Charlie All Night (2 page)
Authors: Jennifer Cruise
"That's lust." Charlie smiled at him happily. "She can't keep her lips
off me." Allie took another step
back, and Charlie stood up to follow
her. "Well, it looks like we're moving on," he told Mark. "Tell
Lisa we
said hi."
When they were in the hallway, Allie shook her head. "Who are you
really? Satan? I'm being
punished, right?"
"I'm Charlie Tenniel." He held out his hand. "I work with that stuffed
shirt you used to date. I assume
all you did was date. I'd hate to
think that any woman I'd kissed in a bar actually went to bed with
somebody like that."
She looked down at his hand and sighed. Then she took it and shook it
once and dropped it. "I'm
Alice McGuffey, your producer at WBBB. It was
nice meeting you, and thank you very much for
helping me with Mark, but
I have to go now. We can talk again tomorrow at the station."
She turned to go into the restaurant, and Charlie stepped around her to
block her. The last thing he wanted now was to get dumped. There were
too many things Allie could tell him about the station.
He could
probably get the information from other people, but other people didn't
have Allie's voice.
Or Allie's mouth. If he had to listen to a lot of
boring things about a radio station, he at least wanted
to hear them in
Allie's voice, watching Allie's mouth. "Where are you going?"
"To dinner." Allie gestured to the dining room. "With my dinner date.
The only perfect man I know."
"Ah." Charlie nodded at her encouragingly, "Your father. We should meet
so he can see the kind
of guy you're working with."
"No."
"No, he shouldn't see?"
"No, he's not my father."
"No?" Charlie thought faster. "Gee, I've never met a perfect man." He
tried to look wistful.
"I've always wanted a role model."
Allie looked at him with disapproval, but he smiled at her and finally
she gave up. "Okay, I owe you.
You want to eat dinner with Joe and me?
If you can't, it's perfectly all right."
"Thank you." Charlie held the door to the restaurant open. "I can't
wait to meet Joe, the perfect man."
"Terrific," Allie said.
Charlie followed her into the restaurant, a big room with too much
mahogany and not enough light. Allie looked around the dimness and then
smiled when a man across the room stood up and waved at her.
Charlie narrowed his eyes a little. This guy might actually be the
perfect man. He was tall, even taller
than Charlie's six-two, and
classically handsome without being obnoxious about it. His jaw was
strong,
his blond hair gleamed, his blue eyes were warm and the smile
he had for Allie was real and loving.
"Your brother?" Charlie asked, and Allie said, "No," and walked away
from him. He followed her,
trying to find something about Joe that
wasn't perfect and feeling vaguely annoyed.
Allie introduced them at the table. "Joe, this is Charlie Tenniel, the
new ten-to-two DJ. I'm producing
his show."
"I heard. Karen called." Joe shot Allie a look that appeared to be
sympathy, but Allie had already
turned back to Charlie. "Charlie, this
is Joe Ericson, my roommate. He's the station's accountant."
She sounded like a well-behaved child, but she didn't look like one.
Charlie began to wonder what
Allie was like when she wasn't behaving
well in public.
No
. That sort
of thought would add those complications
he'd been expecting, and Charlie tried to avoid complications. They
always seem to
find him
anyway, but he tried.
"Charlie Tenniel." Joe's smile was open and admiring as he held out his
hand. "Are you the one they
call Ten Tenniel?"
Ouch. He hated lying, but it was better than "No, that's my brother,
the drug-dealing DJ." He shook
his head. "Call me Charlie."
Joe kept going. "I've heard about you. I've got a friend down in
Lawrenceville who was very upset
when you disappeared. I'm looking
forward to hearing you myself now."
His smile was genuine, and Charlie liked him.
"Who in Lawrenceville?" Allie had already seated herself and picked up
the menu. "I'm starving."
Joe sat down next to her. "Rona. Remember? From that seminar we took?"
Charlie took the chair across from her so he could watch her.
"Right. You kept in touch with Rona?" Allie ran her finger down the
menu list. "Pasta."
"I keep in touch with everybody." Joe tapped Allie's menu. "Not pasta.
I'll do pasta tomorrow night.
Get something here that's a pain in the
butt to make. You like pasta, Charlie?"
Charlie started. Joe and Allie were so in sync in their conversation,
he was a little surprised to be
suddenly included. "Yep."
"Come to dinner tomorrow night."
Charlie beamed his best smile at him. "Thanks." Another contact at the
station. First Allie, then Mark, now Joe. And he'd only been in town a
couple of hours. God, he was good.
Allie glared at Joe.
Joe mock-glared back. "Don't look at me like that. I want to get to
know Ten Tenniel."
"Charlie," Charlie said. "Just call me Charlie."
saving her from Mark, but he'd laughed the whole time he was doing it,
which made her feel like a dweeb. Of course, he had a point: panic was
not a good look for her.
Don't do
that again
, she told herself and
turned back to the
problem at hand.
She now had to work with a guy who'd kissed her in a bar. This was not
a good way to start a professional relationship, especially since he
was quite a good kisser. It would be hard to say no if he
ever
suggested they try that again, and of course she'd have to say no
because sleeping with the talent
was not a good idea. Look what had
happened with Mark. No, forget about Mark. Socializing with Charlie was
not a good idea, which was why she'd tried to look quelling when he
suggested he eat
with Joe and her, but Charlie didn't quell easily. In
fact, Charlie didn't quell at all.
He did seem taken aback when he saw Joe for the first time. Allie
considered her roommate as she
sat beside him. Part of Joe's impact
came from the fact that he was such a good man, so everything
he was
sort of infused his face, and his face was perfect, so people just felt
good just looking at him.
She felt good just looking at him now. She'd
talk this whole job mess out with him later, and
everything would make
sense.
But Joe did have his faults. Food, for instance.
He'd picked up his menu and was studying it as if there'd be a quiz at
the end of the meal, which
actually there would be. He'd ask, "Too much
oregano. And where was the basil? Obvious seasoning. Sure sign of a
clumsy chef. What about the asparagus?" He could go for days on just a
side dish. But
for right now, all he did was gesture at the menu and
ask, "What do you think?"
