by Nikki Logan
‘Nothing to say now, Ms Lange? That’s certainly a change from our interview.’
Ava spun around to face her nemesis. ‘Is that what this is about? You didn’t like the way I spoke to you?’
The journalist laughed. ‘Oh, please, don’t flatter yourself.’
‘Then what? What exactly do you have against me, particularly? You don’t even know me.’
Dan’s voice came to her. We give them nothing. But she couldn’t do it; there was too much fight in her. She was a pressure cooker ready to blow.
‘I know your type.’ Leeds glared at her coldly. ‘I had to work damn hard to get where I am, and I had to scrabble my way over the corpses of women like you who slept their way into cushy positions and then couldn’t pull their weight. It fell to the rest of us to pick up the slack. Meanwhile we got overlooked time and again for advancement because we were too busy covering someone else’s ass.’
Ava heard the desperation behind Leeds’ words, but she was incapable of compassion. That was a first. She gathered all the hurts, fears and disappointments since she’d climbed, innocent and excited, into AusOne’s limousine and pushed them out at an unsuspecting Dione Leeds. A woman who had probably figured her for an easy target.
‘And is this the kind of story you hope will bring you advancement? A sleazy story about the private lives of people who work in television? This is what passes for ace reporting at The Standard?’
Leeds greyed at the gills and was finally speechless. Strength surged through Ava, uncontrolled and wild, but she was determined that Leeds was about to reap exactly what she’d sown.
‘You could have written a great business story about Australia’s youngest executive producer in waiting. Or done a serious piece on the real issues facing communities who are living their lives in natureless urban environments. Instead you went for a cheap shot, thinking you were onto some sordid scoop. And you signed your name to it like it was something to be proud of!’
She careened on like an out-of-control train. ‘After tonight everyone will remember you for a trashy piece you did on some lifestyle presenters. They’ll forget all the meaningful articles you’ve ever written in that long, hard climb to the top. And, worse, your paper’s hardly going to reward you when AusOne sues you for defamation—because, although you got some basic facts right, you’ve put them together wrong. Bill Kurtz might be a powerful man, and he might have promised you the earth, but Daniel Arnot is the future of that network and he has silent support higher up the food-chain than Kurtz or he wouldn’t have come this far. What you’ve printed is fundamentally lies, Ms Leeds. And we’ll prove it.’
Ava’s voice was clear and unwavering, and that, more than anything, was Leeds’ undoing. The woman paled even further, and then pulled herself up to her full tiny height, turned on her heel and marched out without saying another word. She pushed past Carrie, who stood, agog, in the doorway.
‘You were fantastic, Ava!’ she squeaked.
Ava felt the rush of a crisis passed, and sank into one of the comfortable armchairs in the lounge, trembling. She felt as if that was all she’d done all night.
‘Are you okay?’ Carrie slipped a warm hand over her cold one.
‘I will be,’ Ava said with certainty. ‘If I survive this night, I can survive anything.’
The two of them sat in companionable silence, staring unseeing at the television until Brant and then Ava’s face appeared briefly on screen, along with the presenters of three other popular lifestyle programmes.
Carrie gasped. ‘It’s our category.’ She deactivated the mute button on the remote just as the announcer spoke.
‘And the winner of the Best New Lifestyle Programme is…’
‘…Urban Nature!’
Before his boss could do more than button his blazer Dan was on his feet, striding toward the stage. He didn’t need to look behind him to know Kurtz would be livid. There was an unspoken rule at AusOne. The staff did all the work. The executives took all the glory.
Dan took the steps to the stage two at a time, and moved straight into an air-kiss with the gorgeous starlet who had presented the category. He accepted the award statue, and then waited for the courteous applause to settle.
‘Thank you, on behalf of AusOne and the hardworking cast and crew of Urban Nature.’ Someone yelled woo-hoo way up at the back. ‘It’s my absolute pleasure to accept this award for the network that gave me my start in this business.’
