The door closed behind her with a menacing click.
“Yes?” he said again. Matthew was looking at her with an annoyed expression, as if being interrupted was the worst thing that could have happened to him.
“Umm, hi, I’m Olivia, an intern. Laura—the executive producer—oh wait, you probably knew that, that was dumb ofme. OK, well, Laura sent me over to ask if you need extra time for weather tonight.”
Olivia felt herself wringing her hands as she spoke. And while her forehead was sweaty, her palms were clammy.
“Tell her I could use twenty,” Matthew said coolly.
“Twenty minutes?” Olivia responded, shocked. She was thinking that it would eat up most of the show.
“Twentyseconds,” Matthew replied as if she were a complete idiot, and she guessed she was.
“Oh, OK, right,” she said with a nervous laugh. She glanced around the weather office and saw Faith’s spot, looking so totally normal. There were shoeboxes and some shoes under it, things pinned to a corkboard, and items scattered about the top of the desk. Olivia shivered again. How could Faith just be gone, vanished from this earth?
“Anything else?” asked Matthew, clearly eager to get back to his maps.
“No, that’s all,” said Olivia, but as she turned away she thought of the “wicked” nickname her mom had given her, and of the mischievous ways she was known for. Was she really going to leave this office without trying to get some nugget of info from Matthew? Something that could break the case? Olivia had a flash of herself and Aunt Carol being hailed as heroes by the mayor, given a key to the city and honored at a banquet. Or maybe they’d be on the cover ofPeoplemagazine, or interviewed onInside Edition.Her career could really take off then, her name would be known everywhere. She had to at least try, right? Renewed courage came into Olivia’s body and she turned back around.
“Actually, there is one more thing. I’ve only been here for one week but I’m still so brokenhearted about Faith. I saw thepush alert today that she was pregnant. I know you were close to her and I loved your remarks on the news Saturday night. Did you… um… did you know she was expecting?”
Olivia held her breath. No one would kill a pregnant woman, would they? She looked at him, trying to read his face as she waited for an answer.
Matthew’s jawline tightened.
“No one knew,” he said. “She kept it a secret.”
“Oh, OK… you must be so upset. You all seem so close back here.”
“Yup, I’m devastated,” said Matthew. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to start working on the forecast. Please tell Laura I need twenty—seconds,that is.”
Olivia nodded and went out through the door, simultaneously relieved to be gone from Matthew and the weather office and wishing she had more time to grill him. She hadn’t really gotten much info. She would have to keep trying.
Back in the newsroom, she walked to Laura and told her that Matthew needed twenty more seconds. Laura nodded and instructed Olivia to keep working on writing the bump.
Olivia resumed her seat and snuck a side-eye glance at Laura. It was hard to believe Laura would do something to Faith. A nice person, a new mom, the executive producer of the show. Olivia sighed. It was all so much to think about.
One temple was starting to throb, and she rubbed at it as she looked back at the bump. This one was teasing a story about how families could save money on vacations and cruises over the summer. Olivia tried to remember what Laura and the producer had taught her: Less is more, don’t give it all away, have a play on words.
“Parents, we have some great vacation tips that will save youboatloads of money, after the break,” she wrote. She was a little scared to show it directly to the elevenPMproducer. Maybe one of the talent would look at it first so she wouldn’t have to get criticized by the producer. Olivia glanced over at Tom’s desk. He was the nicest of the anchors, the one who called her “dear.” Maybe he would help. But Tom wasn’t in his spot. Veronica was in hers, yet Olivia still wasn’t sure whether to trust her or not. She just didn’t seem as nice as Tom.
Olivia decided to wait five minutes. Maybe Tom was just in the restroom. Rubbing her temple some more, she snuck some Tylenol from her purse and downed it with a chug of water. She looked at the wording on the bump at least five more times, and kept her eyes out for Tom.
“Olivia, do you have that bump written yet?” Kyle, the producer, asked.
“Yes, I thought I might show it to Tom to see what he thought, then show it to you. Is that OK?” Olivia asked.
“Just show it to me,” said Kyle. “Tom called in sick today. Super late callout too. Laura told me and we had to change the rundowns from a two-anchor show to a one-anchor show. Total pain in the butt. It involves recoding a bunch of stuff and reformatting things. An earlier heads-up from talent would be nice every once in a goddamn while.”
Olivia didn’t know how to respond, so she said nothing. Kyle walked to her desk and looked at her computer over her shoulder.
“This is your bump?” he asked.
“Yes.” She sucked in her breath in anticipation. Having someone evaluate your writing was so nerve-racking.
“That’s perfect, good job. Put it in the rundown,” Kyle said, and Olivia felt like doing a cartwheel. A flood of gratitude anda glow from being recognized for good work overtook her. She smiled. Genuinely. For the first time that day.
“I gotta do a bunch more stuff before the show, all thanks to Tom suddenly deciding he was sick,” said Kyle. “Freaking talent. They never give us producers the respect we deserve.”
