Authors: Eileen Cook
“You stay out of it. You started this problem.”
“I don’t want any problems, I’m just trying to buy dinner for you two.”
“I have to go,” Diana said. “I have things I need to do.”
I fought the urge to ask her who she was going to see. I couldn’t ask her to stay out of my private life if I was going to pry into hers.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Yeah, I should just get Rooster and we should head out. I have plans. Thanks for letting Rooster stay today. Sorry about the shoes.”
“It’s okay.”
“Will I see you this weekend?”
I had the sense she didn’t like spending a lot of quality time with her mom and Craig.
“Sure. You can come by and we’ll bake something up.”
“Well, maybe some time we can all get together with Ryan. He’s my partner match.” Colin popped up so he was sitting on the conference table.
“That would be great.” She looked down at her feet, peeping up at him. “See you later.” Diana slipped out of the room. I watched her leave down the hallway. Her finger trailed along the wall as if she were keeping her balance on a tilting ship.
“Syndication,” Colin sighed deeply. “I never thought I would hear such a beautiful word and despite my disbelief, you just might be the girl to get me there. Did you see the numbers from today’s show?”
“I thought you already knew you were king of the world,” I teased.
“Oh, I knew it. I was just starting to despair over whether the rest of you were going to catch on. So are you up for a drink?”
I looked at my phone. No new messages. Maybe I had been too quick to leave Jonathon a voice mail, email, and a text message. There was such a thing as treating them a little mean to keep them keen. No one likes to feel chased. Besides, it might look good if anyone saw Colin and me out together since we were supposed to be in the throes of a great love relationship. Not to mention the idea of sitting around willing the phone to ring was becoming far too familiar of a habit.
“Come on, I won’t bite,” Colin said. Then he looked over, giving me the once over. “Unless you ask really nice.” I gave him a shove.
I could have one drink. It would give Jonathon time to wonder if he missed out on seeing me and still enough time that we could meet up at my place for a romantic dinner.
“Let me grab my purse, I’m in.”
“You’re up for the biting?” He feigned excited disbelief.
“In your dreams,” I yelled over my shoulder at him as I walked out of the room.
“Every night, Callaghan. You’re there every night.”
We headed over to Beaker’s Pub. It has the benefit of having decent cocktails and being walking distance from work. The volume in the pub is at any time approximately the same as a 1980s Iron Maiden concert. The TVs over the bar were playing a Shark’s hockey game and the group gathered around periodically let out groans and cheers. It felt like everyone was celebrating our ratings along with us. We managed to score a table near the back when a group out celebrating a bachelorette party decided to stumble out to find a strip bar. Mojitos were the drink special. After the third I tucked the mint garnish behind my ear.
“We should order food. I’m getting hammered,” Colin said, pulling menus off the next table and flagging down the waitress.
“Getting? I’m already gone,” I mumbled. I pressed my lips together. They felt slightly tingly which might be a result of the rum or from chewing on the mint. I really shouldn’t have given away my lunch to the dog. I hadn’t had anything to eat since the cinnamon roll this morning. I stared dreamily out over the crowd. “National syndication. I can’t believe it might actually happen.”
“There is a world of difference between hoping and believing.” Colin raised his martini. “I’ve been hoping for a long time, but I’m moving toward believing. Here is to faith.”
“Hear, hear.”
“The thing is, faith is catching. You start believing one thing is possible and then next thing you know you start thinking something else might be possible.” The waitress sashayed up. One of the rules of Beaker’s Pub is that all the waitresses must look like contestants for a Nicole Richie body fat contest and have perfect shampoo commercial hair. You could bet a million dollars that you would never have a waitress in her fifties named Flo with a bad perm and split ends serve you at Beaker’s. “We’ll have a couple of burgers,” Colin told her.
“Hey, I am perfectly capable of ordering for myself, thank you very much.” I hated his presumption. I made a swipe at the menu and missed it, knocking over the saltshaker. Colin carefully handed me the menu and I looked it over. Damn, the burger looked like the best thing. “I will have a burger,” I said with as much dignity as I could muster. “No, make that a
cheese
burger.” I looked over at Colin so that he noted the vital difference. “And mojito.” I handed the menu back to Colin with a dramatic flourish.
“So tell me more about what’s up with Diana.”
“I’m going to be her mentor.”
“What about her princess fetish?”
“We’re going to work on that. I get the feeling she does it more for attention.”
“Did you find out anything about her from the PP group?”
“No, but I went to her house. Her mom…” I trailed off not sure how to explain Diana’s mom. It also felt like divulging a shameful secret. “I don’t know. I’m getting the sense I can sort of understand why she might have some issues. Who people have in their life makes a difference.”