More polite applause, then the audience fell to silence. Dan looked at the shiny gold statue in his hands, and then squinted out into the lights that obscured most of the avid faces. It wasn’t hard to forget they were there, such was the hush in the room. He visualised his father sitting in the front row, a knowing smirk on his face, having waited for empirical evidence that his son really was a loser.
Not any more, Dad.
‘There’s a reason I chose to work in lifestyle television instead of drama. I much prefer reality to the kind of constructed fiction others thrive on.’ His heart pounded so hard it hurt. ‘However, recent events have made my very successful, very enjoyable, very credible lifestyle programme seem more like daytime television.’
Someone coughed out in the dark. No one else so much as shuffled.
‘Dione Leeds would do very well over in your drama department, Marcus Croyden—’ Dan turned towards the right, where he knew the head of a rival network with a stable of highly successful soap operas was seated ‘—such is her talent for stretching a few basic facts into a work of sensational fiction.’
A gasp from the crowd this time.
Dan’s nostrils flared. ‘You think that’s a bit bold? I’m only getting started.’
He had time. The floor manager of this broadcast would lose his job if he cut to a commercial or played the wind-up music now. This was the stuff ratings were made of. Dan could practically feel the cameras zooming in. After all, how often did someone commit career hara-kiri live on stage?
‘Tonight, part of my job was to help perpetuate the idea that Ava Lange and Brant Maddox are involved—caught up in a great love affair which has blossomed since the show started production. It’s something the network has been eager to promote. The trouble is Brant and Ava aren’t in love. At least, not with each other. Somewhere out there in the suburbs, watching this broadcast, is a sweet and unconventional woman who would lay down her life for Brant Maddox. She already has, in agreeing to virtually disappear because she doesn’t fit the mould of celebrity accessory.’ All his affection and admiration for Cadence was revealed in his wide grin. ‘She is the love of Brant Maddox’s life, and he’s paid a huge personal price trying to protect her from the sharks of this industry. I hope next year you’ll see her, sitting there at the AusOne table, looking surly and frightening people.’
Brant laughed loudly from his seat. There was approval, relief and gratitude in that laugh.
‘Cadence.’ Dan’s eyes found the camera with a red light on and he looked down its barrel. ‘For my part in what’s been done to you I can only apologise, and hope you’ll forgive me.’ He turned his head in Brant’s direction. ‘I could learn a lesson or two from Brant Maddox about loyalty and about love.’ He let that one sink in with the audience. ‘And Ava Lange? Well, she’s in love, too. With me. Or at least I hope so, because I’m absolutely crazy about her.’ This earned a chuckle from the crowd. ‘It’s true I’ve known her for half my life, but here’s a quote you won’t have seen on today’s newsstands…’
He swallowed hard.
‘Ava Lange did not get involved with me to get this role. In fact, she did everything she could not to take on the hosting role. I manipulated her into taking the job—just like I manipulated her into participating in this façade with Brant Maddox. Both of which are things I’ll have to live with. As it happens, Ava also did everything she could not to be with me, but fortunately I prevailed.’
Gentle laughter grew, moving like a Mexican wave through the audience. Dan felt their loyalty
shift. He scanned the sea of dimly lit faces in the room until his eyes stumbled upon a lone female figure silhouetted against the light from the foyer streaming in the open door behind her. He would have recognised that stubborn, proud, vulnerable stance anywhere. He stared hard across the hundreds of heads and swallowed nervously. In his periphery, he saw a camera swing one hundred and eighty degrees to see what had grabbed his attention.
He took a breath and took a chance.
‘Ava Lange, every time you smile a monkey is born in a forest somewhere. When you’re sad, oceans ice over. When you laugh, flowers burst into bloom. You are so intrinsically linked to nature it responds to your moods. And I’m so intrinsically linked to you I can’t imagine a life with anyone else. Or a life without your beauty in it.’
Every female in the room sighed.
