Deer Minotaur Boyfriend: Jeremiah (special preview)

I swallow back the nervous lump in my throat. “To be honest, no. I mostly listen in on Saturday nights for the midnight plays.” I glance to Nellie in my anxiety, hoping to see some sort of reaction on her face. “Which I really enjoy by the way. Most of the time I just listen to what I have on my phone.” I’ve fucked it up, I can say that for certain.

“Well, for your information,” she murmurs. “We have the usual news program, morning, noon, and evening. There’s the weather forecasts at seven, one, and five. Traffic reports twice a day, before morning news and evening. We have the culture hour, this includes books, theatre, music reviews. There is thirty minute music blocks between each segment. Then music goes all night until five the next morning. Various other programs are interspersed, mainly recordings from other local stations.” She looks at me again. “All in all, we have five on air staff including their producers on site.”

“Oh,” I gasp softly as I fidget in my seat. “That’s not as many as I thought.”

“Several are from other stations that we patch in.” She looks back at her clipboard. “How many people do you manage now, Elise?”

“Oh goodness,” I whisper. “Two dozen?” I chuckle. “More around the holidays, of course. Then it’s almost fifty.” 

“Then five should be easy.” She stands up from the table, follow by the two people flanking her. “I trust you to show your sister the ropes, Nellie.” She leaves the room with the other two following close behind her.

Once the door closes I look at Nellie. “What just happened?”

Nellie shrugs. “I think you’re hired.”

It’s kind of a blur after that. I give in my two weeks at Aurora’s, to which my boss pitches an absolute temper tantrum and just straight up fires me. That’s fine, of course, it’s freeing. It gives me a few days off before I start working at the radio station anyways. 

Nellie gets me ready, giving me tours, teaching me the lingo and getting me acquainted with the programming. The five on air talents consisted of the newscaster, the weather forecaster, the music DJ, the cultural hour host, and a general host who did all the odd jobs on air.

I started listening to the station before my job would begin, just so I could get acquainted with who I was working with. Everything was pretty much as expected, but then the arts and culture segment started. The voice of the host was, in a word, heavenly. Deep, rich, and velvety like a good piece of chocolate cake. Why was I not warned so I could prepare myself?

“You’re listening to Arts Share, with your host Jeremiah Moss, and today, I’m going to be talking about a pretty important anniversary in the world of cinema. We’ll have on air a historian who has made themselves an expert on this amazing little topic, as well as some interesting trivia you may or may not know. Stayed tuned, after these messages.”

Jeremiah Moss could read me all the mean things said to me in high school and I would still melt into pudding. What was I going to do when I actually met him?

My first day on the job I had to arrive early, just around seven, once the traffic report was coming on. The early news reporter was a very sweet woman and we chatted for a long time before she had to go on air again. I was getting settled, meeting the producers and talent one by one as I decorated my new office.

Then, around noon, just as I was thinking about lunch, a man ducked his head into my doorway. “I hope I’m not too late.” He’s a deer minotaur with a voice like fine chocolate cake.

I almost dropped my tablet. I quickly set it down as he came into the room. His large antlers spread out quite a bit, but that was not what was impressive about him. 

“You must be Jeremiah,” I say breathlessly. “Hi!” I stumble as I get up, nearly tripping over absolutely nothing. I extend my hand to him. “I’m Elise and-”

“Nellie warned me,” he said with a shake of his head. He grins at me and shakes my hand. “Jeremiah is my on air name, you can call me Jerry.” He’s a stunning representation of man. He might as well be a Sequoia tree. He was tall and well built. He was wearing a button up shirt, so I wasn’t sure, but I made a bet with myself his arms were as big as my thighs but twice as hard.