She even wore a wig. He didn’t know if anyone else at the station knew that, but one night he had forgotten his wallet in theweather center and came back between the 6:30PMshow and the 11:00PMshow to grab it. The weather center was in its own little space set away from the newsroom, with a heavy wooden door that could be locked. He used his key, and when he walked in she was sitting there with earbuds in listening to something, curling iron in hand, styling the hair of the long wig while she wore some kind of scarf over her head. She jumped at seeing him and fumbled to cover the wig with a second scarf that was on her desk.
Trying to pretend he hadn’t noticed, he mumbled about getting his wallet, dashed to grab it, and scurried out, shock overcoming him at seeing her like that. Her long, flowing hair was one of her calling cards, and he was stunned to know it was a wig. He would never have guessed. She had not done her full makeup for the later show yet either, and between that and the scarf on her head she looked much older. He told Tara about the wig that night and she burst into laughter, yelling, “I knew it! A lot of women on TV wear wigs or extensions and I just knew she was one of them!”
In Matthew’s and Tara’s minds, “the Queen of Detroit weather” was a phony in so many other ways too. She wasn’t even arealmeteorologist, not certified from the American Meteorological Society or the National Weather Association, like Matthew was. She was more of a weather performer, an illusionist.
Stations could hire “mets” (as they were called in the industry) without the official seals, and viewers wouldn’t know the difference, but those inside knew. He had the seal next to his name on the screen, a fact that he was immensely proud of. She didn’t, a fact that she seemed to care very little about. She could have studied for the tests and tried to earn the seal, but she apparently had no interest. He could spout Michigan weather facts in an instant.
Average snowfall in Detroit: 40 inches.
Average snowfall in Grand Rapids: 80 inches.
Last F5 tornado close to Detroit: Flint in 1953.
Last huge flood: August 11, 2014, with tens of thousands of basements flooded as the city took on six inches of water in a few hours.
Had a Michigan bridge ever been shut down by winds? Absolutely. Mackinac Bridge, five miles long, always closed when winds were over 65 mph winds.
He liked to predict every detail of his own forecasts by analyzing maps and trends, whereas he noticed she just copied whatever the National Weather Service was saying, down to the exact temps or how many inches of snow they’d be getting. When severe weather would hit—a blizzard or tornado warning—and they had to be on the air wall-to-wall for hours, he felt she struggled, stumbling over her words and not giving the type of information he could give. Tara would record these broadcasts and they’d play them back, laughing and making fun of Faith.
Even the body Faith presented on TV was not quite real; it was squeezed into outfits. He heard her talking to Abby once about the amount of girdles and Spanx they had to wear to fit into their dresses for TV. He knew from Tara that Spanx was a brand of women’s undergarments that helped tighten up certain areas.
In real life, Faith had a tiny gut, but you would never know it on TV. She chomped on appetite-suppressing gum all the time, the wrappers all over her desk. He saw her looking up tummy tucks on her computer. Meanwhile, he never wore anything to try and hide his true body. Yes, he was getting a little thick around themiddle, but he wasn’t going to try and hide it. He would just buy bigger suits.
Worst of all, though, Matthew knew that Faith sometimes lied to her viewers. He heard her taping her videos for the fan club. At least twice she told them things that didn’t really happen.
“So here’s a funny behind-the-scenes Channel 9 story in case you’re wondering why you saw me on X in one dress today but you’ll see me on the air in another,” she said once. “I took a selfie at Starbucks in my mint-green dress and was then coming into work juggling my huge purse and an iced coffee. Veronica was coming out the door at the exact same time and we bumped into each other and coffee spilled all over my outfit! She was so apologetic but it was all my fault. I’m such a klutz! Luckily I keep several spare outfits here. I changed into an electric-blue outfit and ordered another iced coffee from DoorDash. I sure do need my cup of joe!”
Matthew knew that Faith had actually spilled coffee on herself when her elbow bumped it on the desk. He had been annoyed because some of it ruined the jet stream maps he had just printed out. So why lie to viewers? He guessed it was because it made her seem slightly less clumsy to have run into someone as she walked in the door, but it bothered him to his core, so he made an appointment with Perry to tell him about it. Matthew expected Perry to be in total lock-step agreement with his views that it was unethical. Perry leaned back in his chair to listen, cupping his hands behind his head, but when Matthew finished, Perry burst out laughing.
“Thisis why you’re so upset?” he asked.
Matthew felt his face start to flush.
“Well, yes sir, I believe in journalistic integrity and she’s twisting the truth.”
“Come on, this isn’t a Woodward and Bernstein moment. Maybe she spilled coffee twice that day. I would classify this as a giant nothing burger. My advice to you, Matthew, is to keep your head down, stay in your lane, and be sure to pick your battles. What, did you expect me to suspend Faith over this?”
“I… guess not. I just thought you might like to know.”
“Well, now I know.” Perry laughed again, shaking his head, and Matthew slunk out, ashamed.
The other time Matthew caught Faith in a lie to viewers was similar—an exaggeration of a story about how hard she had worked doing remote weather forecasts from the Storm Tracker vehicle that was set up at “Jazz in the City.” She told the world that she had to dash to buy food in between the fivePMand sixPMshows and how crazy it was getting back in time. He knew that she had in fact eaten nothing but a power bar from her purse.
This time Matthew did not bother to go to Perry, not wanting a repeat of his humiliation, so instead he socked it away in the “I hate Faith” file he kept in his head. Tara knew all about his feelings; he complained plenty to her. She empathized, and they would have fun googling things like “how to kill a coworker and get away with it.” Matthew and Tara would laugh, fantasizing about an alternate universe in which they actually did something to Faith, but they knew in this universe they were maybe stuck with her.
Five long years being on weekends and playing second fiddle. He kept hoping one of two things would happen to Faith: Either she would get fired for some indiscretion or she would take her carnival act and go higher—Chicago or LA, even the network. TheTodayshow would surely love her ridiculous earring forecast for its heavily female audience, he thought, and then he would be promoted. But none of it had happened yet.
Again, the money was too good for him to leave. He made well into the six figures even doing weekends. So as much as it sucked leaving Tara every Saturday and Sunday night, he did it. But he resented it. Every single minute of it. And he couldn’t wait to get Faith out of there one day.
CHAPTER FIVE
Steve
January
How lucky was Steve to have found his true love? He was the most blessed guy on the damn planet. It started the first moment he and Faith had touched hands. When their fingers grazed, Steve felt a ripple of electricity in his body, and he knew she did too.
The second time they connected he told her how beautiful she was, and she looked away—he thought it was cute that she was bashful like that. As their relationship deepened Steve started advising Faith what to wear on the air. Each day he would tell her: “You look so sexy in red” or “Blue makes your eyes pop” or “That dress brings outallof your curves.”