His energy reached out to find hers. ‘I put some really dark emotions ahead of you, even after vowing to protect you for ever. That’s on me, and I swear I will do everything I can to fix the damage I’ve caused. If I hadn’t been so blinded by ancient anger I might have seen your radiance sooner. I’m done with proving myself to someone who means nothing to me. I’m moving on to proving myself to someone who means everything to me.’
He shifted more firmly on his feet and cleared his throat. ‘You deserve your design spot on Urban Nature because you have a unique talent and a world of professional integrity. You deserve your spot as presenter because the public respond so magnificently to your passion for wild things. What you don’t deserve is what’s happened to you today. For doing nothing less than helping out a friend—’ he looked at Brant ‘—and putting my needs ahead of your own—’ then at Kurtz ‘—you’ve been judged and publicly executed.’
Dan rounded on the audience and held up the golden statue. ‘So, thank you again to the people of Australia who responded to all the good things about our programme. I hope you keep watching. Not to see what the latest scandal of the day is, but to see us give derelict spaces back their soul. And to everyone here tonight I’d ask you to put yourselves in the shoes of a sweet and gentle woman from the southern coast who was crucified in the interest of ratings and newspaper sales. Because it could just as easily be you next. Thank you.’
The applause started slowly, but as Dan marched down the steps of the stage the ovation grew. A few in the audience even leapt to their feet. It seemed there were more than a few people present who were happy to see a network—and some aspects of the media—called to task for their game-playing.
Dan’s eyes sought out the lonely silhouette, and he triangulated the fastest route to her through the crowd.
He paused at the AusOne table only long enough to meet Brant’s approving gaze briefly and to dump the prized statuette in front of Bill Kurtz.
‘I quit!’ he shouted over the noise.
‘No need,’ Kurtz snarled. ‘You’re fired.’
As exits went, it wasn’t particularly dramatic—he had to weave in and out of tables—but it did mean he passed a number of other network tables. At one, a slim, greying man reached out to shake Dan’s hand and subtly pressed a business card into it. Dan glanced at it—X-Dream Sports, the biggest cable sports network in Australia. The largest broadcaster on the surfing circuit in the world.
‘I assume you’re on the market?’ the man mouthed over the din as Dan passed.
He tucked the card away safely.
More and more of the audience turned to follow him with their eyes, until they were all facing the rear of the auditorium. An excited murmur rose beneath the applause as they recognised the woman standing at the exit. It felt like surfing, the way he was carried towards her on a wave of her name on strangers’ lips. She stepped forward into the light. So serious and beautiful. His eyes held hers as he approached, agonisingly slowly.
Carrie tactfully disappeared from behind her with a sisterly squeeze of her arm, leaving the two of them to be the absolute centre of public attention.
He didn’t care. For once in his life the only thing driving him was the woman standing before him.
Finally she was close enough to touch, and he stopped in his tracks. Most of the crowd around them hushed.
She raised a hand towards him…
…and punched him in the arm.
Hard.
‘Ava!’ Dan rubbed his bruised bicep, his eyes the mocha colour of surprise.
‘What did you do?’ She punched him again and he dodged out of the way. Her heart squeezed so hard she could only suck in tiny breaths. ‘Did you just throw your career away?’
‘I did what I had to, Ava. I had to choose. And I choose you.’
Tears threatened, but she fought them back. ‘You threw your whole career away—everything you’ve worked for…’
‘Which is meaningless if I have no respect for myself.’
‘For me?’ The words barely squeaked out. Her throat couldn’t do much else, tight as it was with unshed tears. Love welled dangerously close to the surface.
‘No,’ he said. ‘For us. I couldn’t ask you to stay with all that hanging over you. I had to set the record straight.’
‘It was so…’ She groped for the right word. Tears brimmed.
‘Stupid?’ he smiled.
‘Spectacular.’ She stepped forward and fell into his arms, his kiss. The people at the tables nearest to them cheered. A lighting tech high in the rig spun the spotlight away from the stage and towards the doors, to bathe them in glorious luminescence. It had the added effect of making most of the audience vanish into shadow. It was a strange, ethereal kind of privacy.
