WLUV Box Set: Ignited, Consumed, Burned (30 page)

“I didn’t
tell you much, I admit. I’ve spent the last week ironing out details.”

“He was a
surprise, is all. I don’t know a thing about cane sugar ethanol…” Fawn didn’t
really know what she hoped to accomplish with this meeting.

“Better
learn, then.” Macy said.

“You see
the mayor and I...” Fawn didn’t know if she could speak the words. No one knew
about it other than Bernie, and the police officers Brick had regaled those
many years ago.

“I
wouldn’t be surprised if Mayor of Grand City wasn’t his last political stop.”
Macy looked up, “He couldn’t take his eyes off you, by the way—though I imagine
you get that a lot. I just had no idea he had such a thing for you. Is he a
problem?”

“No. I was
just surprised. That’s all.” Fawn decided the past was in the past and she
wasn’t about to let Brick Cooper stop her from taking this trip.

“Okay, so
let’s talk photographers.”

“Any
chance I can get Mac?” Ray MacMillan was the undisputed best photographer in
the city, likely the country. And he was, through Macy’s connections, and
Shelby Virtue’s undeniable appeal, working at WLUV.

“Uh, nope.
Mac and the Mayor do not get along, so it’s going to be a new guy I hired,
Brent Chudowski. He’s good, you’ll like him. He starts tomorrow. I actually
enticed him to come to WLUV with this gig. I’m sorry I can’t swing a field
producer for you. We’re straining the budget as it is.” Macy explained.

“Sure, I
understand.”

“But on
the upside I got a little side deal with the mall. You can go buy $500 bucks
worth of safari clothes and they get a free spot in the special.”

“Wow, a
clothing allowance? Things really are changing here at our little
station—that’s practically network-level posh!” Fawn joked.

“Let me
know if you want me to shop with you. I want you to have a specific look on
this.”

“Don’t you
trust my fashion sense?” Fawn thought it actually might be fun to hang out with
Macy outside work.

“You
always look great. But I want the viewers to see you in a different light. You
know, not afraid to get in there and get a little messy.”

“Yes boss.
We’ll shop this weekend?”

“Perfect.”

Fawn was
about to leave when Gordon Chancelor burst into the office.

“We need
to talk. I am very angry.” About a decade ago Gordon was a second-tier anchor
in a major market. He’d slowly drifted down to WLUV but still couldn’t be more
pompous about his credentials.

 He stayed
at WLUV looking down at every one of his co-workers, too good for the station
but too washed up to move on. Fawn had to admit though that when they were bad,
even just a year ago, Gordon was one of the few who could do a live shot. Also,
whether she liked him or not, viewers trusted his facts. Standing in the
doorway, he was madder than she’d seen him— and he was always mad.

Fawn
didn’t want to stick around to find out about what. That was what Macy got paid
for.

“If you’ll
excuse me,” Fawn tried to exit.

“You’re
not excused.” Gordon pointed to her and shot a glare at Macy. “If you think
that this woman has the chops to file an economic development story or
government story you’re sorely mistaken.”

So that’s
what this was. Gordon wanted the Belize assignment.

“Excuse
me?” Fawn was about to tear into Gordon.
How dare he
?

Macy piped
up immediately. “Gordon, I assume you’re talking about the upcoming trip to
Belize with the mayor and his economic team.”

“You
assume correctly. The government stories are my beat. Giving her this plumb is ridiculous.
Fawn never reports, and I doubt she understands the economic impact of bringing
in a refinery.
And
she didn’t file a single story about the mayoral
race.” A bit of spit escaped Gordon’s mouth as he got more worked up.

Fawn
hadn’t been in news for twenty years to be pushed around. Fuck this guy. She
had every right to take the assignment she wanted, and she knew the research.
There was one face viewers recognized at WLUV, and it was hers. That was worth
something. “Gordon, with all due respect shove it up your—”

“Fawn!”
Macy put up a hand, and Fawn swallowed the expletive she was about to hurl at
Gordon.  The news director continued, calmly but in no uncertain terms,
“Gordon, the decision has already been made. If you would like to sit down and
discuss your current career path and assignments, let’s set a time to do that.
We can get out of the building, get some lunch.”

