How similar are hate and love? What if your workplace rivals suddenly became your workplace crush? Leave that a real life hating game romance on our hands. And we're going to be telling the whole story today. I'm Alisha Rai.
And I'm Sarah Wendell. Welcome to lovestruck daily, where we deliver love stories to your eardrums each and every weekday. I'm in love with you I'm in love with you. Now, we have been keeping up with different romance categories and tropes. And one of the most popular is enemies to lovers. It's one of my favourites. It does what it says on the tin, right? You have two people who hate each other who fall in love. But when you have all of these internal and external reasons, to really, really hate somebody, it can get really easy to get stuck on those feelings and not recognise that they are strong feelings and have strong feelings for a reason.
Yeah, I mean, this is one of those trips that would never happen to me in real life. Because when I like somebody, I'm like very certain of it. Like I yeah, I meet someone I'm like, I like you. It's never like, I meet someone and I'm confused about it, or I hate them. Because I liked them so much. I'm like, No, I like you or I hate you. It's one of the
the most recent major example that I can think of is the book and the film, The hating game, literally the whole story,
a spy Sally Thorne, or the book by Sally Thorne. And I remember when you read this book, you texted me and you're like, I think you might like this book. It said you have the arc. And I was like, Oh, sure.
I think this. This seems up your
street. Yeah. And I did enjoy it a lot. And more than that I enjoy Sally Thorne quite a bit because she has been extremely kind to me and also helped me when I had a miniature emergency. So my fiance Kai got into miniature food over the pandemic like tiny little foods for some bizarre reason. I have no idea why you start watching Tic TOCs of little mini kitchens and thought they were this the most relaxing thing ever. And so I thought for his birthday that year, I was like, Oh, let me make him like a little mini grocery store from scratch. And I knew that Sally loves miniatures, she's got like a big doll house that she talks about quite a bit got its own Instagram feed. Yeah, it's called Blackboard minor. But I was like, oh, maybe she can like point me in the right direction. This woman went and like researched it found out the scale I was looking for, like, showed me a bunch of examples of how to do it. And, and then throughout, I was updating her on various parts of it. Like I made little mini lotto tickets. And so she has, she has a pivotal role in my romance as well.
But her story is about two people who work at the same company who hate
each other defensively hate each other
and go out of their way to get on each other's nerves. Yeah. And if you like the hating game, or if that story is your jam, well strap in. Because today, we have a very real enemies to lovers story, and we cannot wait to share it with you.
When Nora and Andrew met at work. They absolutely hated each other. But you know where this is going? Oh yes, we talk to these real out of these rivals realise that maybe just maybe this passion they felt might be love. We're about to find out.
Welcome, Nora and Andrew, it is so cool of you to join us. Thank you for coming.
Thank you for having us. Okay,
so we talk a lot about different romance tropes and familiar patterns of stories. And you guys seem to be a combination of several. We have workplace romance, and we have enemies to lovers. And we have a whole story here. I want to hear the whole thing. So please tell me how you met.
We were both living in LA at the time and I was working at a company called nibble box. read into that what you will but it was not what it sounded like. It was like a it was like an internet startup in the entertainment industry. So basically, our companies merged, they became hypnotic. And so Andrew was brought in as my boss, but the company was not so efficiently run always and so they neglected to tell me that he was my boss.
Okay, if somebody wrote that in the plot of a book, an editor somewhere would say okay, no, there's no way that yeah, too far.
I think as a consequence, like not probably getting ahead of Nora but because she didn't know I was her boss. And I didn't know that she didn't know that I was her boss. I might ask her to do something. Sure. I would tell her that and she basically they'd be like, yeah, go yourself. Like, she would just like, like, Alright, whatever, and then just continue on with her life, right? Because
I was like, Who's this dude telling me what to do. And to make matters worse, the only thing I knew about him was that he was friends with my immediate supervisor, who was a woman who I found challenging in certain ways. And so as far as I knew, he was friends with this person who I was sort of struggling with. And he came in and started bossing me around, and I know who he was, or why he was telling me to do things, but he was very irritating.
So that was the foundation of you guys not liking each other, that your company forgot to tell you the actual structural organisation of the origin of the Yeti.
And to make matters worse, at least, I mean, not to put words in Andrews mouth, but I believe he feels like when he came in to actually, like, say hello to me. And meet me for the first time he he says I blew him off, is that correct? That is
correct. So I like pop my head in to say hi and introduce myself. And Nora was on her computer and didn't look at me. She like glanced up and then was just typing while I was talking. And I'm pretty sure from what Nora had later on, relayed to me, like she was texting with one of her best friends and was probably like, Oh, this guy is in my office. Wow, blah, blah, blah.