Allie prepared for the usual battle. She was still nauseated from the
stress of the afternoon, so a large
slab of dead animal did not appeal.
But she had to eat or she'd pass out, and she had to choose
something that Joe hated to make, or he'd be
insulted. "Manicotti," she decided. "The last time you
made that, you
bitched about stuffing all that pasta."
"Not manicotti. Mine's better than here. Get a steak."
"I don't want a steak. I want pasta."
"Well, don't come home tomorrow and say, 'Pasta? We just
had
pasta."'
Charlie looked from one to the other. "You guys been together long?"
Allie laughed at the annoyance in his voice. "You sound just like Mark."
"Yeah, and speaking of Mark, what was that?" Joe frowned at her. "You
and Mark having a drink together after he fired you?"
"Yeah." Charlie frowned at her, too. "What was that? I was there, and I
didn't understand it."
Allie slumped back in her chair, her lousy day returning in full force.
"That was my worst nightmare. That's why I picked up Charlie. I didn't
want Mark to think I still... you know."
"We know." Joe looked at Charlie. "She's usually not this wimpy. In
fact, she's usually very confident. It's just Mark that makes her act
like she's twelve again."
Charlie nodded. "You should have been at the bar. She was practically
incoherent."
"I was not." Allie stuck out her chin and tried to look strong and
defiant, and Charlie snorted. She
gave up then and dropped her head
into her hands. "Oh, hell."
Joe patted her head. "There, there. You have us."
"Oh, good," Allie said without raising her head. "That's a
comfort.
"
"Now order," Joe said. "And don't screw up."
Allie finally got Joe to agree that she could have the chicken
fettucini since he wanted a taste of it
himself. Chickens weren't really dead animals, she reasoned, ready to
contemplate
anything except
her future. They were more like protein with feathers.
Joe and Charlie ordered prime rib, and Joe
gave the waitress lavish
instructions on their side dishes, which she copied down word for word,
having served him before. When the waitress was gone, Joe remembered
that he hadn't designed
Allie's vegetables, and Allie argued that she
wanted hers plain, and he said that was no way to live,
and they were
off on one of their usual arguments with lots of laughing, when Charlie
interrupted.
"So, how long
have
you known
each other?"
"Four years," Joe said. "Ever since she came to the station."
Allie relaxed and smiled at Joe. "I was new in town and didn't have a
place to live, and he was at the station picking up the books, and his
roommate had just moved out, so he said I could borrow the
spare
bedroom until I found a place."
Joe grinned. "And then she came home with me, and we talked and laughed
until two in the morning,
and I said, Don't find another place,' and
we've been together ever since."
Charlie looked from Joe to Allie, and he didn't look happy. Allie
stopped smiling, wondering what
she'd said that was wrong, not really
caring as long as it wasn't another major trauma to deal with.
Then
Charlie said, "I don't get this. If Joe is the perfect man, why did you
ever get mixed up with
that clown, Mark?'
Joe blinked at him. "I'm the perfect man?"
"That's what Allie says."
Joe raised his eyebrows at her. "I'm flattered."
Allied tensed. "Well, almost." She shot a look at Charlie, prepared to
jettison him permanently if he
said the wrong thing.
Joe looked at Charlie. "I'm gay."
Charlie relaxed and beamed at him in what looked like relief. He picked
up a bread stick. "Good for
you, but that doesn't justify Mark. There
must be other men in this town almost as perfect as you
who like girls."
Allie blinked at him. She had obviously missed something there, but
since it wasn't homophobia,
she didn't care what was going on in
Charlie's brain. It was a male brain. It was probably incomprehensible,
anyway. Look at Mark.
Joe sat back. "I've got to admit, I wasn't happy about Mark, either."
He turned to Allie. "Why did
you pick him?"
"I didn't." Allie tried to look unconcerned. "He picked me. I don't
know why."
"I don't, either," Joe said. "You're not his type."
"What is his type?" Charlie asked.
"Lisa." Allie stuck out her chin in defiant unconcern, but
unfortunately, she stuck her lower lip out
farther.
"Don't pout." Joe bit into a bread stick.
"You owe Lisa, whoever she is," Charlie told her. "She saved you from a
man worse than death.
You say thank you very much the next time you see
her."
"Which should be any minute now." Joe pointed his bread stick behind
Charlie. "That's them by the door."
Allie looked up in time to see Mark wave and take Lisa's hand and tow
her toward them through the crowd.
The day from hell would never end. Well, she'd asked for it.
Charlie evidently thought so, too. "It's a shame lisa's not with you,"
he mimicked. "We could all have dinner together."
"I know." Allie pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose and
steeled herself for the mess to come. "I know. If I'd behaved like an
adult, I wouldn't have picked up Charlie in a bar and lied to
Mark. I
deserve this."
"Nobody deserves this." Joe handed her a bread stick. "Eat. I'm with
you. We can take them."
"Hell, yes." Charlie relented and patted her hand. "The odds are in our
favor."
"You in this, too? Good." Joe handed him a bread stick, too. "We can
always use another foot soldier
in the fight against yuppie scum
dweebs."
"That bad?"
"Lisa! Mark!" Joe stood up. "I was just telling Charlie all about you."
Someday
, Allie told herself,
I'll look back on this and laugh.
But not yet.
terrific.
Can we join you?" He pulled
out a chair for Lisa without waiting for an
answer, and Lisa sat, giving Allie a cautious look under
her lashes.
She had beautiful lashes. Actually, Lisa had beautiful everything. No
wonder Mark had wanted her instead. And there was no point in hating
younger, more attractive women just because they existed.
You had to
wait until they did something to you to hate them. And Lisa hadn't
fired her, Mark had.
Allie gave up and smiled at her. "Hi, Lisa. Congratulations on your
promotion."
Lisa leaned forward, caution gone, her words tumbling out in her
happiness. "It's so exciting, Allie.
I can't thank you enough. Mark
told me it was your decision—"
Allie's eyebrows almost hit the ceiling. "Oh?"
