Diamonds and Dreams

DIAMONDS AND DREAMS

By

Brenda Bone

Copyright
©
2012, Brenda Bone

All Rights
Reserved.

First
Printing, Kindle, 2012.

CHAPTER ONE

Why is that man staring at me as if
he’s sizing up an enemy?

Lindsay
Blair smoothed a long strand of pearl blonde hair away from her oval face.
 
Sitting at her desk in the corner of the
first floor at Columbus, Ohio’s WBKB radio station, she peeled the plastic wrap
from a ham sandwich that she drew out of a brown lunch bag.
 
Then she raised the food to take a bite.
 
After finishing half of the sandwich and
swallowing a sip of ice-cold Coca-Cola, she sensed that the stranger still
observed her from where he sat on a hard-back chair across the room.
 
A bit uncomfortable, she bravely met his
brilliant blue gaze directly and felt as if his eyes challenged her, although
she couldn’t imagine why.
 
Coffee-colored
hair framed his sun-tanned face that looked like it had been chiseled by a
master sculptor.
 
He stood an inch or two
over six feet, and attired in a perfectly tailored gray suit that accented his
slim physique, he gave the impression of a career-minded executive.

Lindsay’s
blue-gray eyes flashed with anger as he continued to stare boldly, mockingly,
as if he deliberately tried to make her feel uneasy.
 
But why?

Danielle
Fleming, a meteorologist, appeared suddenly and sat down in the chair across
from Lindsay.
 
“He’s good-looking, isn’t
he, Lin?”

“Huh?”
 
She quickly turned her attention from the man
and hoped that Danielle hadn’t noticed the way she stared back at him.
 
Seeing the twinkle of mirth leap in her
friend’s sea-green eyes, Lindsay suspected that she did.

“I saw you
and Brant Diamond, the new radio host, looking moon-eyed at each other a few
minutes ago.”

Lindsay
laughed at the vivacious redhead’s inaccurate observation.
 
“You’ve got it all wrong.
 
I caught him gaping at me, and I merely
returned the rude stare so he’d know how it felt.”

“Brant is
usually very mannerly.
 
He’s an
interesting guy.”

“How do you
know so much about the man already when this is only his first day here at the
station?”

“We worked
together for a brief period at a jazz-oriented radio station in New Orleans,”
recalled Danielle.
 
“Brant decided to
return to Natchez, his hometown, a few weeks prior to when I moved to Columbus
and became the chief meteorologist here.
 
Later I heard he landed a job at a Los Angeles station.”

If he worked
on the West Coast, why would he want to leave there and come here?
 
Columbus isn’t one of the most desirable
cities for a radio host that was accustomed to being at the top of his career
field.
 
He must be taking a substantial
pay cut by accepting a job at WBKB.”

“I heard
rumors that Brant got fired from WKTZ in Los Angeles.
 
He gave away more contest prizes than he was
permitted to do and he granted too many extreme requests from listeners.
 
One time he played Christmas carols on the
Fourth of July, or when he played a hit love song in fast speed, it sounded
ridiculous, but he always gave the listeners what they wanted.
 
You know how quickly word gets around in our
business.
 
After those escapades,
probably none of the larger stations want to take a chance on Brant, who’s too
unpredictable for his own good.
 
He
refuses to
kow
-tow to censorship demands from the
media or his bosses.”

“Then why
did
Desi
hire him?”

Danielle
made a funny face.
 
“Are you
kidding?
 
Desi
will do almost anything to raise this station’s ratings, even if it means
resorting to scandal.
 
Desi
and Brant are kindred spirits, each used to doing
their own thing, calling their own shots in life and each refuses to be just
another brick on the wall when they prefer being creative and unique.”

“Great,”
Lindsay muttered sarcastically.
 
“Brant
is looking this way again.
 
Don’t let him
guess we’re talking about him.”

“Too late.
 
He’s coming over.”
 
Danielle rose to leave.
 
“I said ‘hello’ to Brant earlier.
 
Because
Desi
, my
least favorite boss since he’s so arrogant, is with him now, I’ll leave.
 
See you later.”

Lindsay
absently tapped a pencil against the edge of her desk.
 
She sensed tension crackling through the air
as the men approached her.

“I’d like to
see you in my office, Lindsay,”
Desi
Greenwood, the
station manager, requested.
 
His dark,
thinning hair and hazel eyes that gleamed behind black-framed glasses often
deceived people into believing that he was overly conservative, but he was the
one that decided to change the country and western format of WBKB to a station
that played light rock music.
 
“I’d like
to speak privately with you and also introduce you to Brant Diamond.”

Wondering
what kind of business
Desi
wanted to discuss and why
he seemed determined for her to become acquainted with Brant, Lindsay followed
him across the plant-filled room.
 
Was it
her imagination or did she really feel Brant’s gaze burning through her
back?
 
Her cheeks flushed pink like the
loose-fitting dress she wore on her slender five foot five frame.
 
Brant trailed so closely behind her that she
caught a whiff of his bracing men’s cologne just before he held open the door
to the manager’s office for her.
 
Her
knees suddenly weak, she was glad to sit down in one of the two brown leather
chairs in front of
Desi’s
cluttered desk.