Macy had
stopped Fawn from telling Gordon off, even though he desperately needed telling
off. But by the look in Macy’s eye Fawn could see her news director had this
handled. If Fawn had learned anything from surviving a career in the snake pit
that was a newsroom – and she’d learned a lot –  there were two questions you
had to ask yourself before going guns-a-blazing into a fight: Do you want to be
right, or do you want to get your way?

In this case
being right meant fighting with Gordon and taking him down a peg. Getting her
way meant maintaining the healthy relationship she had with her new boss and
keeping this marquee assignment she’d been handed; it meant walking out of the
room without another word to Gordon. She’d leave that to Macy.

Gordon
continued to berate her talents as she walked away, and she heard Macy shooting
him down. She closed the office door so the entire newsroom didn’t have to hear
his bullshit.

One good
thing about Gordon’s tantrum was that it made Fawn realize she wanted this
challenge more than she thought she did. Brick Cooper or not, she was going to
enjoy this career opportunity.

Brick

The
members of the Belize expedition all trickled into the airport. There was the
zoo staff, led by Terry Brandman, and Brick’s staff, which included only the
mayor himself and his Economic Development Chief, Doug Forrester. Brick was not
going to risk taking a big entourage. He couldn’t afford the budget or the
attention and besides, if he was going to get Fawn alone he couldn’t have
Kristie Chalmers or any other hangers-on butting in. Doug cared about the
economic development part of the trip and that was it. He was a straight arrow,
and not interested in living it up on the trip, which mean he’d focus on
helping Brick get the job done. Period.

Brick kept
his eye out for Fawn and her photographer. He half feared she’d back out at the
last minute. It wasn’t going to be easy, thawing Fawn out, but he’d put everything
he could think of in place to try, including the flight seating arrangements.

They were
in first class for the seven-hour flight. He had his ticket right next to hers,
her photographer in front of them, then his staff and the zoo’s filled in the
rest of the blanks.

Brick
looked up from his watch to see Fawn walking toward them. She was so beautiful
it never failed to tighten his chest. She wore jeans and a black T-shirt. He’d
never seen her in jeans. They accented just how long her legs were... Good god,
how did she still manage to look like Grace Kelly in jeans and a T-shirt? She
had a long graceful stride and her chin-length hair seemed to accent every move
of her head. It swayed and flipped and then settled back to exactly where it
was supposed to; even her hair was under complete Fawn control.

He decided
his best chance of her not squirming out of the seating arrangement was to make
sure he was the last of their party on board. When he got to his row, the last
in their section of the cabin, she was struggling to put a bag in the overhead,
stretching with her arms above her head. He would have liked to admire the view
for a while but chivalry won out.

“May I?”
And he reached over her head to try to give the bag a push.

“I got it.
Thanks.” She put both hands into it and the bag slid into place.

Brick put
his bag above them as well. She’d taken her seat and was adjusting her things
when he sat beside her.

“Looks
like you’re stuck with me.” Brick said.

“Really?
Great.” Fawn’s icy demeanor toward him meant that she did have at least some
feelings for him, even if the feeling was hate. He could work with that.
Always
good to focus on the bright side.

“I promise
not to talk about city ordinances or pothole repair schedules.” He was going to
keep trying.

“I’d
appreciate it if you didn’t talk at all. I’ve got a lot of reading to do.” She
waived a book about jaguars at him.

“Ouch.”

As the
plane took off, he couldn’t help see her breathing become deliberate.

“Not a fan
of flying?”

“I don’t
mind flying. It’s the takeoff and landing part I’m not a fan of.” As the
plane’s wheels tucked into their wells with a clunk, Fawn reached out in spite
of herself and grabbed his forearm.

Brick put
a hand over hers.

“Just the
wheels, baby,” He whispered into her ear in a voice he hoped might remind her
of a few things.

“Yeah.”
She seemed to snap out of it as the plane smoothed out, and snatched her hand
back away from his arm, “I’m not your baby.”

