“Ah, ah, yes – I have a copy of that survey here. This, folks,” Jed turned to face the audience, holding up a well-known women’s magazine from England; “This is a survey in a magazine that claims its typical reader is a middle-aged, married woman with children. You might be shocked at the questions – and answers – Ms. Findlay elicited from these respectable older women..”
“That is so male prejudiced in so many ways!” Anna exclaimed, pleased to get a little background clapping and cries of assent from the audience. Maybe she could turn the tables, after all. “Are you suggesting that women of a certain age have no interest in sex? Or that their femininity should be shut down as they retreat into housework and children? Or that they have no right to express themselves?
“And, from the phrasing of your question, you also appear to be ageist – you seem to believe that a middle aged woman, rather than being in her prime, can be dismissed as ‘older’?”
Anna was on a roll. There were lots of approval noises from respectable, middle-aged women in the audience as well as younger women
“I’m just curious as to what you gain from asking these women to lay bare – pardon the pun – their sex lives in order that their age group might be included in your book?”
“Perhaps because men like you seem to think that they are not entitled to be sexual beings, not entitled to a satisfying sex life, because they’ve tied themselves to one man and promised to raise his children!” She knew she’d made a mistake before the words were out of her mouth. Jed’s eyes lit up. He looked like a big cat going for the kill.
“So you think monogamy is wrong for women?” The triumph in his voice made her cringe.
“I did not say that. You’re twisting my words.”
“It seems to me that you’re the one who has twisted words, Ms. Findlay. Perhaps we can get back to my original question – where did you find your research subjects? Is it true that you sought out men you thought might be qualified – perhaps well-dressed men driving expensive vehicles, for example? Men you had previously identified as worthwhile candidates?”
“I did no such thing!”
Jed turned to the audience. “I’m afraid Dr. Findlay is playing fast and loose with the truth.” Turning back to Anna he asked: “Isn’t it true that you stalked me, that you pounced on me outside an apartment building as I was about to go to a party – and cajoled me into accompanying you to an event?”
“If so, how would I have known who you were, let alone where I’d find you?” Anna tried to fight back but she knew the truth was written all over her face.
“The event was in the gossip columns – rich hunting grounds for stalkers. And my name and photograph were there as being among the invited guest for this charity cocktail event. Plus, anyone with a little Internet savvy could easily troll for candidates to seduce – isn’t that what you do, Dr. Findlay?”
“Certainly not!” Anna spluttered.
“Come now – isn’t it true that you picked me up on the street and whisked me off, allegedly to escort you to your school reunion, where you no doubt wanted me to do double duty as eye candy on your arm while you showed off your bestselling author status to your old high school buddies?”
Anna gasped. “Is that what you really think happened?”
“Well, how would you describe our evening out – and rather truncated, one-night stand?” Jed turned and winked lasciviously at the audience. “I might add, the one night stand was truncated by Ms. Findlay – not me!”
Anna struggled to speak over the huge choking lump of humiliation and rage in her throat. Raising her voice to be heard over the audience reaction, she shouted: “I didn’t pick you up! It was a case of mistaken identity!”
Of course, the audience had fallen quiet before she finished. You could hear a pin drop in that studio as shocked faces turned to the screaming harridan facing the host. Anna’s cheeks burned so fiercely she thought she’d spontaneously combust.
“A case of mistaken identity?” Jed asked, his voice soft and triumphant. “We had never met before. Who, exactly, did you think I was?”
Anna’s voice was small as she answered. “I thought you were from the escort agency. I’d hired an escort for the evening.”
“Do you make a practice of hiring ‘male escorts’ for your evening’s entertainment?” Jed wiggled his fingers to simulate speech marks around the words ‘male escorts’, indicating that this was a polite way of saying something else entirely.
The interview continued on its downward path for the next few moments, Annie an unhappy, helpless passenger whose only relief came when the credits rolled.