Lisa stopped. "It wasn't?"
Allie looked at Mark as if he were fish bait. "I'm really looking
forward to working with Charlie,"
she lied. "Have you met Charlie yet, Lisa? Charlie Tenniel, Lisa
Mitchell."
Charlie smiled at her and took her hand. "Nice to meet you."
Lisa smiled back, using her lashes on Charlie this time. "Welcome to
the station. You're going to
love working with Allie. She's-"
"So." Mark broke into the conversation loudly, and Lisa jerked her hand
back. "Where are you
staying, Charlie?"
Charlie leaned back a little. "I just got into town today."
Mark narrowed his eyes at Allie. "You haven't found him a place to
live? That's not like you.
You organize everybody."
What's your problem?
Allie
thought.
Jealousy?
Good.
He's staying with
us," she said, and Joe
choked on his drink.
"What's wrong with you?" Mark asked him.
"Nothing." Joe smiled blandly. "Nothing."
Mark frowned again at Allie. "You've only got two bedrooms."
"Yes, I know." It wouldn't hurt Mark to think she was sleeping with
Charlie. She looked at Charlie
over the top of her glasses. Actually,
it wouldn't hurt her to think she was sleeping with Charlie. Bulky,
friendly Charlie in shirtsleeves nade a nice contrast to trim, tense
Mark in a suit. In fact, the more she
saw Mark next to Charlie, the
less she missed having him around. Sleeping with Charlie might be the
logical cure for her lingering case of Mark. Sort of like using
penicillin to wipe out a bad bug that
wouldn't go away.
The analogy was certainly apt anyway.
Allie's logic kicked into gear, analyzing the situation, a relief after
the panic of the afternoon. She
wasn't infatuated with Charlie the way
she'd been with Mark. With Charlie, she could have an
intelligent,
well-planned one-night stand. Then her last sexual memory would be
Charlie, not Mark,
and she could get on with her life. The more she
thought about it, the better she liked it. As long as Charlie didn't
get hung up on her, it would be perfect. And even in her short
acquaintance with him,
it was fairly evident that commitment was not
his byword.
Mark looked from Charlie to Allie to Joe, evidently reading Allie's
mind. "So who is he sleeping with?"
"Me." Allie held up her hand like a polite child, her plan now in
place. "Joe gets him tomorrow."
"Very funny," Mark said.
"Not so funny for me," Joe said. "I have to wait twenty-four hours."
"I don't think that's funny," Mark said.
"Neither does Joe," Charlie said, and Allie laughed, delighted he was
part of them.
Lisa had been following the exchange, frowning as her head bobbed back
and forth. "I don't get it."
"It's just a joke, Lisa." Mark put his arm around her. "Not a very
funny one."
Charlie shook his head. "You have no sense of humor, Mark. That's why
your relationship with
Allie didn't work, remember?"
Mark decided to take offense, something, Allie reflected, that any sane
man would have taken much sooner. "I don't know what Allie is doing
with someone like you," Mark told Charlie. "You're not her type. Of
course, I don't know what she's doing with
him
, either." He jerked his
head at Joe.
Allie did not take insults to any of her friends well, but especially
not to Joe.
"Look..."
"I'm great in the kitchen," Joe said. "She loves my cooking."
"And I'm great in the bedroom," Charlie said. "She loves my body.
Between the two of us,
Allie has it
all."
Allie glared at them both. "Actually—"
Mark snorted. "Allie doesn't like sex."
Allie swung on Mark. "Well,
actually
—"
Charlie smiled at Mark and interrupted her. "No, she just didn't like
it with you."
"She didn't like your linguini, either," Joe pointed out. "She said it
was rubbery."
Charlie frowned at Joe. "That's funny. She said the same thing about
his—"
"Oh,
great
," Allie said.
"Don't be childish." Mark stood up, almost knocking over the waitress
who'd come with their salads. "Obviously, we've intruded, and you don't
want us. Come on, Lisa."
They watched him stalk across the room, Lisa trailing behind, throwing
them curious looks over
her shoulder.
"Feel free to discuss my sex life at any time in public," Allie told
the two of them when the waitress
had gone. "Don't mind me."
"We won't," Charlie said around a mouthful of salad.
"I almost feel sorry for Lisa," Joe said.
Allie picked up her fork and stabbed at her lettuce, shoving thoughts
of sleeping with Charlie out of
her mind to consider Lisa. She ate for
a couple of minutes, looking at the situation from all sides.
"I guess I
do feel sorry for her," she said finally. "This isn't her fault."
"She ended up with your boyfriend and your job," Joe reminded her.
"She has some responsibility
there."
"Nope." Allie's voice grew firmer as she grew surer. "This is Mark.
Mark
wanted me out and her in.
And he got it. I just don't know why."
Joe shook his head at her. "It's obvious. Mark's jealous of you."
"That makes no sense." Allie waved her fork at him to end he discussion.
"Yeah, it does." Joe pointed his own fork at her. "Everybody at the
station knows that Mark's
success is because of you. He likes to think
it's because of him."
Charlie stabbed another chunk of lettuce. "So, if he shoves Allie out
and puts Lisa the newbie in, everyone will know that his success is—"
"His success," Joe finished. "Except that's not going to happen."
"Why not?" Charlie shoved his empty salad bowl aside and eached for
another bread stick.
"You eat like you're starving," Allie told him, amazed at the speed
with which he'd destroyed his
salad. "Don't they feed you back
home?"
"You should talk." He pointed to her own half-empty bowl. "
I've
seen
locusts move through
vegetation slower." He turned back to Joe. "Why
not?"
Joe scooped up a forkful of his salad. "Because the only reason Mark is
a success is because Allie
plans out every second of his show. She even
has his ad-libs on cue cards. You have to see it to
believe it."
Charlie raised an eyebrow at Allie. "How do you manage that?"
Allie shrugged. "There are only a dozen or so expressions that are
really useful, anyway. I just pick
the card that worked best. And he
isn't that bad. In almost two years, he's never misread a cue card.