“We’ve got
seven hours until we land. That could change.” Brick kept his voice low.         Fawn
leaned in and whispered between gritted teeth, matching his low tone, “Mr.
Mayor— Brick. You know and I know both what happened between us was a long time
ago. I would appreciate it if you don’t ruin my career a second time, okay?”

“Ruin your
career? What?” Brick had no idea what she was talking about.

He thought
back to the day after they’d been together. He remembered his promotion
happened that day but couldn’t remember what the hell she was talking about. 
But if she was going to be aggressive so would he.

“I’m going
to win you over. Winning is my thing.” Brick decided to push her just a bit. It
had worked before.

“Well, I’m
not a thing. I’d like to read now, thank you.”

“Sure.”
Brick slid as far as he could to his side of the seat and she moved as far
toward the window as the space would allow. Though they sat within inches of
each other, there was a wall between them.

The
obstacle he faced with Fawn was a helluva lot bigger than he realized. He’d
thought she’d moved on from him after one night, no harm no foul, but instead
she blamed him for ruining her career.
How was that even possible?
From
where he sat it looked like her career was going pretty well. She was the main
anchor at an up-and-coming station, her bosses clearly loved her, and Kristie
wasn’t lying about the research. Fawn had earned the respect of Grand City.

So how did
she figure that her career was ruined? Better yet, how was he responsible? He’d
hoped to rekindle things with Fawn but, to his surprise, it looked like he’d
have some major repair work, first.

They sat
in silence, side by side. Despite her clear dislike for him he knew the
physical reaction was still there. When they’d clasped hands at WLUV, he saw
her eyes and felt that connection. He could smell her lilac, she was so close,
but the void between them outweighed the physical proximity. He didn’t risk a
glance over to her, where she read her book, and he didn’t want to cause a
scene by pressing her on her career comment. So he opened his laptop and got to
work.

The plane
moved through the night sky toward Belize. Brick stared at his monitor and
tried to concentrate on the notes about the financial package they were hoping
would lure the cane sugar processing facility to Grand City. But his mind kept
traveling to the beautiful woman next to him. 

Why hadn’t
he tried harder back then? Since then? He didn’t know what he’d done to get her
fired, if that was the case, but he did know how he’d messed up since. He’d let
all this time go by without her. Fawn was unique, different than any woman he’d
been with before their amazing night or since.

Brick
would have to work hard this time to get her to trust him. The missing piece in
his life was her, he’d realized, even more now after being in the same room
with her at the meeting and now on the plane. Everyone wanted him to have a
wife but he didn’t want anyone but her. That’s why he’d been so resistant to
every other woman, matchmaking aunts, his dad. None of them offered him Fawn.
He’d been in his twenties when he met her and although he knew he’d lost
something good, he figured there would be another chance, something better, or
at least a replacement. Now in his forties Brick could see the way he felt
about Fawn could not be replicated by anyone else.

The cabin
was dark now and most people were sleeping. He slowly closed the laptop and
allowed his eyes to roam over to steal a look at Fawn. She was asleep,
gorgeously asleep, her chest rising and falling in a slow rhythm.

Her
defenses were down and Brick could take her in for a moment without making her
angry. Fawn’s face was clean of the makeup she’d worn the other day at the
station. She was more beautiful without it, more beautiful now at 40 than she’d
been in her twenties— and she was a knock-out then. Her heavy eyelashes created
a shadow on her high cheek bones. Her nose was slightly turned up. Brick wanted
to reach out and run his fingers along her jaw, to touch her soft lips. If he
kept looking at her he worried he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from
touching her. He faced forward and reclined his seat. He would sleep.

At some
point, his dreams of Fawn were interrupted when they turned real. He stirred
and woke up to find her still asleep next to him, but she’d turned to him. In
her unguarded slumber she’d moved to his side, slid a hand under his arm, and
rested her forehead on his shoulder. He stayed awake and perfectly still for
the rest of the flight. He wanted her there, nuzzled into him, even if she
didn’t know it, as long as possible.