Dan broke away and set Ava back a step. Her overwhelmed chest heaved as she struggled for breath. He glanced at the spotlight and sank onto one knee in front of her.
Oh, God. ‘Get up!’ It was half-sob, half-plea.
‘Ava Lange…’
‘Dan, please. What are you doing?’ Panic had her clenching icy fingers together. Her wild eyes flicked around the room.
‘I just committed professional suicide rather than lose you. Declared my love for you live on national television. Can you possibly not know what I’m about to do?’
‘Say yes, Ava!’ someone shouted from beyond the light.
Her heart flipped into her throat.
‘Ava Lange. Will you marry me and let me spend the rest of my life loving you and apologising for what an idiot I’ve been?’
She sucked in a breath, speechless. Completely petrified. Love! Facing Dione Leeds had nothing on this moment of absolute terrifying fantasy-come-true.
He took her hand. ‘If you say no, you’ll be condemning me to a lifetime of meaningless miserable encounters with Brant Maddox cast-offs. Is that what you want?’
She wanted desperately to laugh, to lighten the moment. But she couldn’t find it in her. ‘No.’
Dan blinked. Shocked. ‘Wait…is that a no?’
The room went suddenly quiet. Or was it in her mind? ‘No. It’s not a no.’
A huge, sexy smile spread across his face. ‘So it’s a yes?’
Ava looked into those dark eyes, burning with such intensity, and—sigh—there it was…the melted-chocolate colour of love. Promising the world. Promising for ever. The man she’d loved for half her lifetime.
Was there any question? Relief washed over her. And joy. Her face split into a brilliant smile. ‘Yes.’
Someone whooped at a table nearby, and in the control booth someone hit ‘play’ on a loud piece of music that took the broadcast to a well-overdue commercial break.
Dan surged to his feet, hauling Ava close, and wrapped her in the protective circle of his arms. It was as close to privacy as they were going to get as his lips found hers. The kiss went on for eternity, leaving her oblivious to everything but the feel and taste of the wonderful man in her arms.
‘People are watching,’ she gasped as soon as they broke for air.
‘Don’t care.’ He kissed her again.
She laughed against his lips. ‘We’ve made such a sp
ectacle.’
‘Do you think anyone will remember the other story now?’
Ava pulled free and looked at him, fingers of fear skimming over her. ‘Is that why you—?’
He silenced her with his mouth, then walked her backwards, out into the bright foyer, and let the huge doors swing shut on the rest of the world. He grabbed her hand. ‘Quick—before they all start streaming out for the break.’
They sprinted, hand in hand, for distant doors that revealed a long hallway leading to the hotel’s kitchen. Ignoring the surprise of the chefs and serving staff who glanced up, Dan scanned the room and then tugged Ava towards a comfortably large linen store.
‘Perfect,’ he said, barring the door behind them with an ornate candlestick across the handles.
‘Dan, we can’t—!’
‘Shut up and kiss me.’
This kiss lasted minutes rather than seconds. She was breathless and tingly when Dan reluctantly withdrew his lips from hers and lifted his head. Everything felt like a fuzzy dream.
‘I won’t hold you to it, Ava. You can pull out if you want to.’
Pull out? Was he mad? Marrying Dan was everything she hadn’t known she wanted. She snuggled closer in his arms. ‘I wouldn’t have pegged you as someone to breach a verbal agreement, Mr Arnot.’
He smiled a little nervously. ‘I put you on the spot in there, Ms Lange. I wouldn’t blame you.’
‘I would. I’m not pulling out. And I won’t let you, either.’ She reached up and dragged him close for another searing kiss. When she spoke again she was decidedly breathless. ‘It’s taken me too long to catch you.’
‘Did you hear everything I said?’ He pulled her into a strong hug, his hands roaming over the low-cut back of her dress.
‘The whole country did.’
‘I meant it, Ava. I will do whatever it takes to undo the damage I’ve caused.’
‘I was coming to find you,’ she whispered against his ear. ‘Right before your award was read out. But Dione Leeds found me first.’