Could we talk about something else?"
"Oh, that's talent, reading cue cards," Charlie agreed. "You were with
him for two years?"
"Professionally." Allie squirmed a little in her chair. "The other
thing only lasted about six
months."
"Six terrible months," Joe added. "Thank God for Lisa, or I'd have had
to kill him just to set you free. And you're right, Al, I do feel
sorry for her. She's going to pay."
Charlie looked around the table for something else to eat. "Why? What
did she do now?"
"Nothing." Joe grinned at him over his salad bowl. "Do you remember the
flack Deborah Norville
got when she replaced Jane Pauley?"
"Yeah." Charlie fished a pepper strip out of Allie's bowl, narrowly
avoiding her fork.
"Well, that's going to be nothing compared to what happens when the
station finds out Allie got
screwed. Lisa is not going to have an easy
time of it."
Allie was afraid for a moment that Joe might have a point. She didn't
mind Lisa failing to keep Mark's ratings op, but she didn't want her to
fail because everyone turned on her. She stared at her plate, not
seeing the food. She didn't need this. She needed all her energy to
revive her career.
Which now depended on Charlie.
She stole another look at him over her glasses and began to really
think about Charlie and the new
show for the first time. Things weren't
nearly as bad as they'd seemed earlier. Charlie had potential.
After
all, he was intelligent. Verbal. Even occasionally funny. She could
make him a star. All she had
to do was study him, design a format that
fit him and plug him into it. He and his mouth could take it from
there, while she goosed the publicity along.
She could have him a household word by Christmas. Three months easy,
and she'd be back on top.
She waited until the waitress had brought their dinners, and then she
began her pitch. "You're really verbal," she told him, batting her
eyelashes at him. "I like that in a man. Especially in a man whose
show
I'm producing."
Charlie stopped, his fork in midair, and eyed her cautiously. "What's
that supposed to mean?"
Allie smiled at him, hearty and encouraging. "I'm going to make you a
star, Charlie."
"The hell you are." Charlie went back to his dinner.
Allie pulled back a little and exchanged glances with Joe, who
shrugged. Okay, so he'd have to be convinced. No problem. She returned
to Charlie and her career. "Look, I know your show was a
sort of cult
hit in Lawrenceville and you like to do things your way, but you're
starting all over here
in a bad time slot. And radio is not exactly a
secure career, as you well know. I can—"
Charlie pointed his fork at her. "No, you can't. Bill should have told
you. I'm temporary. I'm going
to be here five or six weeks, tops, probably not that long. I've got
places I have to be by
November.
And this guy whose show I'm covering, Waldo, right?" Allie
nodded. "Well, Waldo's coming back."
Allie frowned at him and even Joe blinked. "Waldo's not coming back,"
he told Charlie. "He's in San Diego with his sister. Resting
comfortably at last report."
Charlie shrugged. "Must be for a visit. Bill knows I'm just temporary."
"Now what's Bill up to?" Joe asked Allie, and she shrugged.
Charlie's eyes went from one to the other. "He's not coming back?"
"Waldo shot the console his last night on the air," Allie told him. "He
said it was talking to him and wouldn't shut up."
"Maybe he just needs a nice vacation," Charlie suggested.
"Maybe he needs to be away from stereo equipment," Joe said. "He's not
coming back."
"So that means," Allie began, ready to make her pitch.
"So that means you're going to be breaking in another guy in about six
weeks," Charlie told her.
"Do not bother making me a hit. I'm
temporary."
He returned to his dinner and began to quiz Joe on Tuttle, and Allie
sat back and regrouped. The
problem wasn't that he refused to help her
make him famous. She could do that without him. She'd
made Mark a
success without any appreciable input from him.
The problem was that he wasn't going to be around long enough for her
to rebuild her career.
Unless she hit the ground running a lot faster than she'd intended.
Allie gave it a minute's thought. All right, she could do that.
And in the meantime, the news made the penicillin project a lot more
possible. If he was only going
to be around a few weeks, she could have
a one-night fling with him without any consequences. She wasn't used to
having flings actually, but she was
thirty-six. Her flinging years weren't going to last forever. She had
every intention of getting married and having children some day, and
men flings
would be out of the question. This might be it.
She looked at the situation from all sides. There didn't seem to be any
serious obstacles, aside from Charlie himself.
"All right," she said and began to eat her dinner.
Charlie stopped eating and looked at Joe. "Why do I have a bad feeling
about her giving in so easily?"
"Because you're a student of human nature," Joe told him.
Allie ignored them both to put her plan into action as soon as they
were finished eating. "Let's take
Charlie on a tour of the city on our
way home. He should see Tuttle a little before he goes on the
air
tomorrow night. It'll give him something to talk about."
And I can find
out what he's interested
in and plan a program on it.
"The tour sounds great." Charlie picked up his check. "But you don't
need to put me up. I've got
a room at a motel. Thanks for the offer,
though."
Not good. She needed to get to know him fast if she was going to get
the show moving right away.
And then there was the Fling Plan. It was
going to be hard enough for her to seduce him in her own apartment. A
motel room would be impossible. Allie smiled at him. "I think you
should stay with us.
You told Mark you were."
Charlie shrugged. "Who cares?"
"Mark won't be mad if you're not staying with us." Allie batted her
eyes at him again. It wasn't one
of her better skills, but she was
desperate.
Charlie leaned close until they were almost nose to nose. "You know, I
haven't known you very long, Alice McGuffey, but I can tell you're up
to something."
"As I said, a student of human nature." Joe leaned back in his chair to
watch.
"Joe will make waffles for breakfast if we ask him nicely." Allie
grabbed Charlie's hand again so he couldn't escape. His hand was broad
and warm, and she was beginning to feel absolutely cheerful
about
seducing him. "We can talk about the station tonight. Where's your
suitcase? At the motel?"
"Just a duffel bag. It's in my car." Charlie frowned at her. "I still
think you're up to something."
