid content-wise. Now with regard to promo . . .” He clicks through a few things on his computer. “We need to strategize. I have the two of you talking to the Seattle Times at noon today, and a few online outlets want to interview you, too—BuzzFeed, Vulture, Slate, Hype Factory . . .”

“What the hell is Hype Factory?” Dominic says.

“Clickbait site,” I say. Not the most groundbreaking journalism, but “Fifteen Cats That Look Like Adam Driver (#8 Will Shake You to Your Core)” entertained me for a solid two minutes last week.

“We have to hop on this,” Kent says. “We’re in a unique position here. The podcast had an incredible premiere, and I applaud all of you for that. But it’s also just one episode. I don’t want anyone’s heads getting too big yet. What we need to do is keep this going, continue to build hype around it.

“Do you know how long people’s attention spans last today? Not long. People go wild over a new Stranger Things season for a week before a new Marvel trailer drops, and then there’s a new Disney remake everyone’s talking about. Nothing lasts. But we want to stay relevant as long as we can, really be part of the zeitgeist.”