Free The Hating Game by Talli Roland

leggings revealed every contour of her body.
    The promo team had done a great job, Nate thought as he looked at the photos again. She could be on cover of GQ – or even Nuts !
    ‘ Um, that’s Mattie Johns. The lead contestant on Second Chance for Romance .’ Nate loved saying the name of the show. He could hardly believe he’d come up with something so clever.
    ‘ I’ll give her more than a second chance for romance,’ Baz said, moving his hips back and forth in the air. ‘A third, a fourth, a fifth . . .’
    ‘ Yeah , mate,’ Nate said lamely, rocking his hips like Baz. ‘Know what you mean.’ There was no way he’d get anywhere near Mattie without donning full protective gear, but she’d be the perfect bait to the exes he’d signed up. If they’d been eager to see her before, imagine what they’d think when they saw her now. ‘I’ve got a meeting with Silver,’ he said, grabbing the photo out of the still-drooling Baz’s hand. ‘Catch you later.’
    He ran to his desk to get the exes’ signed contracts and headed towards Silver’s office, rehearsing the men’s names in his head.
    Adam – successful CEO, Mattie’s boyfriend from Staines Secondary. Kind of lumpy, not so telegenic with his pock-marked face, but he’d be good to offset Giovanni’s flash appearance.
    Charlie , who’d also dated Mattie in secondary school. Nate shuffled through the paperwork to the photo Charlie had sent him. He looked almost aristocratic, with his thin face and floppy sandy hair. A nice contrast to Giovanni and Adam’s dark looks.
    Nate flipped over to Giovanni’s photo – the only one in which he was actually wearing underwear. Nate grimaced as he remembered the scene by the fax machine when Giovanni’s images had come through. The woman who watered the plants had started whooping, and within seconds every female in the office had gathered around the fax, laughing and grabbing as more nude photos spilled out.
    Sure, the guy was good- looking, but he barely spoke English. And it was pretty obvious he’d only signed up to the show to be on TV, not because he was interested in Mattie. But he’d signed the contract and that was all Nate cared about now. Mattie wasn’t there for the men, either.
    T hen there was Kyle, the one bloke Nate thought was a pretty decent guy. Nate couldn’t imagine him and Mattie together, but underneath Kyle’s friendly exterior Nate sensed he might have the balls to take her on. Shame he’d had to mislead Kyle into thinking Mattie knew he’d be on the show. But maybe they would get together? Imagine the ratings! The network could cover the wedding, too, along with the birth of their first child. Nate would be a network hero. He could even start his own media production company on the back of it!
    ‘ Hi, Ginny,’ Nate smiled as he walked into Silver’s offi ce. He was an EP now – surely he was entitled to more than Ginny’s usually grunt. ‘How are we today?’ He tried one of those cool winks he’d seen Baz do but closed both eyes instead of just one.
    Ginny stared, then snorted. ‘ I’m fine, Nate. Don’t know about you, though.’
    ‘ Could I have a glass of water?’ he asked, trying again.
    Ginny waved a hand in the direction of the water cooler. ‘Water’s over there.’
    Snoo ty cow. She was a secretary, after all. And he was an executive producer. It wasn’t like he was asking her to mine gold or something. He stared at her pointedly but she just kept clacking away on the keyboard.
    Nate slumped b ack in his chair for a second then straightened up again. All he needed was one successful show, just one. Then the women around here would be swarming over him like he was one of Giovanni’s photos.
    ‘ Nate, ’ Silver yelled from her office. ‘You better have those signed contracts.’
    Nate stood up and marched into Silver’s office, clutching the contracts triumphantly. He dropped them with a flourish onto her desk. ‘They’re all signed up, Silver, all