Unfinished Ex (Calloway Brothers, #2)(19)

“How are you settling in?” someone asks over my shoulder.

I look up from the computer screen at my assigned workstation. “Hi, Jenny. I’m trying not to get too settled, if you know what I mean. I’d been gone from Calloway Creek for years. And there’s my ex—lots of baggage there. It’s all so confusing.”

Her brows go up. “Well, I was talking about here at the station.”

My head slumps and I cover my face with my hands. “Of course you were. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Sounds like we might need to have a drink one of these days.”

“I would love that. I mean it. I don’t get out much. Well, I can’t really. But long story.”

“Those are the best kind. Saturday between shows? I know a place down the street that serves killer margaritas.” She glances behind us. “I won’t tell if you won’t.”

I knew Jenny and I would become friends. “Sounds heavenly.”

“There’s another reason I’m here. Barry wants you for some field reporting, some high school science experiment. He’s expecting you in his office in ten.”

“Thanks, Jenny.”

I finish up what I was doing, which is basically trolling the other networks to see what they are reporting on. That, and searching the internet for possible weather or environmental stories is what I do on the days I’m not broadcasting.

I take the stairs up two floors to the executive offices. Jenny waves me by, and I knock on Barry’s door.

“Ten minutes means ten, not fifteen,” I hear from behind it.

I open it and walk through, noting the time. I may be forty-five seconds late. “Good morning, Barry. I hear you have a story you want me to cover.”

Someone comes in behind me.

“This is Chris,” Barry says. “He’s the cameraman who’s been assigned to you for field reporting.”

Chris holds out his hand and we shake. “Nice to meet you,” I say.

He sits on Barry’s couch. “It’s my pleasure.”

I already miss Josh, my cameraman at WRKT. We seemed to be able to communicate without words. He’d know from a look or a gesture or a movement of my foot what angle to go to or when to cut tape. He made my job so much easier. But I fear if Chris is anything like Barry, I will have my work cut out for me.

Barry taps on his phone. “Just sent you the details. I told the school we’d have someone there today. A class is doing a weather balloon experiment. Some of the students posted questions and pictures on our Twitter page that caught the eye of one of our production assistants. Figured it’d be right up your alley since it’s in your hometown.”

I stiffen, trying not to seem like the breath just got knocked out of me. “You want me to go to Calloway Creek High School? Now?” I shake my head. “Isn’t there someone else who can cover this story?”

Barry sneers at me like I’m an imbecile. “No, Nicole, there’s no one else. This is part of the job we’re paying you to do. With your education, I didn’t think I’d have to sit here and hold your hand through it.”

“You don’t. I just…”

Can’t show up at the school where my ex teaches?

Refuse to go into a place where everyone hates me?

Suddenly got a case of food poisoning?

“That’ll be all,” Barry says, eyeing the door.

I leave, followed by Chris, and slump against the wall.

“You okay?” he asks.

I rub my forehead, already feeling a headache coming on. “Fine.”

“You don’t look fine. You look ill. It’s okay, Nicole. You’ve got this. I know this is your first field story for XTN, but I’ve seen your work, watched tape of you from your station in Oklahoma.

This will be a piece of cake. A walk in the park. You’ll be talking to teenagers. How difficult could that be? And I’ll have your back.”

“I appreciate that.”

At least I have one thing going for me today—Chris isn’t a total asshole like my producer.

I pull up the email Barry sent. “It says we need to be there for a sixth-period science class at two o’clock. It’s almost eleven. With traffic and setting up, we should leave by twelve thirty to be safe.”

“I’ll pack the van. You go get ready. I’ll meet you in the garage.”

He leaves and I find the nearest chair. I’m supposed to be avoiding all public places in Calloway Creek. I swore I’d only sleep at my parents and spend the rest of my time here at XTN.

Now I have to go to the high school? What could be more public than that?

It’ll be fine, I tell myself. Jaxon teaches math, and if I recall, that’s in a whole separate wing. I’ll be in and out before school is over, and no one will be the wiser. Maybe I’ll get lucky and none of the teens will even know who I am. I mean, how many teenagers watch television these days, let alone the news?

I scurry back to my desk and quickly refresh myself on weather balloons before heading to my dressing room for hair and makeup.



~



“You’re not much of a talker, are you?” Chris asks when we’re out of the city and almost to our destination.

The last thing I need to do is air my dirty laundry to everyone at XTN. “I’m just nervous, I guess.