Allie tried to look innocent and guileless while she cast around for a
selling point. "Joe puts pecans
in the waffles.'"
off me." Allie took another step
back, and Charlie stood up to follow
her. "Well, it looks like we're moving on," he told Mark. "Tell
Lisa we
said hi."
When they were in the hallway, Allie shook her head. "Who are you
really? Satan? I'm being
punished, right?"
"I'm Charlie Tenniel." He held out his hand. "I work with that stuffed
shirt you used to date. I assume
all you did was date. I'd hate to
think that any woman I'd kissed in a bar actually went to bed with
somebody like that."
She looked down at his hand and sighed. Then she took it and shook it
once and dropped it. "I'm
Alice McGuffey, your producer at WBBB. It was
nice meeting you, and thank you very much for
helping me with Mark, but
I have to go now. We can talk again tomorrow at the station."
She turned to go into the restaurant, and Charlie stepped around her to
block her. The last thing he wanted now was to get dumped. There were
too many things Allie could tell him about the station.
He could
probably get the information from other people, but other people didn't
have Allie's voice.
Or Allie's mouth. If he had to listen to a lot of
boring things about a radio station, he at least wanted
to hear them in
Allie's voice, watching Allie's mouth. "Where are you going?"
"To dinner." Allie gestured to the dining room. "With my dinner date.
The only perfect man I know."
"Ah." Charlie nodded at her encouragingly, "Your father. We should meet
so he can see the kind
of guy you're working with."
"No."
"No, he shouldn't see?"
"No, he's not my father."
"No?" Charlie thought faster. "Gee, I've never met a perfect man." He
tried to look wistful.
"I've always wanted a role model."
Allie looked at him with disapproval, but he smiled at her and finally
she gave up. "Okay, I owe you.
You want to eat dinner with Joe and me?
If you can't, it's perfectly all right."
"Thank you." Charlie held the door to the restaurant open. "I can't
wait to meet Joe, the perfect man."
"Terrific," Allie said.
Charlie followed her into the restaurant, a big room with too much
mahogany and not enough light. Allie looked around the dimness and then
smiled when a man across the room stood up and waved at her.
Charlie narrowed his eyes a little. This guy might actually be the
perfect man. He was tall, even taller
than Charlie's six-two, and
classically handsome without being obnoxious about it. His jaw was
strong,
his blond hair gleamed, his blue eyes were warm and the smile
he had for Allie was real and loving.
"Your brother?" Charlie asked, and Allie said, "No," and walked away
from him. He followed her,
trying to find something about Joe that
wasn't perfect and feeling vaguely annoyed.
Allie introduced them at the table. "Joe, this is Charlie Tenniel, the
new ten-to-two DJ. I'm producing
his show."
"I heard. Karen called." Joe shot Allie a look that appeared to be
sympathy, but Allie had already
turned back to Charlie. "Charlie, this
is Joe Ericson, my roommate. He's the station's accountant."
She sounded like a well-behaved child, but she didn't look like one.
Charlie began to wonder what
Allie was like when she wasn't behaving
well in public.
No
. That sort
of thought would add those complications
he'd been expecting, and Charlie tried to avoid complications. They
always seem to
find him
anyway, but he tried.
"Charlie Tenniel." Joe's smile was open and admiring as he held out his
hand. "Are you the one they
call Ten Tenniel?"
Ouch. He hated lying, but it was better than "No, that's my brother,
the drug-dealing DJ." He shook
his head. "Call me Charlie."
Joe kept going. "I've heard about you. I've got a friend down in
Lawrenceville who was very upset
when you disappeared. I'm looking
forward to hearing you myself now."
His smile was genuine, and Charlie liked him.
"Who in Lawrenceville?" Allie had already seated herself and picked up
the menu. "I'm starving."
Joe sat down next to her. "Rona. Remember? From that seminar we took?"
Charlie took the chair across from her so he could watch her.
"Right. You kept in touch with Rona?" Allie ran her finger down the
menu list. "Pasta."
"I keep in touch with everybody." Joe tapped Allie's menu. "Not pasta.
I'll do pasta tomorrow night.
Get something here that's a pain in the
butt to make. You like pasta, Charlie?"
Charlie started. Joe and Allie were so in sync in their conversation,
he was a little surprised to be
suddenly included. "Yep."
"Come to dinner tomorrow night."
Charlie beamed his best smile at him. "Thanks." Another contact at the
station. First Allie, then Mark, now Joe. And he'd only been in town a
couple of hours. God, he was good.
Allie glared at Joe.
Joe mock-glared back. "Don't look at me like that. I want to get to
know Ten Tenniel."
"Charlie," Charlie said. "Just call me Charlie."
* * *
Allie wasn't sure how she felt about Charlie. He'd done a nice job ofsaving her from Mark, but he'd laughed the whole time he was doing it,
which made her feel like a dweeb. Of course, he had a point: panic was
not a good look for her.
Don't do
that again
, she told herself and
turned back to the
problem at hand.
She now had to work with a guy who'd kissed her in a bar. This was not
a good way to start a professional relationship, especially since he
was quite a good kisser. It would be hard to say no if he
ever
suggested they try that again, and of course she'd have to say no
because sleeping with the talent
was not a good idea. Look what had
happened with Mark. No, forget about Mark. Socializing with Charlie was
not a good idea, which was why she'd tried to look quelling when he
suggested he eat
with Joe and her, but Charlie didn't quell easily. In
fact, Charlie didn't quell at all.
He did seem taken aback when he saw Joe for the first time. Allie
considered her roommate as she
sat beside him. Part of Joe's impact
came from the fact that he was such a good man, so everything
he was
sort of infused his face, and his face was perfect, so people just felt
good just looking at him.
She felt good just looking at him now. She'd
talk this whole job mess out with him later, and
everything would make
sense.
But Joe did have his faults. Food, for instance.
He'd picked up his menu and was studying it as if there'd be a quiz at
the end of the meal, which
actually there would be. He'd ask, "Too much
oregano. And where was the basil? Obvious seasoning. Sure sign of a
clumsy chef. What about the asparagus?" He could go for days on just a
side dish. But
for right now, all he did was gesture at the menu and
ask, "What do you think?"