“This is
Lindsay Blair, one of our most popular deejays,”
Desi
told Brant.

“Pleased to
meet you, honey.”
 
Brant leaned back in
the chair beside her.

His words
made her muscles tense.
 
For some odd
reason, she automatically became suspicious of men that addressed women they
didn’t know as “honey” or other familiar endearments.

Before she
could acknowledge the introduction,
Desi
informed
her, “I’ve decided that you and Brant will form our new weekend team.
 
This concept works well for our two major
competitors in Columbus.
 
I think we may
attract a large portion of listeners from both stations.”

“But I don’t
want to work with him!”
 
She went on to
explain to Brant, “It’s not that I doubt your qualifications for the job.
 
I’m sure you’re very good at what you do or
Desi
wouldn’t have hired you.”

A slight
grin on his face, Brant remained silent, but
Desi
demanded brusquely, “What is it that you object to, Lindsay?”

She jutted
her chin proudly.
 
“I worked hard to
handle this job by myself.
 
Remember how
low our ratings were in my time slot before I started?
 
Besides, I do my best work when I’m alone,
not working as a team.”

Desi
leaned
forward and looked sternly at them.
 
“Well, you’d both better adjust well to one another and fast!
 
Otherwise, only one of you might be left
standing.”

His words
stung as much as if he had slapped her.
 
Glancing at Brant, she saw the slight smirk that curled the edges of his
lips.
 
Apparently, he was amused by what
presented an awkward situation for her.

“Don’t
worry, Lindsay,” Brant tried to reassure her.
 
“We’ll get along great and I’ll do whatever I can to help you.”

Him
help
me?
 
She thought she detected Brant’s strategy.
 
If he presented himself as being congenial
and she appeared disagreeable, wouldn’t
Desi
find him
easier to work with if a contest between them became necessary?

Determined
to keep her employment at WBKB where she’d been well satisfied with her
position, Lindsay made a mental note to beat Brant at his own game.
 
She would have to keep on guard that Brant
didn’t goad her into losing her temper so she’d behave in an unprofessional manner.

Desi
gave
them each some papers.
 
“Here are copies
of new changes I made in the format of the weekend shows.
 
If you have questions or need further
instructions, just ask.
 
That will be all
for now.”

Her jaw
clenched tightly, Lindsay rose to leave the private office, giving Brant the
chance to curry favor with
Desi
.
 
Hurrying toward the door, she managed to
avoid him, but realized she behaved foolishly
for,
after all, she had no choice but to learn to work with the frustrating
man.
 
It would be impossible then to keep
much distance between them, but for now she needed to be alone and adapt to the
idea of sharing her beloved job with another radio host.

Time sped by
and at the end of the day Lindsay stepped outside into the sweltering heat that
was unusually warm for June 1.
 
Seeing
Brant standing along the cracked sidewalk, she immediately wished she’d
lingered inside awhile so she wouldn’t be forced to speak to him now.

Maybe he won’t say anything,
she hoped, still feeling uneasy in
his presence.

“If it’s any
consolation to you, I don’t want to work with a partner either,” he confided as
if he sensed her antagonism, “but I don’t make the rules around here.”

Unfortunately,
neither did she or Brant would have been on his way to work anywhere but at
WBKB.
 
“I guess there’s nothing for
either of us to do except make the best of our situation.”

“Right.
 
Looking on the bright side of the matter, if
I had to get stuck with a partner, at least it’s a pretty one.”
 
His eyes traveled down to her long legs and
rested on her shapely ankles above the bone high heels she wore on her small
feet.

To Lindsay,
it was bad enough that she’d be forced to share her job with him.
 
What annoyed her the most, though, was that
he appeared to be interested in her more as a woman than as a competent
co-worker.
 
She considered telling him in
a straightforward manner that their relationship would be strictly
business
, so in the event that he had any ideas concerning
her, she could squelch his interest right from the start.
 
Then she decided that the best course of
action would be to simply ignore any overtures on his part.

“We’ll both
need to do our best to give the listeners an interesting program,” she
discreetly changed the subject.

“Yes, I
agree.
 
See you around.”

A metallic
blue boy’s bicycle with a metal basket attached to the shiny handlebars was
parked on the sidewalk a few feet away from her.
 
On his way to the parking lot, Brant paused
near the bike, and reaching into his pocket, dropped a handful of coins that
clinked as they fell into the container.
 
He sauntered toward his car, a sleek red Jaguar XF-R, unlocked the door
and slid into the matching red bucket seat before he drove away.

From where
she stood in front of a large glass door on the tall brick building, Lindsay
thought his behavior was peculiar.
 
“Did
you see what Brant Diamond did?” she asked Danielle, who’d stepped outside.

“No.
 
What?”

Lindsay
related the story to her, and then added, “That guy is full of surprises.”

“Hmm.
 
It sounds a little like what he did one time
when we worked at the same station in the past.
 
It was getting close to Christmas while a group of us had lunch in a
fast food restaurant.
 
A little girl who
sold holiday cards in an effort to earn money to buy gifts approached us.
 
Most of us made a small token purchase, but
Brant declined to buy anything from her.”