CHAPTER EIGHTShe left the studio fizzing with anger and hurt. How could he do this to her? Okay, maybe she had made a mistake but it hadn’t been deliberate or malicious. She’d begun to think that maybe she was wrong about him, especially after the night they spent together…
Oh boy, here we go again. Will you stop thinking about that, Anna girl, and get yourself together?
Alex had given her a cell phone specifically for North American destinations, because roaming charges using a phone provider from Europe were pretty steep. The phone was ringing now, and Anna guessed it was her agent wanting to know how the interview had gone.
Her thumb paused on the view button. Maybe Alexa had watched the interview and now wanted to rake her over the coals for her poor performance?
Suddenly the new phone, with its touch screen and many apps, seemed more like a leash attaching her to her agent and publisher rather than a communications tool. Her mouth set in a defiant line, Anna shoved the phone into her purse and ignored the call. Taking a deep breath, she began to walk the few blocks to her hotel. Maybe the fresh air and exercise would clear her head and put the morning’s nightmare into perspective.
***
Jed Walker cursed as he listened to the ringing tone. Dammit! He’d felt like a heel ever since Anna Findlay had walked off the dais, her shoulders slumped and hurt evident in her eyes. Hurt that he’d put there.
“Hey, boss – Just take a look at this!” Kathryn, his secretary, handed him a sheaf of papers. “Preliminary ratings are through the roof! Looks like you did a killer job with Little Miss Sexpert!”
“Don’t call her that – her name’s Dr. Anna Findlay,” he snapped. “We should treat our guests with some respect.”
Kathryn’s eyes went wide, then a knowing smile slowly crept across her round face. “Okay, boss – respect. Yeah. Like you showed her when you asked all those slanted questions!”
“I did a bloody good job of interviewing her – the audience lapped it up!”
“I guess the question on everyone’s lips is what Little Miss Sex – sorry, Dr. Anna Findlay – did to you to deserve that treatment.” Kathryn tapped her lips with her pen. “Or is it what she didn’t do? I know for a fact that the guys on the set would have been more than happy to help her with her research.” With a laugh at her boss’s discomfiture, she flounced from the room. As she left she passed Tony Melrose, Jed’s second in command and best friend.
“The boss man’s in a foul mood,” she told him. “Something about that last guest just set him off.”
Jed’s fists clenched as he heard Tony laugh. Did the whole damn world think it was hysterically funny that he’d just trashed a woman he was really attracted to?
“Well, she was a cutie – and you sure ruffled her feathers.” Tony sat down opposite Jed. “The audience absolutely ate it up and Kathryn tells me the prelims are looking good. Maybe we need more guests like that Anna chick – especially if you could convince her to show a little bit of cleavage.”
“I don’t think I’d even try – not after Maureen Delgado savaged me over the same request. Made me feel like some sort of damned caveman pervert.”
“Don’t worry about it. Maureen will get over it. Now, can I talk to you about…” He launched into a discussion about a possible solution to a contract glitch.
Jed’s attention wondered. He knew his employ
ee and friend, Maureen Delgado, would eventually forgive him, but would Anna Findlay?
***
That same Anna Findlay had found a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream parlour and was soothing her frazzled nerves with a three scoop strawberry vanilla. She took a small table in a corner and sat facing the wall. She had been so foolish to think that this was her big break; that she could finally become someone deserving of respect, become a success instead of a Mouse.
Jed Walker had taken that from her, with a few twisted words in front of millions of people.
The last time she’d felt like this - like becoming invisible - had been when she was a new ninth grader at high school and the cool girls had mocked her outdated pants and cheap Wal-Mart shirt. Before those biting words, Anna had loved that shirt – she hadn’t had many new things, and this was a glorious color of yellow. She’d felt like a princess in gold robes – until Lindy had said: ‘Hey, look at the Mouse! Someone must have pissed on her shirt to make it that color!’