Allie prepared for the usual battle. She was still nauseated from the
stress of the afternoon, so a large
slab of dead animal did not appeal.
But she had to eat or she'd pass out, and she had to choose
something that Joe hated to make, or he'd be
insulted. "Manicotti," she decided. "The last time you
made that, you
bitched about stuffing all that pasta."
"Not manicotti. Mine's better than here. Get a steak."
"I don't want a steak. I want pasta."
"Well, don't come home tomorrow and say, 'Pasta? We just
had
pasta."'
Charlie looked from one to the other. "You guys been together long?"
Allie laughed at the annoyance in his voice. "You sound just like Mark."
"Yeah, and speaking of Mark, what was that?" Joe frowned at her. "You
and Mark having a drink together after he fired you?"
"Yeah." Charlie frowned at her, too. "What was that? I was there, and I
didn't understand it."
Allie slumped back in her chair, her lousy day returning in full force.
"That was my worst nightmare. That's why I picked up Charlie. I didn't
want Mark to think I still... you know."
"We know." Joe looked at Charlie. "She's usually not this wimpy. In
fact, she's usually very confident. It's just Mark that makes her act
like she's twelve again."
Charlie nodded. "You should have been at the bar. She was practically
incoherent."
"I was not." Allie stuck out her chin and tried to look strong and
defiant, and Charlie snorted. She
gave up then and dropped her head
into her hands. "Oh, hell."
Joe patted her head. "There, there. You have us."
"Oh, good," Allie said without raising her head. "That's a
comfort.
"
"Now order," Joe said. "And don't screw up."
Allie finally got Joe to agree that she could have the chicken
fettucini since he wanted a taste of it
himself. Chickens weren't really dead animals, she reasoned, ready to
contemplate
anything except
her future. They were more like protein with feathers.
Joe and Charlie ordered prime rib, and Joe
gave the waitress lavish
instructions on their side dishes, which she copied down word for word,
having served him before. When the waitress was gone, Joe remembered
that he hadn't designed
Allie's vegetables, and Allie argued that she
wanted hers plain, and he said that was no way to live,
and they were
off on one of their usual arguments with lots of laughing, when Charlie
interrupted.
"So, how long
have
you known
each other?"
"Four years," Joe said. "Ever since she came to the station."
Allie relaxed and smiled at Joe. "I was new in town and didn't have a
place to live, and he was at the station picking up the books, and his
roommate had just moved out, so he said I could borrow the
spare
bedroom until I found a place."
Joe grinned. "And then she came home with me, and we talked and laughed
until two in the morning,
and I said, Don't find another place,' and
we've been together ever since."
Charlie looked from Joe to Allie, and he didn't look happy. Allie
stopped smiling, wondering what
she'd said that was wrong, not really
caring as long as it wasn't another major trauma to deal with.
Then
Charlie said, "I don't get this. If Joe is the perfect man, why did you
ever get mixed up with
that clown, Mark?'
Joe blinked at him. "I'm the perfect man?"
"That's what Allie says."
Joe raised his eyebrows at her. "I'm flattered."
Allied tensed. "Well, almost." She shot a look at Charlie, prepared to
jettison him permanently if he
said the wrong thing.
Joe looked at Charlie. "I'm gay."
Charlie relaxed and beamed at him in what looked like relief. He picked
up a bread stick. "Good for
you, but that doesn't justify Mark. There
must be other men in this town almost as perfect as you
who like girls."
Allie blinked at him. She had obviously missed something there, but
since it wasn't homophobia,
she didn't care what was going on in
Charlie's brain. It was a male brain. It was probably incomprehensible,
anyway. Look at Mark.
Joe sat back. "I've got to admit, I wasn't happy about Mark, either."
He turned to Allie. "Why did
you pick him?"
"I didn't." Allie tried to look unconcerned. "He picked me. I don't
know why."
"I don't, either," Joe said. "You're not his type."
"What is his type?" Charlie asked.
"Lisa." Allie stuck out her chin in defiant unconcern, but
unfortunately, she stuck her lower lip out
farther.
"Don't pout." Joe bit into a bread stick.
"You owe Lisa, whoever she is," Charlie told her. "She saved you from a
man worse than death.
You say thank you very much the next time you see
her."
"Which should be any minute now." Joe pointed his bread stick behind
Charlie. "That's them by the door."
Allie looked up in time to see Mark wave and take Lisa's hand and tow
her toward them through the crowd.
The day from hell would never end. Well, she'd asked for it.
Charlie evidently thought so, too. "It's a shame lisa's not with you,"
he mimicked. "We could all have dinner together."
"I know." Allie pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose and
steeled herself for the mess to come. "I know. If I'd behaved like an
adult, I wouldn't have picked up Charlie in a bar and lied to
Mark. I
deserve this."
"Nobody deserves this." Joe handed her a bread stick. "Eat. I'm with
you. We can take them."
"Hell, yes." Charlie relented and patted her hand. "The odds are in our
favor."
"You in this, too? Good." Joe handed him a bread stick, too. "We can
always use another foot soldier
in the fight against yuppie scum
dweebs."
"That bad?"
"Lisa! Mark!" Joe stood up. "I was just telling Charlie all about you."
Someday
, Allie told herself,
I'll look back on this and laugh.
But not yet.
2
Allie sat numbly while Mark beamed at all of them. "Isn't thisterrific.
Can we join you?" He pulled
out a chair for Lisa without waiting for an
answer, and Lisa sat, giving Allie a cautious look under
her lashes.
She had beautiful lashes. Actually, Lisa had beautiful everything. No
wonder Mark had wanted her instead. And there was no point in hating
younger, more attractive women just because they existed.
You had to
wait until they did something to you to hate them. And Lisa hadn't
fired her, Mark had.
Allie gave up and smiled at her. "Hi, Lisa. Congratulations on your
promotion."
Lisa leaned forward, caution gone, her words tumbling out in her
happiness. "It's so exciting, Allie.
I can't thank you enough. Mark
told me it was your decision—"
Allie's eyebrows almost hit the ceiling. "Oh?"