So then you started working together? Not well, what how did that go? As as time progressed,
it did not go well.
So it was not hypnotic. So yes, I would
say that's accurate. I, you know, in retrospect, I think back to the way I talked to him, and I have never talked to any other human being in a professional environment in the way that I talked to him. Oh, no, he asked me to write some kind of like, internal memo. And then when I showed it to him, before I sent it to people, he made a really big deal about the fact that I had put a period after the date, which I realised maybe is weird, but I was like, What is the big deal? This is only going internally. And I literally think I said something to him, like, who cares? Oh, no, I mean, but you talk to somebody you work with that way, especially your boss, but I just did. And then I just couldn't help like, torturing him all the time. Like he got a new car that he was really excited about. And it was like this fancy Audi. And I was like, it looks like a Honda. Like I just thought like, oh, mean at any possible juncture. So
what was your reaction to Nora? I was probably like a little taken aback by her behaviour. We had we were going through a merger and the company was not on strong footing financially. Yeah, mergers are no fun. Yeah, so it's partly was weathering the ship, but also trying to make heads or tails of this person who was just rude, but I was her boss. So this was something that I took very seriously. And I was I kind of prided myself on finding Nora extremely attractive, but also not liking her at all, and being able to separate that. Okay, this is a woman I find incredibly attractive, but I don't like her. Alright,
so next chapter, when did things start to change between you what happened?
So in the transition, I went from being a development exec solely like working with creators on scripts and trying to sort of create new shows and whatever, to becoming an acquisitions exec, which meant going to film festivals and negotiating to buy movies. And I had no idea what or how to do that. And I couldn't tell anyone that because I was afraid I was gonna get fired. I was sent on my first ever Film Festival with Andrew and a couple other co workers. And I called my sister from my hotel room, hysterically crying, and was like, I'm here with this asshole. Don't know what I'm doing. Despite that, and despite the fact that Andrew clearly disliked me. He like took me under his wing and took me to all the parties and introduced me to people and basically just like helped me and did the right thing. And during that trip, we got to know each other a bit and I started to be like, Okay, I still don't like him but I think maybe he's like a good
person. That's a big revelation
a hot so I think after that trip, like our perception of each other started to change like I remember Andrew saying to me that he realised that I had like a sense of humour about myself because I think I told the story about having like majorly crashed my car and but in like a funny way
Yeah, I think the car crash story was actually a pivotal for me. It was self deprecating was very funny, but it was it definitely endeared me to her. The fact that I found her very attractive, was starting to no longer be compartmentalised.
Right, which is troubling because you're still her boss. Right.
Yes. Still a bit of a problem. Yes.
We'll be right back after this short break
so your low key crashing on her maybe and Nora Euro sort of low key, okay, he doesn't sock. Then what happened? What happened next?
Basically what ended up happening is that Andrew and I became the only two people left in our department in the LA office. And so then it was like, night after night, Andrew, and I started staying kind of late together. Oh. And just like, you know, like getting to know each other sort of accidentally, like telling all the stories about like, our backgrounds and all that stuff. But he was giving me like the weirdest energy because I think he was like nervous about the boss sort of relationship.
Yeah. And then we needed a receptionist. And this was another pivotal moment. So we hired as a temp of friend of mine. So and the first day she's back working with us, I call her into my office. I'm like, Becky, here's the deal. I like Nora. Nora doesn't know, I like Nora, why don't you see what's going on with her and report back to me. And she was like, I'm on the case. And so she carried like a little notepad with her. And she would take note, oh, she'd come back to me at the end of the day, and she'd like, like, the most mundane thing, but she embraced it. She'd be like, here's what Nora had for lunch, you know, and it was just like, full of useless information. And she wore it like she put on, she got a hat like a detective hat that she would put on when she'd come into my office and close the door. And she'd be like, Alright, here's what I oh my gosh. And then one day, she says Nora does not like her job, which I already knew. But she's like Nora does not like her job. But she doesn't want to tell you that because your boss and I said convinced, Nora, that she can talk to me about that. Because then I can maybe date her because my big fear was that she loves the job. And then her boss railroads everything. Yeah. Becky then convinced Nora who talked to me.
Also, what was going on at that time is that I'm watching back in Andrew interact. And he's she's constantly in his office alone. Oh. So I was like, Are they dating? I'm so confused. I thought he liked me. But I think he may be like this girl. And he's dating her. And when Becky told me I should talk to Andrew because I wanted to become a journalist. I realised and she was like, Andrew has great contacts. He can help you. I was like, Are you crazy? That guy's my boss. I'm not telling him, I don't want this, I want a different job and to try to help me, that did end up coming into play a little bit later. But in the meantime, we needed to go to Sundance. And so we had to get everything ready for Sundance together. And we had to travel together, alone. And we were staying in a lodge kind of combo, I guess,
tell me there was only one bed and I'm gonna just pass out cold.