The rest of the gang had laughed as if this was the funniest thing in the world, and Anna had sat alone at lunch, with her shoulders hunched, and her peanut butter sandwich tasting like sawdust in her mouth.
She’d sat there long after lunch break and the bell that summoned students back to class, until, eventually, one of the canteen ladies had come over to her.
“It’s tough, love, I know. Those little cows are so full of themselves. They think they’re something wonderful; well, they ain’t and don’t let them fool you into thinking they’re any better than you. Now, you go catch your next class before you get into more trouble. And remember, young lady, high school don’t last forever.”
Tears sprang into her eyes as she remembered this incident, as clearly as if it had just happened. The kindest words she’d received from anyone in her teen years were from a weary looking lunch lady who looked as though she had experienced enough bullying herself to understand how Anna felt.
Was there a Legion of the Ground Down and Bullied; people like herself and the lunch lady who were fated to never fulfill their potential and rise above victim status?
Wearily, she finished her three scoops. The ice cream was delicious but it did nothing to raise her spirits. She gathered up her purse and briefcase and headed for her hotel.
The one shining thought she clung to was that she’d soon be on a flight back to England. Three thousand miles from Knotting Grove, her old high school, and far away from Jed Walker.
***
Jed tried her number again, and again it went to voice mail. He didn’t leave a message – what was there to say?
Hello, Mouse, sorry I ripped you apart on TV, but, hey, the ratings were great?
He closed his eyes and leaned back in his leather desk chair, his feet up on his desk. All around him were the sounds of a busy TV station. His feet rested on files concerning the affairs of the TV and radio stations and the print magazine he owned, all awaiting his attention. Program suggestions, article ideas, budget issues, legal documents, contracts…all these things were massively important to him and the media empire he had built for himself through business savvy, talent and brains.
Yet all he could see was Anna’s face, courageously trying not to show the hurt and humiliation he kept piling on her. Sure, he’d done some pretty tough interviewing over the years, asking difficult questions and not hesitating to use ridicule, sarcasm and a host of other tools to get answers.
But that had been with less than honest politicians, unscrupulous business people and hucksters who put their self-interest above others. He congratulated himself in the knowledge he’d taken a few self-aggrandizing celebrities, rock stars, actors, writers, down a peg or two as well.
But Anna didn’t fit into any of these categories. She hadn’t deserved the treatment he had given her. Why had he been so hard on her? Sure, he’d seen the possibility of a ratings boost because of the sexy content of her book.
Sex. Is that what it came down to? Was he making her suffer for leaving him with a hard-on for her in that miserable hotel ‘honeymoon suite’? Or was it that he still wanted her, that she filled his senses like no other woman had? Or was that also because of unfinished sex? Surely he was a better man than that?
Round and round went his thoughts, like a hamster on a wheel.
And still Anna didn’t answer her phone.
With a barely repressed curse, He grabbed his jacket and coat. He had another ‘cocktail’ engagement at the same place he’d been heading to when he met Anna. Part of him hoped he would bump into her again; part of him hoped not.
Certainly he didn’t feel like socializing with the beautiful people that would have been invited to this soiree. But, he wearily told himself, these society events were always useful for making contacts and keeping up with trends.
The show must go on.
CHAPTER NINEAlex was waiting for Anna in the hotel lobby. One look at her face told Anna that this wasn’t good news. Was the publisher going to drop her because of that one awful, humiliating television interview?
What would happen to her writing career – and the teaching career it had saved – if that happened? Visions of lonely days writing five-dollar-an-article web content in a tiny garret with a couple of cats for company or teaching basic subjects as a private tutor to kids who didn’t want to learn, danced in her head.
Alex waved her over, but Anna stopped briefly at the coffee counter for a latte to give her courage – and to hold off receiving the bad news. Alex waved impatiently again and Anna strolled over as if she didn’t have a care in the world. She sank slowly into one of the comfy recliners. Enjoy this while you can, she told herself. The kind of hotels you’ll be staying in from now on , you’ll be lucky if the mattress doesn’t have bedbugs, let alone a comfy chair in which to relax..
