Shelby's hands tensed on the steering wheel as she waited for her mom to continue, but the silence lingered for so long she was afraid the call dropped. "Mom? Are you there? What did you think?"
Mentally, she banged her head against the steering wheel. Consideri
ng Nolan's usual routine, that was really not a question she ought to be asking her mom. Ever.
But especially not today.
"Well, honestly, I wish I'd realized how, um, racy it is. I wouldn't have listened with your father in the car."
"I didn't listen this morning," Shelby admitted, her stomach twisting a little. Surely the one time her parents listened wasn't a time when Nolan went even more over the top. Was it? "I was prepping for a client meeting and this interview. But what did he say?"
"Oh, it was funny," her mother said, but entirely lacking in conviction. "Just ... raw. All about toothbrushes and electric shavers and--"
"Oh, God." Shelby was going to kill Hannah for ever bringing that up. Honestly.
"Well, that was my reaction, too."
Shelby winced; she hadn't meant to say that out loud. "It's his brand, Mom. He does a raunchy morning show. It gets the audience going, makes drive time more fun."
"Hmm."
Shelby squirmed as her underarms started to sweat from nerves--and not nervousness about the upcoming show. "Listen, I need to go. I have to do this interview, and--"
"I know. I just worry. Alan was so devastated when you turned him down, and now you seem to have gone a little off the rails. I mean, these stories Nolan tells about him and this Paradox woman--that's just him making up vulgar stories for his audience, I assume? I mean, Shelby, he's not talking about the two of you, is he?"
"Mom, I don't even know what stories you're talking about." Which was so not an answer, but maybe her mother with her genius level IQ, multiple degrees, and MENSA membership wouldn't notice the obfuscation. "Listen, I'm almost to the library and I want to listen to some meditation tapes before the interview. Clear my head the way you told me to that time, remember?"
"Right. Of course. Good luck. You're going to do great." She'd half-expected her mother to insist they finish the Nolan-track of the conversation, but she should have known better. Her mom would never mess with her head before a professional event. Not on purpose, anyway.
As for Shelby having a great interview, she hoped her mother was right, but as she turned into the library parking lot and hurried to the community room that the organization had booked for the interview, she had a sinking feeling that her day was cursed.
The room was set up like a classroom, with two empty chairs for the speakers at the front, and rows of already-occupied chairs for the audience. The camera stood on a tripod in the middle of the aisle and focused only on the two chairs where Shelby and the host would be sitting.
"Hi!" A short woman with dark curly hair and a bright smile hurried over. "I'm Melanie. We talked on the phone."
"Great to meet you."
"Do you need some water? We'd like to start right on time. The library has something following us this week and they want us out exactly at a quarter 'til."
"That's fine," Shel said, and the woman walked her through how the session would go. Intro. Chat. Q&A. Conclusion.
"Easy enough, right?" Melanie asked, and Shelby nodded, hoping it was as easy as it sounded and trying to ignore the portents of doom that had gathered in the car. Soon enough, they were settled, the camera was rolling, and Melanie was diving in.
"Good afternoon and welcome to Young Professionals Chat. I'm your host Melanie Hancock. For those of you just now discovering this channel, we're a social media education and networking resource for young professionals, just like our name suggests. Our interviews stream live, but you can always find video at our website."
She smiled broadly, then continued. "Today, we're talking to Shelby Drake, a certified public accountant who works in consulting and client management at Brandywine Financial Consulting here in Austin. Shelby, thanks so much for joining us."
"Happy to be here."
"You took the CPA exam relatively young. Can you tell us about that?"
As soon as the question was out, Shelby realized her worries were unfounded. She could talk about being a CPA until the end of time.
Melanie continued. "A lot of our viewers are college students still trying to decide on a career, so we like to talk with our guests about both the work and play aspects of their lives. I imagine a high pressure job like that means that you have a limited social life."
"Well, accounting tends to come in waves, with the most crazy times being around tax season. And that's often true even if you're doing work that doesn't specifically entail filing tax returns for your clients. But because of those built in highs and lows, there are periods where evenings and weekends are reasonably free."
"Now, you're not married, so I'm going to assume that you date. Do you tend to date within the profession?"