There was more than one bed. And there were other people, a few other people in the house. But we were living in the same house suddenly. And so the first night, we got to Sundance, he took me out to dinner with a friend. And I remember we were sitting next to each other. And like, I just remember that like our size or like our legs were kind of touching. I was sort of like, Huh, what is happening here like this, it felt like something was beginning. Basically after that every night was just crazy parties, right? So one night, it was time to leave the party and go to the next party. I was going to go and Andrew said to me, like I really don't think you should go, you've been getting basically no sleep, like you're on fumes. Like you should at least get a few hours of sleep. And I was like, okay, like I knew he was right. We're waiting for the, like the shuttle to pick us up to take us back to the house. And he I'm like, I'm so cold and he puts his arm around me. Oh, and I'm like, Huh, that's not very like, boss, like, like, with all of his him and his boundaries, right? We get in the car. And he's sort of like, you know, snuggling up against me, which is surprising. And then we get back to the house. And we're the only two people there. And it's two o'clock in the morning and it's dark. Basically, we start talking about the fact that I don't want to work there anymore, right? And he says, Well, I mean, I would like you to get a new job too. And I said, why? And he said, In typical us fashion. He said, Well, why do you want to get a new job? And I was like, No, you say it first. And he was like, I want you to get a new job. Because I want to be able to ask you on a date. Oh, haha. And then we had our first kiss. And from then on we were basically just together because
you've been together ever since
we've been together ever since.
Yeah, one of one of our co workers was on to us because he noticed my wardrobe change.
By change she means improved.
I remember. He's like, nice pants that Nora make you buy those? Oh, it's like, well, I was like, What? No, I bought these by myself. Like, what are you talking about? And then I was like, Nora, I was pretty sure.
The gig is up, sir. We figured you out. So and
then Nora got a new job. And, and, and life was great.
And things have been happily ever after with two very separate places of employment. Yes. That's fantastic. Thank you guys so much for joining us and telling us your story. This has been a whole complete novel. I don't mean in length, I mean, in the series of tropes and all of the major beats of the story. This was that was a whole romance novel, right, Alicia?
Oh, yeah. Absolutely. That was great.
Thank you guys.
Thank you for coming on.
Thank you so much for having us.
If you were listening to this and thinking wow, that would make a really good book. I have good news. Nora's book will you want you want me is loosely based on her and Andrew story. And Her most recent book is an unlikely romance called competitive grieving. Andrew has a new wife a graphic novel that he co wrote with Alicia Keys called Girl on Fire and all of these books are available wherever you get your fine reading material. Alicia Do you hear that noise? Do you hear that sound? Do you hear?
That? Is it is it the sound of millions of authors imaginations chirping enemies to lovers story.
Literally in my notes, it says a million fanfics have just Yeah, so Alicia, what is your love to go for this episode?
Okay, it's not very sexy. But I really liked how Andrew kept checking in how Cognizant he was that his position put him in a position of power over her essentially as as as her boss,
even when she didn't know it. He was still her boss.
Yeah, yeah. And he was still her boss. And he was like trying to, you know, figure out a way around this. And he was talking to lawyers like I mean, he was really doing his best to figure it out without just going and hitting on her and abusing his power. So I would say be cognizant of the power dynamics is not a bad thing you want I take it back that is a sector that is very sad. It's a sexy thing. Yeah.
Well, if you have an enemies to lovers story that you want to share with us. We want to hear it. It literally is Alicia favourite trope. And you may email us at Love Struck daily at Frolik dot media if you have a love story to share, if you have any questions. We have a request of you. If you like the show, if we are your daily dose of mellow and happiness, we would love for you to leave a review so other people can find us as well. Please, please, please. We'll probably read them as we get them. Yeah, write us a message in the review. We'll give you a compliment. Yeah, you look fabulous today. So you know, please leave us a review. And please follow us on Instagram and Twitter at lovestruck daily, especially Instagram where there's lots of extras including pictures of the couples we talk to. super adorable sometimes there's dog pictures Seriously Don't miss out. It's just a glorious hit of serotonin. It's a great companion to the show. If you go to our Instagram. Our researcher is Jesse Epstein. Our editor is Jen Jacobs. We are produced by Abigail steckler and little Scorpion studios with executive producer frolic media. This is an I Heart Radio Podcast. We wish you a very, very happy ever after today. I'm in love with that to you. I'm in love with you. I'm in love with you