Lisa stopped. "It wasn't?"
Allie looked at Mark as if he were fish bait. "I'm really looking
forward to working with Charlie,"
she lied. "Have you met Charlie yet, Lisa? Charlie Tenniel, Lisa
Mitchell."
Charlie smiled at her and took her hand. "Nice to meet you."
Lisa smiled back, using her lashes on Charlie this time. "Welcome to
the station. You're going to
love working with Allie. She's-"
"So." Mark broke into the conversation loudly, and Lisa jerked her hand
back. "Where are you
staying, Charlie?"
Charlie leaned back a little. "I just got into town today."
Mark narrowed his eyes at Allie. "You haven't found him a place to
live? That's not like you.
You organize everybody."
What's your problem?
Allie
thought.
Jealousy?
Good.
He's staying with
us," she said, and Joe
choked on his drink.
"What's wrong with you?" Mark asked him.
"Nothing." Joe smiled blandly. "Nothing."
Mark frowned again at Allie. "You've only got two bedrooms."
"Yes, I know." It wouldn't hurt Mark to think she was sleeping with
Charlie. She looked at Charlie
over the top of her glasses. Actually,
it wouldn't hurt her to think she was sleeping with Charlie. Bulky,
friendly Charlie in shirtsleeves nade a nice contrast to trim, tense
Mark in a suit. In fact, the more she
saw Mark next to Charlie, the
less she missed having him around. Sleeping with Charlie might be the
logical cure for her lingering case of Mark. Sort of like using
penicillin to wipe out a bad bug that
wouldn't go away.
The analogy was certainly apt anyway.
Allie's logic kicked into gear, analyzing the situation, a relief after
the panic of the afternoon. She
wasn't infatuated with Charlie the way
she'd been with Mark. With Charlie, she could have an
intelligent,
well-planned one-night stand. Then her last sexual memory would be
Charlie, not Mark,
and she could get on with her life. The more she
thought about it, the better she liked it. As long as Charlie didn't
get hung up on her, it would be perfect. And even in her short
acquaintance with him,
it was fairly evident that commitment was not
his byword.
Mark looked from Charlie to Allie to Joe, evidently reading Allie's
mind. "So who is he sleeping with?"
"Me." Allie held up her hand like a polite child, her plan now in
place. "Joe gets him tomorrow."
"Very funny," Mark said.
"Not so funny for me," Joe said. "I have to wait twenty-four hours."
"I don't think that's funny," Mark said.
"Neither does Joe," Charlie said, and Allie laughed, delighted he was
part of them.
Lisa had been following the exchange, frowning as her head bobbed back
and forth. "I don't get it."
"It's just a joke, Lisa." Mark put his arm around her. "Not a very
funny one."
Charlie shook his head. "You have no sense of humor, Mark. That's why
your relationship with
Allie didn't work, remember?"
Mark decided to take offense, something, Allie reflected, that any sane
man would have taken much sooner. "I don't know what Allie is doing
with someone like you," Mark told Charlie. "You're not her type. Of
course, I don't know what she's doing with
him
, either." He jerked his
head at Joe.
Allie did not take insults to any of her friends well, but especially
not to Joe.
"Look..."
"I'm great in the kitchen," Joe said. "She loves my cooking."
"And I'm great in the bedroom," Charlie said. "She loves my body.
Between the two of us,
Allie has it
all."
Allie glared at them both. "Actually—"
Mark snorted. "Allie doesn't like sex."
Allie swung on Mark. "Well,
actually
—"
Charlie smiled at Mark and interrupted her. "No, she just didn't like
it with you."
"She didn't like your linguini, either," Joe pointed out. "She said it
was rubbery."
Charlie frowned at Joe. "That's funny. She said the same thing about
his—"
"Oh,
great
," Allie said.
"Don't be childish." Mark stood up, almost knocking over the waitress
who'd come with their salads. "Obviously, we've intruded, and you don't
want us. Come on, Lisa."
They watched him stalk across the room, Lisa trailing behind, throwing
them curious looks over
her shoulder.
"Feel free to discuss my sex life at any time in public," Allie told
the two of them when the waitress
had gone. "Don't mind me."
"We won't," Charlie said around a mouthful of salad.
"I almost feel sorry for Lisa," Joe said.
Allie picked up her fork and stabbed at her lettuce, shoving thoughts
of sleeping with Charlie out of
her mind to consider Lisa. She ate for
a couple of minutes, looking at the situation from all sides.
"I guess I
do feel sorry for her," she said finally. "This isn't her fault."
"She ended up with your boyfriend and your job," Joe reminded her.
"She has some responsibility
there."
"Nope." Allie's voice grew firmer as she grew surer. "This is Mark.
Mark
wanted me out and her in.
And he got it. I just don't know why."
Joe shook his head at her. "It's obvious. Mark's jealous of you."
"That makes no sense." Allie waved her fork at him to end he discussion.
"Yeah, it does." Joe pointed his own fork at her. "Everybody at the
station knows that Mark's
success is because of you. He likes to think
it's because of him."
Charlie stabbed another chunk of lettuce. "So, if he shoves Allie out
and puts Lisa the newbie in, everyone will know that his success is—"
"His success," Joe finished. "Except that's not going to happen."
"Why not?" Charlie shoved his empty salad bowl aside and eached for
another bread stick.
"You eat like you're starving," Allie told him, amazed at the speed
with which he'd destroyed his
salad. "Don't they feed you back
home?"
"You should talk." He pointed to her own half-empty bowl. "
I've
seen
locusts move through
vegetation slower." He turned back to Joe. "Why
not?"
Joe scooped up a forkful of his salad. "Because the only reason Mark is
a success is because Allie
plans out every second of his show. She even
has his ad-libs on cue cards. You have to see it to
believe it."
Charlie raised an eyebrow at Allie. "How do you manage that?"
Allie shrugged. "There are only a dozen or so expressions that are
really useful, anyway. I just pick
the card that worked best. And he
isn't that bad. In almost two years, he's never misread a cue card.