“You have an interesting choice of companions yourself.”
“Thank you.” I looked at him and then had a sense of what he wasn’t saying. “You don’t like Jonathon, do you?”
“I don’t know him well. I’ve only met him a few times.”
“Let me guess, you have a policy against sleeping with people you work with,” I said.
“I hope you haven’t been holding yourself back because you were worried I would turn you down. I don’t have a policy against sleeping with people I work with, but I do avoid those I work for. I also I have a policy about sleeping with the people who are sleeping with other people, like a spouse. You might want to keep in mind that Jonathon is a part of station management. He may not work at the station directly, but Wolfson Media are the big dogs.”
“So you think I’m trying to sleep my way to the top.”
“First of all, you are not at the top. Secondly, I never said that.”
“But you don’t think I should be seeing Jonathon.”
“None of my business.”
“That’s right, it’s not.” I wobbled my foot up and down under the table. “How dare you even comment on my love life? You with your parade of different women every week.”
“It would hardly constitute a parade. No marching band, no flowered floats. A small tidy queue perhaps.”
“Do you ever get sick of being so damn smug?”
“No. Do you ever get sick of being so damn superior?”
We sat not saying anything for a while and pretended to watch the hockey game. I wished he hadn’t brought up Jonathon. I snuck my cell phone out of my purse and checked. Nothing. I chucked it back in my bag and gave it a kick under the table. The burgers arrived. The shoestring French fries were larger in diameter than the waitress’ arms. I was shocked she could lift the food trays without her arms snapping off at the elbow.
“Bon appétit,” Colin said, raising his burger and breaking the silence.
“Right back at ya.” We ate in silence. The burger tasted amazing, as only good greasy food can when you’ve been drinking. I tossed a couple of fries back. “Here’s the thing. Jonathon’s not a bad guy. Just because someone cheats doesn’t make them necessarily a dirt bag, there are all kinds of things that can be going on in his life and his marriage that you would never understand. We’re in sort of a holding pattern. He can’t just leave his wife, he has to do it right. There are kids involved. We like a lot of the same things. He’s a nice guy.” I decorated my plate by dragging a fry through the piles of ketchup.
“I’m sure he is. You wouldn’t have picked him otherwise.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You know not everything has some deep subtext. I just meant if you liked him he must have something going for him. If you liked assholes you would date me.”
I couldn’t think of a good response. I stared off into the distance not wanting to meet his eyes. I kept darting glances in the general direction of the TV and then back to my burger.
“I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” Colin said.
“You didn’t make me uncomfortable. I’m just watching the game.”
“You were watching the game?” He raised one eyebrow. “What is the score then?”
“Score?” I stuttered and he started laughing.
“You make me laugh more than anyone else I know.”
“I’m going to take that as a compliment.”
“You should, that’s how I meant it.” Colin stared at me across the table for a beat. “Does it bother you to be the other woman? It strikes me you wouldn’t be the type to share.” He raised a hand. “Don’t get pissed, I mean that as a compliment too. I would think you would want to be treated like you were, well, a princess.” He smiled. “Okay, maybe not a princess but treated like the single most important thing in his life.”
“It’s not as easy as just getting what we want.”
“You strike me as the kind of person who usually goes full speed toward what you want.”
“I do. Sometimes.”
“You’re an enigma, Callighan.”
“No, I’m not.”
“What, you want to argue that you’re simple? I’m starting to think you like to argue just for the sake of arguing. Ever wonder if you just like the fight and the issue doesn’t matter?”
“Our listeners might love your Andy Griffith homespun therapy, but do me a favor and spare me,” I said, and Colin raised one eyebrow.
“Are you saying you won’t be my Aunt Bea?”
“I changed my mind. You’re more Goober than Andy,” I said. Colin laughed. It was impossible to insult this guy.
“Goober was always my favorite.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. Why are you always dissecting my life? How come we never talk about your issues?”
“What do you want to know? Ask away, I’m an open book.” He leaned back and wiped a smear of ketchup off of the side of his mouth. I knew he expected me to ask some smart-ass question, and he was already crafting the perfect comeback.
“Why did you agree to do the show with me?” I asked quietly, surprising the both of us. If I could kick myself, I would. A smart woman, like a lawyer, never asks a question to a guy where she doesn’t already know the answer. Colin looked at me for a second, not saying anything and then leaned forward.
“I want to be number one. I’ve wanted to be number one for a long time. I’ve been close. I could build a mountain with my second place runner-up sashes. I needed a co-host, but the right co-host. I listened to the tapes of our first show together and I could hear the snap. That show sparkled, I could hear the difference. I liked your attitude. The show needed to be shaken up.”