“I am so glad I caught you before you left for the airport. I’ve got bad news, I’m afraid…”
“Listen, Alex – about the TV interview. I honestly don’t…”
Alex smiled for the first time. “Oh, the TV interview! It was absolutely wonderful. People all over the place are talking about it.”
Anna gulped. “They are? But it was a disaster!”
Alex leaned over and patted her shoulder. “Honey, there are no disasters as far as publicity is concerned. Sure, that Jed Whatever-His-Name-Is – and what a hunk he is, by the way – he made it look like your book was a sex manual. Copies are flying off the shelves!”
“But..but..he made me look like a..a..whore! I’m an academic, and this was a serious study…”
Alex sniffed. “Of course it was, dear. And people reading it will learn a lot. But you have to admit, if it had been published as written, as a thesis, would you be sitting here now, in one of New York’s best hotels, being pursued for interviews by some of the most influential media in the country, if not the world.”
Anna was silent. It was all true. Still, it pinched her academic soul a little to admit that the benefits – and the readership – of her sexed up sociology study meant way more for her than the dry-as-dust study she had written….
“So, anyway, what’s the gorgeous Jed Walker like in the flesh?”
Anna swallowed. Jed Walker in the flesh. Oh, my…
Alex laughed. “I can see by your expression that he made an impression on you that went way beyond his clever questions and sexy insinuations. And how clever of you to set up that little tête-à-tête with him, whisking him off to your high school reunion as if you didn’t know who he was. That was just so….” Alex gave her an admiring look. “Oh, don’t play the innocent with me – anyone with half a brain, watching that interview, could see there was something between you!”
Anna knew she was blushing. Jed had made her furious, humiliated her and yet...yet she still liked him. What was that all about?
Hiding behind her coffee cup, she schooled her expression into a relaxed demeanor, then asked: “So what did you want to talk about? You said you wanted to see me before I left for the
airport; you had bad news?”
Please don’t say you’re dumping me; please don’t say you’re dumping me. Although if the book is flying off the shelves, surely they wouldn’t?
Alex put down her coffee and turned so she was facing Anna. “You haven’t heard the weather forecast? “
“I walked a couple of blocks in the snow. It was coming down good and heavy and it was wonderful. Do you know how much I’ve missed a good snowstorm since I’ve been in England?”
Then it hit her. A good snowstorm. A couple of feet of snow. Traffic at a standstill. Everything closing down. Including the airport…
“Oh, no …surely it’s not bad enough to delay the flights…Why, it’s really only just started …” she said desperately.
“I’m afraid it is. This is just the beginning. The weather channel says it’s going to be a bad one. People are leaving work early to get home before the worst hits. Your flight isn’t until later this evening – and the airport has issued a call-before-you-come warning because they’re already cancelling flights.
“Don’t look so miserable. You just said you’ve been missing a good snowstorm?”
“Oh, Alex – I guess I was really looking forward to getting back home. I have a whole life on hold in Leeds, you know.” But even as she said the words, Anna knew they were hollow. She didn’t have a life on hold in Leeds, or anywhere else. Sure, she had some friends, mostly other academics – but the college was all they really had in common. Spending evenings drinking bad wine and complaining about job conditions, comparing notes on just how badly the students had behaved that day, and taking the piss out of the admin and senior college people – that wasn’t really a social life, was it?
Sure, too, she’d been lonely since Louis left her for a younger model. That had really hurt – they’d set up home together and talked about getting engaged ‘when the time was right’. The time had been right for her, but it never seemed to be right for Louis. And when he started to come home from meetings extra late, and take long phone calls in the evening behind the closed door of the spare bedroom that he used as a study – even innocent Anna began to suspect something was up.
The No Sex Clause Page 6