Could we talk about something else?"
"Oh, that's talent, reading cue cards," Charlie agreed. "You were with
him for two years?"
"Professionally." Allie squirmed a little in her chair. "The other
thing only lasted about six
months."
"Six terrible months," Joe added. "Thank God for Lisa, or I'd have had
to kill him just to set you free. And you're right, Al, I do feel
sorry for her. She's going to pay."
Charlie looked around the table for something else to eat. "Why? What
did she do now?"
"Nothing." Joe grinned at him over his salad bowl. "Do you remember the
flack Deborah Norville
got when she replaced Jane Pauley?"
"Yeah." Charlie fished a pepper strip out of Allie's bowl, narrowly
avoiding her fork.
"Well, that's going to be nothing compared to what happens when the
station finds out Allie got
screwed. Lisa is not going to have an easy
time of it."
Allie was afraid for a moment that Joe might have a point. She didn't
mind Lisa failing to keep Mark's ratings op, but she didn't want her to
fail because everyone turned on her. She stared at her plate, not
seeing the food. She didn't need this. She needed all her energy to
revive her career.
Which now depended on Charlie.
She stole another look at him over her glasses and began to really
think about Charlie and the new
show for the first time. Things weren't
nearly as bad as they'd seemed earlier. Charlie had potential.
After
all, he was intelligent. Verbal. Even occasionally funny. She could
make him a star. All she had
to do was study him, design a format that
fit him and plug him into it. He and his mouth could take it from
there, while she goosed the publicity along.
She could have him a household word by Christmas. Three months easy,
and she'd be back on top.
She waited until the waitress had brought their dinners, and then she
began her pitch. "You're really verbal," she told him, batting her
eyelashes at him. "I like that in a man. Especially in a man whose
show
I'm producing."
Charlie stopped, his fork in midair, and eyed her cautiously. "What's
that supposed to mean?"
Allie smiled at him, hearty and encouraging. "I'm going to make you a
star, Charlie."
"The hell you are." Charlie went back to his dinner.
Allie pulled back a little and exchanged glances with Joe, who
shrugged. Okay, so he'd have to be convinced. No problem. She returned
to Charlie and her career. "Look, I know your show was a
sort of cult
hit in Lawrenceville and you like to do things your way, but you're
starting all over here
in a bad time slot. And radio is not exactly a
secure career, as you well know. I can—"
Charlie pointed his fork at her. "No, you can't. Bill should have told
you. I'm temporary. I'm going
to be here five or six weeks, tops, probably not that long. I've got
places I have to be by
November.
And this guy whose show I'm covering, Waldo, right?" Allie
nodded. "Well, Waldo's coming back."
Allie frowned at him and even Joe blinked. "Waldo's not coming back,"
he told Charlie. "He's in San Diego with his sister. Resting
comfortably at last report."
Charlie shrugged. "Must be for a visit. Bill knows I'm just temporary."
"Now what's Bill up to?" Joe asked Allie, and she shrugged.
Charlie's eyes went from one to the other. "He's not coming back?"
"Waldo shot the console his last night on the air," Allie told him. "He
said it was talking to him and wouldn't shut up."
"Maybe he just needs a nice vacation," Charlie suggested.
"Maybe he needs to be away from stereo equipment," Joe said. "He's not
coming back."
"So that means," Allie began, ready to make her pitch.
"So that means you're going to be breaking in another guy in about six
weeks," Charlie told her.
"Do not bother making me a hit. I'm
temporary."
He returned to his dinner and began to quiz Joe on Tuttle, and Allie
sat back and regrouped. The
problem wasn't that he refused to help her
make him famous. She could do that without him. She'd
made Mark a
success without any appreciable input from him.
The problem was that he wasn't going to be around long enough for her
to rebuild her career.
Unless she hit the ground running a lot faster than she'd intended.
Allie gave it a minute's thought. All right, she could do that.
And in the meantime, the news made the penicillin project a lot more
possible. If he was only going
to be around a few weeks, she could have
a one-night fling with him without any consequences. She wasn't used to
having flings actually, but she was
thirty-six. Her flinging years weren't going to last forever. She had
every intention of getting married and having children some day, and
men flings
would be out of the question. This might be it.
She looked at the situation from all sides. There didn't seem to be any
serious obstacles, aside from Charlie himself.
"All right," she said and began to eat her dinner.
Charlie stopped eating and looked at Joe. "Why do I have a bad feeling
about her giving in so easily?"
"Because you're a student of human nature," Joe told him.
Allie ignored them both to put her plan into action as soon as they
were finished eating. "Let's take
Charlie on a tour of the city on our
way home. He should see Tuttle a little before he goes on the
air
tomorrow night. It'll give him something to talk about."
And I can find
out what he's interested
in and plan a program on it.
"The tour sounds great." Charlie picked up his check. "But you don't
need to put me up. I've got
a room at a motel. Thanks for the offer,
though."
Not good. She needed to get to know him fast if she was going to get
the show moving right away.
And then there was the Fling Plan. It was
going to be hard enough for her to seduce him in her own apartment. A
motel room would be impossible. Allie smiled at him. "I think you
should stay with us.
You told Mark you were."
Charlie shrugged. "Who cares?"
"Mark won't be mad if you're not staying with us." Allie batted her
eyes at him again. It wasn't one
of her better skills, but she was
desperate.
Charlie leaned close until they were almost nose to nose. "You know, I
haven't known you very long, Alice McGuffey, but I can tell you're up
to something."
"As I said, a student of human nature." Joe leaned back in his chair to
watch.
"Joe will make waffles for breakfast if we ask him nicely." Allie
grabbed Charlie's hand again so he couldn't escape. His hand was broad
and warm, and she was beginning to feel absolutely cheerful
about
seducing him. "We can talk about the station tonight. Where's your
suitcase? At the motel?"
"Just a duffel bag. It's in my car." Charlie frowned at her. "I still
think you're up to something."
Allie tried to look innocent and guileless while she cast around for a
selling point. "Joe puts pecans
in the waffles.'"
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