He walked back to his desk muttering. Olivia was surprised Tom was calling out sick so late. It seemed out of character for him from the little she knew. He must be really, really ill to do so.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Matthew
June 4
When the damn intern finally left the weather office, Matthew reached for both Tums and ibuprofen. He wondered if that had been the intern who had been handed the note from Faith, but Channel 9 had so many interns, who knew? More importantly, he wondered how he would ever get through this seven-day work week. Having to continually lie about his feelings regarding Faith and fake grief was awful enough. Now there was panic added in about what he and Tara had done.
He didn’t want to ruminate about the night it had all started but he couldn’t keep himself from thinking back on it. If only he had put the kibosh on the whole thing then.
He shut his eyes and leaned back in his chair, and the image of Tara and him at the Sky Lounge came to mind.
They were having drinks on the top floor of a skyscraper downtown. The place was dimly lit, with velvet-covered booths, dark wood tables, and little white Christmas lights strung all over the ceiling year-round, giving it the effect of stars above your head. A jazz band trio played in the corner.
Tara was sipping a bright pink cocktail that cost Matthew twenty-four dollars. It was a perfect example of why he felt he needed his salary to maintain or even go up. If he left the weekend job now he’d likely either have to move down in market size and make significantly less or find some PR job that sounded like the march of death to him. He and Tara had a fun lifestyle and he wanted to keep it. They chatted for a while about other things, but then the conversation turned to Faith, as it often did.
“So… she has a stalker, right?” Tara asked.
“Yes, several I think,” Matthew had replied. “But this dude Steve is the worst. He leaves messages on the weather-office voicemail all the time. I’ve seen letters he’s sent her, crazy shit about how much he loves her. Ha! If only he knew her.”
“Can you get your hands on any of these letters?”
“Sure… why?”
“I’ll tell you in a minute. You’re sure you can get them?”
“Yeah, we’ve been told by HR not to ever throw away those kinds of letters just in case we need them as evidence, so we keep everything, with the envelopes and return addresses too, and they all go into the PC file, it’s just a drawer in the office.”
“The PC file?” Tara asked.
“Yeah, it stands for Psychos and Crazies. Jack named it that before he retired and it stuck. He had some female stalker who would write in asking him if he wanted to walk backward with her. Jack used to joke that if he ever met this woman in person he’d run away screaming.”
Tara laughed, and Matthew did too, but he was wondering why he himself had never had a stalker. Although parts of it seemed like a true pain in the rear, it also would show that some woman found him so attractive that she was obsessed with him, which might not be all bad. It bothered him that he was one ofthe only TV people he knew who had never encountered such a person. It also bothered him that despite being on TV in Detroit for a decade he rarely got recognized in public.
“OK, this is sooo perfect,” Tara said, taking a long sip of her drink. The lights of the city twinkled in the background. “You also have access to her promo pictures, right?”
“Sure, there’s a stack for each of us in the office. We take them out on remotes and to festivals and sign them for fans.”
The photos were done professionally every few years, using a studio space the station had set up in a back room. They lit it well and brought in photographers who did the whole “chin up, chin down, slightly less teeth, more teeth, no teeth at all” thing while snapping away hundreds of shots and angles. One would be the winner each time and would come to the talent in a giant stack of eight-by-tens, their name and the station logo stamped across the bottom. Of course Faith’s also had to have “Your Fair-Weather Friend” and the info for the fan club on hers. Matthew’s, Faith’s, Abby’s, and Chuck’s were all side by side on a shelf in the office.
“Here’s what I need,” Tara said, lowering her voice to a whisper and glancing around the bar to make sure no one could hear them, but the jazz trio was in a long riff and there was no way anyone could have overheard. “Get me a few of the stalker Steve’s letters with his return address, and bring me a few of her promo photos. I’ll handle the rest.”
“What are you going to do? Are you going to write to him?” Matthew whispered back. He felt an equal amount of titillation and trepidation. These were dangerous waters, more dangerous than hiding a lipstick for a few days. Tara was unpredictable.
“Yup… just a little fun. I have that female handwriting.”
“But what if he writes back or leaves another voicemailthanking her for her letter?” Matthew asked. Nerves crept into his stomach. Tara could be just thinking she was having fun, but it was his career and their future in jeopardy if he was somehow ever caught.
“Hmm… let me think about that,” she said, looking down at her drink and slowly swirling it. She looked up with a Cheshire cat grin. “I’ll just tell him not to, that management wouldn’t like it if they knew I was corresponding with a fan that way but that he’s so special I have to. I can keep him on the fishing line for a while.”
“OK,” Matthew said cautiously. He knew that when she got on a roll there really was no stopping her. “But what is our ultimate goal in this?”
“To make her life miserable, of course!” Tara cackled. “At some point we’ll ramp it up with him and he’ll start showing up everywhere she is—out at station appearances or wherever. She’ll get so freaked out she’ll quit and you’ll be promoted!”
Matthew looked down at his own drink, a dark beer. He felt his stomach tighten. Didn’t the old saying go “Don’t play with fire if you don’t want to get burned”?
But if he didn’t do it Tara would think he was a pussy. And really her plan had some merit to it. Maybe Faith would get flustered and decide to leave. He knew her contract was coming up and she’d have a decision to make soon. So he looked back up and gave a smile and a nod.
