Daisy sighed. “Well, you’re her assistant, not her mentee,” she said. "You had a good idea, and she recognized it. Maybe she's feeling threatened, new blood and all that."
I shrugged even though I knew she could not see me. "I guess." All I felt at the moment was depression trying to pull me into a deep hole, and I knew if I went there, I might not want to crawl back out. And what Daisy had said only made it worse because she was right; Joanna was not a mentor, she was my boss. But I had survived Jason’s nonsense, so I could survive this.
“Look, I have to go. Whatever you decide, I'm right there with you, girlfriend," Daisy said. "But I have to get back to work. Peter is looking at me like he's going to fire me on the spot."
I laughed. Daisy swore her boss was going to fire her every other week.
"Talk to you later, my friend," I said before hanging up.
I had to figure out what to do about this, but I was too angry to really think.
***
When I got home, I was a wreck. I forgot to pick up something for dinner and Brook was in a bad mood.
“It’s your night, Paul,” she said, shaking her head.
“Look, I’ve had a really rotten day today…” I tried to explain, but Brook wanted none of it.
“Yeah, we all have bad days. I got stiffed for tips three times and an ugly bastard threw his salad at me. But you don’t see me needing my nose wiped. If I’d known you were going to be such a bitch, I would have picked up something.” She pulled open the refrigerator door so hard the bottles of salad dressing and orange juice in the door rattled. “I don’t want any of this crap.”
I pressed my lips together, controlling the retorts that threatened to erupt. “Well, I’m sorry, I forgot, OK? Let’s just have something delivered.” I just wanted to shout at her, throw something, or just leave. Well, not really, but she had not even asked me what had happened to me yet and she should have. What I needed to do was calm her down first and then she would listen to how my day went. “What do you want?”
She slammed the door, the muffled tinkling of the bottles hitting each other coming through. “I don’t care,” she sighed. “You decide. I’m fine with whatever.”
I called in an order for pepperoni pizza from her favorite pizzeria along with hot wings and a salad for me. At least if I got her some food, she’d be more manageable.
“I’m going to jump in the shower. Would you get the pizza if I’m not out by then?”
“Yeah,” she said in a bored tone from the couch. She looked like a teenager moping as she slouched with the remote in her hand and her arms crossed. I just shook my head and went to shower.
As I was getting dressed twenty minutes later, I heard a knock on the door and knew it was the delivery. Muffled voices came through the bedroom door and then the front door closed with a bang. I rolled my eyes.
“About time,” Brook said as I walked out, a towel wrapped around my head.
I said nothing. It would not matter what I said anyway. Sometimes it was the easiest ways to deal with her moods.
After dinner, Brook had calmed down and I was able to explain to her what happened at work.
“What a fucking bitch,” she said as she laid her feet in my lap. “I knew someone like her couldn’t be trusted.”
“So, I have to figure out what I’m going to do.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, sitting up and giving me an angry glare.
“Well, I can’t stay at a job where they steal my ideas!”
Brook frowned. “I warned you, didn’t I? I told you not to expect this job to be any better than your old one, but would you listen? No.”
“Hey, at least they didn’t try to steal my ideas at the Free News,” I said, trying to keep my voice even. I would win no arguments with Brook, I never did.
“Yeah, well, you better stay there until you find something just as good, that’s all I have to say.”
I just stared at her. Why was she being so mean?
Brook sighed. “I’m sorry, babe,” she said as she scooted over to sit next to me. She put her arm around me and pulled me into her. I broke down crying for the first time all day, everything finally hitting me at once. Brook’s hand petted my head as she whispered words of comfort.
Once I had no more tears, I sat up and wiped my eyes. “Thanks,” I said and I leaned in and kissed her.
“So, what will you do about this problem?” she asked. “Are you going to let her get away with stealing your idea?”
I thought about this for a few minutes. On one hand there was nothing I could do. She was my boss so could I really fight her? There was no way I would win a battle against her.
However, how about a covert operation instead of a battle? Joanna was out of town for at least another two weeks. She had not contacted the person about the Hanover Project, so maybe I could beat her to the punch. The worst she could do was fire me, but I would not want to work for her after all this anyway.
The wheels in my brain began to spin as a plan began to form.
I would research and write the article myself.
Chapter Thirteen
The next day the office was abuzz, as it usually was. I could hear Blake Portley yelling at one of the journalists, and I cringed when I heard him shout, "You're fired!"
All heads turned as a man I recognized as George Palmer walked out of Blake's office, or rather stomped, and slammed the door behind him. He stopped and glared at the rest of the staff.
"What the hell are you all staring at?" he shouted before shuffling to his desk and running his arm across the top, everything flying to the floor in one fell swoop.
Jennifer Jones slid her chair over to mine. "He's always been an ass," she said, her hand next to her mouth so no one could see her talking; although one glance over and he would know immediately she was talking about him. The thought made me chuckle. "I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner.”
