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“You should have seen the detail on her float,” Robert said. “It should have placed. Maybe even should have won.”
“You noticed it?” I asked, surprised.
“Of course I did. How could I have missed all that patriotic bunting?”
His gaze locked with mine, and I thought once again about our kiss after the competition. Thank God he took the leap.And thank God, I kissed him back.
“I have no idea what I’m going to do with the rest of the prize money,” Robert said, breaking eye contact with me. “I gave half to the kids who helped me build the float.”
“Five thousand dollars is a lot of money but doesn’t hold as much value as it used to,” Gwen mused. “Shame that inflation has eaten so much into the economy over the last few years.”
I didn’t disagree with her there. Inflation had been a creeping problem and one that showed itself everywhere. Wholesale shipping costs had nearly doubled. One hundred bucks at the grocery store bought about a third of what I remembered it buying just a couple of years ago. Eating out was more expensive too. Even getting help at the store cost me more—with prospective employees demanding over fifteen dollars an hour and expecting a benefits package, even if they had only applied for a part-time position.
All those factors played into why I’d so desperately wanted to win the float contest.Maybe this is the appropriate time to bring up the viral video and our internet notoriety...“I’ve been looking for ways to increase awareness about The Green Frog and the great business district we have here in New Burlington,” I tried.
“I’m sure you’ve come up with some great ideas,” Gwen said.
I glanced at Robert. “Well, yesterday Robert and I were... we were caught on video a few moments after they announced the winners of the contest.”
“We were having a bit of an argument.” A smile pulled at his lips. “Things got a little out of control.”
Gwen sipped her tea and asked over the rim of her cup, “They did?”
“At the time, it seemed like a big deal, but I realize now that I was blowing it all out of proportion. I saw Robert as the enemy, and he isn’t.”
“Never was,” he whispered.
I moved to the edge of my chair, leaned forward, and took his hand. “We realized in that moment the friendly competition between us wasn’t adversarial at all. There was more to it than that.”
“I see,” Gwen mused.
“We kissed,” Robert said.
My boss grinned. “Hope it was good.”
“It was wonderful,” I admitted.
“Trouble is, that was also all caught on video,” Robert said, and I was glad he was the one who vocalized it. Being the one to tell Gwen something like this felt awkward for me. “And long story short, someone posted that video on the internet.”
“I know you don’t really go online,” I interjected. Here was a subject I had plenty of expertise on. Gwen and I’d talked several times in the past about how much she didn’t like it.
“You know I don’t.” She looked at Robert. “There are so many scammers and too many to keep up with. And they say on the news that a lot of screen time isn’t healthy.”
I nodded, seeing the humor and irony in that comment. Gwen watched more TV than I liked. I’d brought that up over the last few months, but she never seemed to take my concern seriously.
“It went viral,” Robert said, summing the whole thing up in just three words.
“Viral?” Gwen asked.
“The video has attracted a lot of attention in the last few hours,” Robert added.
“I keep thinking it will slow down, but it hasn’t. People have taken it and run with it.”
Gwen placed her now empty teacup on the tray. “That so?”
“I think one of the videos on TikTok already has, like, five million views,” I said. “And that’s a lot.”
“A whole lot,” Robert agreed.
