“I’ve never seen you like this. Are you ill?”
With a broken heart, yes. “I haven’t slept well the past few nights.”
“Drink some tea before you go to bed and take a long hot bath. The hours you keep aren’t always good for your body and definitely not for the soul. Leon keeps all of you so busy with appearances, fundraisers, and charity events. He needs to cool his jets on the marketing.”
Oh, how I wish I could tell her my extra job duties didn’t bother me and that I allowed my heart to get involved with the wrong man. “I’ll be fine tomorrow,” I tell her as she works on my face.
Lisette has me look in the mirror. She covered my bags flawlessly, and I look like a whole new person. Too bad, I don’t feel that way. “The ratings for last week are in,” she says as she stands behind me, playing with my hair. “We have more viewership in the eleven o’clock hour than we’ve had in years. It’s because of you.”
“I doubt that. The team is good. We work well together.”
She isn’t buying it, though, and frowns. “Know your value, Autumn. Once you start accepting your worth, you’ll go far in this world.” Lisette leaves me with those words lingering in the air. Does she know about the job at the Weather Channel? It wouldn’t surprise me if she did.
I finally make my way into the computer room where I start putting my segment together. I’ve printed all the reports for the weather, not only tonight but also for next week, and piece them all together with my production manager.
“Nothing but rain,” he says with a sigh.
“You live in the Pacific Northwest,” I remind him. “Do you expect anything different?”
He chuckles. “Good point.”
I do point out that the rain will subside by the weekend and that we’ll have a small heatwave before the weather turns dreary for the remainder of fall and into winter. He, too, echoes my sentiments on how rain is better than snow, and as long as it doesn’t get too cold, he’ll be happy.
Leon comes into the room cheerful and with a beaming smile. “Listen up,” he shouts to get everyone’s attention. “This evening, we are trying something new. We will be live for the viewers.” He says this as if we aren’t live every night. No one responds, and the only sound in the room is the hum of the computers.
He must find this funny because he starts laughing. “Oh, I forgot. We’ll be live on social media. I don’t know what I was thinking.” He continues to chuckle at his blunder. “We are going to give the viewers a chance to chime in and ask questions or make statements. During the segment, each anchor will read comments to the television viewers and answer questions.”
“Seems like you’re setting us up to fail,” Selene says from behind her computer. I happen to agree with her. I’ve seen some of the comments posted on social media. I’d hate to read them aloud.
“Nah,” Leon says as he waves her statement away. “Read what you want. Use sound judgment. Obviously, if someone has an issue, we don’t need to repeat it. One of the producers will try to filter out anything rude, suggestive, or inflammatory. What we are trying to do here is reach viewers on another level. Most people have chosen to get rid of cable and basic television packages, but we need to deliver our segments to them as people who bring the news. If this doesn’t work, we’ll stop it, but for right now, this is how we will do things moving forward. You’ll share an iPad on set, you’ll laugh right along with everyone else, and you’ll do it with a smile.” Leon exits, and the rest of us look around, wondering what the hell just happened.
“That man has lost his mind,” Selene says a few seconds after the door shuts.
Others agree, but I keep my thoughts to myself. It’s not a bad idea, but one that should probably have a bit more insight before it’s thrust out into the wild. After I finish putting my segment together, I head back to my dressing room to change. My phone vibrates in my hand with an incoming text. My heart drops to the floor and stays there for a long moment before bouncing back into place. How can one person make me feel this way? I hold my breath as I slide my finger across the screen to open his message.
Julius Cunningham: I hope you forgive me for being absent these past two days. I had some things to deal with.
Really? He’s been ignoring my calls and texts but wants forgiveness? Nah, I can’t. I won’t. I deserve someone who is going to give me the courtesy of communication and worry about my feelings along with his own. I close the app and go about my business. He can wait two days for my response.