I grinned. Jennifer had become a great support to me since I started the job, showing me where to find whatever I needed and helping me with the various programs I had to use on the computer. Basically, she had been my trainer for the job without the job title.
“What do you think happened?” I asked, caught up in the office rumor wheel.
“Probably tried to write another article adding too much of his own bias to it. We’ve lost people on both sides of the political spectrum because of it.”
Amused, I asked, “Which side is he on?”
“Definitely liberal,” she said. “I agree with some of the stuff he says, but some of it is pretty out there. Shane Walsh was fired last year and he was super conservative, so you know Blake’s not taking sides in this race.”
Blake walked out of his office and headed to the break room. I turned back to my work, but my heart was not in it. I honestly doubted I could face Joanna when the woman returned in a couple of weeks. Not without screaming at her.
I leaned my chin in my hand and sighed heavily.
"You're overqualified for this job," Jennifer said after sliding her chair back over next to mine again. "How many more classes do you have before you're done with your degree?"
"I have two more after this one." I shook my head. "I just wish I could take more than one class at a time."
"Well, you know that Tammy Schultz doesn't even have a degree."
"What?" My jaw dropped. "What does she have?"
Jennifer shrugged. "She has a great nose for news," she said, tapping her finger on the side of her nose. "Well, it also helps that her brother works in the Capitol Building..." Her grin broadened and she giggled.
So, Tammy, who was a copy editor, had no degree. I stared across the room at nothing in particular, trying to get the wheels in my brain to move. Then it hit me: If Tammy could do it, so could I!
I grabbed the file with the notes that I had taken from Joanna's home office and got up so quickly that Jennifer jumped back.
"Hey, are you all right?" Jennifer asked.
"Yeah,
sorry," I said distractedly. "I completely forgot about something I need to have done very soon for Joanna. I'll talk to you later."
Jennifer gave me a sympathetic look. "See ya." Then she returned to her desk and was soon clicking away on her keyboard.
I made my way to Joanna's office and shut the door to keep out nosy people. It took several moments for Joanna's computer to boot up, and I sat drumming her fingers on the desk, barely able to contain my nerves. What I planned was tricky, and if I got caught, it was a certainty I would be joining George Palmer at the unemployment office. But reporting on the Hanover Project had been my idea and I was not going to allow Joanna to take credit for it.
The desktop screen finally came up and I typed in Joanna's password. Silly woman. Seamus3595, her cat's name and her apartment number. How difficult would that be to figure out?
I logged out of her email and logged into mine. Pulling out her notes from the file, I found the name of the person she was going to contact at the Capitol Building. Then I composed my email.
Dear Alexandra Satterly,
My name is Paulette Stevens and I work for the Common Sense Libertarian, a monthly political magazine here in Denver. I was given your name by a colleague as the person to contact concerning Bill 9432-The Hanover Project—that is currently in committee and in which I have considerable interest.
Would you be willing to meet with me? I would like to learn more about this bill and the impact it will have on the low-income families that will be displaced if it were to move past the committee level. I would be happy to meet initially off the record for preliminary discussions.
I hope to hear from you soon,
Paulette Stevens
Common Sense Libertarian Magazine
I read the email three times before finally hitting 'send' and sat back in the chair, taking a deep breath. My heart was pounding like crazy and my nerves felt frayed, but I had taken the first step toward my first real story.
Hopefully, everything would go as planned.
***
I only had to wait fifteen minutes before a reply was in my inbox. I clicked on the email, my nerves in tatters, and read the response.
Dear Paulette,
Thank you for contacting me. I have little information concerning the bill you mentioned; however, I would be happy to see what I can find out and then meet with you off the record. If it does what I think it will do, then it is a topic that has definitely spiked my interest, and to know that someone who is part of the media has taken an interest in it is nice.
Give me a couple of days and I'll see what I can find out.
Alexandra
Excitement coursed through my veins. I hoped this woman would get back to me sooner rather than later; I needed as much information as I could to get the article written before Joanna came back and found out what I was up to. This woman seemed interested in the outcome. Maybe I could get her to speak to me on the record after our initial meeting.
The next day there was a second email from Alexandra asking if I would like to meet for coffee at Penny's at nine a.m. the following day. What an interesting place to meet, I thought, thinking about the quick runs to grab coffee when I was at the Free News. I immediately replied that I would be happy to. How nice it was to be meeting in a familiar place. And I could take the bus with Daisy, which would make her, and me if I were to admit it, extremely happy.
Chapter Fourteen
Daisy was talking my ear off as we rambled through the Denver streets toward my old work building. I was rethinking how great it was to be riding with Daisy; her incessant talking made it hard for me to concentrate on what I was going to say at my meeting, but I could not take away Daisy's happiness of having me to herself on the bus even for one trip.
"And then Rosie was like, 'what do you mean he saw me?' I thought I'd die laughing at that."
I offered her a weak smile.
"Come on, Paulette," Daisy said, slapping my arm lightly. "We don't get to go to work together anymore. Aren't you happy we have the chance?"
I felt bad. Daisy was right. "I'm sorry, it's just that I'm so nervous about this interview, and although I've practiced and prepared, I still feel like I'm walking into a cave of sleeping bears."
Daisy gave me a sympathetic look. "Oh, Paulette, I'm so sorry. I didn't even think that this is your first 'real' assignment." Excitement seemed to fill her. "So, ask me the questions you're going to ask this person and I'll just play the part. What do you think?"
That was actually a good idea. "Sure," I said with a smile.
For the next twenty minutes, I interviewed Daisy, who answered with some of the silliest answers she could think of, both of us in tears by the time we reached our stop.
Once we were off the bus, I hugged her. "Thanks, hon, that's exactly what I needed."
"See, riding with me was not a complete waste of time after all," she said with a smile.
I gasped. "You, my friend, are never a waste of time. Any time with you is worth the time."
"Aw," Daisy said as he hugged me again. "Good luck, girlfriend."
"Thanks." I sighed heavily. "Want to meet for lunch? I'll tell you all about it then."
"Yes," Daisy said eagerly. "Just shoot me a text."
We hugged again and then headed in separate directions.
***
It had only been a little over a month since I had been to Penny's but it was like coming home after a long absence. I glanced around the open table area and spotted the woman I was meeting. We had agreed to both wear red stocking caps and red scarves to be able to identify each other.
But I would have known this woman anywhere.
"Alexandra," I said with a smile for the woman I had met very briefly several weeks earlier at the same coffee shop. "I should have known."
Alexandra laughed. "And Paulette. How are you? Funny that neither of us even thought about who the other was when we decided to meet at Penny's. It’s not like we have common names."
"I know, right?" I said. "Let me go grab a coffee and we can get started. I promise not to drop anything in your lap this time."
I made my way to the counter, ordered my coffee, and then returned to the table.
“I looked for you after the muffin incident, but I didn’t see you,” Alexandra said as I joined her.
I laughed, and I knew I had to be bright red. “Oh, man, I’m sorry about that again. What a clutz.”
“Well, it happens to the best of us,” she said. “I had the lovely moment of spilling a cup of coffee in the lap of Senator Braden my first year at the Capitol Building, so I think I have one up on you in the clutz department.”
“Oh, no!” I gasped, covering my mouth in surprise while unsuccessfully hiding a giggle. “You poor thing!”
She shook her head. “At least it wasn’t Tim Draper. He probably would have had me fired.”
We both laughed again. Then silence fell upon us, that feeling of awkwardness that is common between two strangers. I still thought she was beautiful and could not keep myself from smiling.
"So, I looked into that bill you told me about, and you were right," Alexandra said, finally breaking the silence. "I can't believe they are planning to tear down the Hanover Building." She shook her head in frustration.
"I know what you mean," I said. "What will they do with all those families?"
Alexandra shrugged. "Apparently there's nothing in the bill about that." She laughed derisively. "Of course there isn't. So many of these people on these committees have never been poor or homeless, so they have no idea what it's like."
I considered this woman's reaction to the bill. Did she have some sort of history with the place? I did not want to ask, feeling it might be a bit too personal, so instead I asked, "What would you recommend we, the public, do to keep this bill from surviving committee?"
"People should definitely contact their representatives, but they can also email, call, write, whatever, the people on that committee directly. It's difficult for repre
sentatives who are not on a committee to have a voice for a bill that is being reviewed, although…we’re still off the record, right?”
I nodded.
“Well, there’s a lot of back scratching, as I’m sure you already know considering where you work and what your magazine reports. However, direct contact with those who do have control would be the best bet." She looked out the window, her mind seeming to be somewhere else. "What we need to do is find out the history behind this, find out who started it and why."
"How do we go about that?"
Alexander turned and gazed at me, her brown eyes looking at me as if trying to reach my soul. "So, is your interest in just getting the story, or do you really want to help?"
My eyes went wide. "I'm definitely interested in the topic. I can't lie and say that getting a story out of it won’t be an added benefit for me. This will be my first article when I finish it. But to be perfectly honest, I lived in that building when I was younger, so I know how important it is to the community.” Very few people outside of Brook and Daisy knew about my background, so sharing this information was not easy.
She seemed to consider that for a few moments before saying, "In that case, I think we have a deal." She reached out her hand and I grabbed and shook it. It was soft and warm and I did not want to let it go. But then she let go, and so did I, reluctantly. "Let's meet again in a couple of days,” she said, “when I have more information."
I very much looked forward to working with this woman. Something about her brought forth feelings I had not felt since Brook and I first met.
Brook. Guilt washed over me as I thought about the feelings that were running away with me. I forced the wicked thoughts that were bombarding my brain back into a tiny box in the back of my mind. It was difficult to do, but I was able to lock them away.
Romancing the News: A Lesbian Office Romance Page 7