“Lucy. Everyone calls me Lucy. Well, not everyone. Most people.” She took her bag from him and slipped the strap over her shoulder.
His kind eyes studied her. “You okay, Lucy?”
“I’m fine. Sorry about that. I figured I was the first one here.”
“Don’t sweat it. I’m Reuben, your director this morning and official KDVX tour guide.” He gestured for her to follow and held open another door for her to pass through. “Corporate offices are on the fifth floor. We operate independently so they mostly keep to themselves unless we screw up.”
She hurried to keep pace with him. “Do we screw up often?”
“Often enough.” He led her to a darkened control room consisting of a small auditorium and three sets of risers. “This is our temple. A shrine to the goddess of news.” He made an elaborate gesture to the top platform. “Producer desk is up there. I’ll be down here. We’ve got a good staff for mornings, so it should be easy. Newsroom is this way.” He jerked his thumb toward an open door on the other side of the room. “Police busted a meth ring a few hours ago. We’ve got a reporter on it now. Should have video in time for the morning show.”
“Lucky us.” Lucy flashed him an attempt at a smile as they entered the bullpen of cubicles. “Which desk is mine?”
“Against the wall over there. Night producer left you video to go through and a few things came across the wire last night.” He pulled her chair out for her.
“Thanks,” she replied as she settled in at her desk. “Really. Thank you.”
“Good to have you here. Holler if you need me.” Reuben waved as he disappeared back to the control room.
She resolved she wouldn’t ask for help. Not after the Nervous Nelly blip from earlier. Nope, she would do her job and do it well. Within minutes, Lucy lost herself in news stories, scripts, and segues.
By the time everyone was in place for the news two hours later, the sludge of fatigue tugged at her. She swallowed a yawn. She hadn’t been able to sleep at all, knowing William was only a wall away. The ridiculously early wake-up call for her first day of work didn’t help her fatigue.
“Three minutes, boys and girls,” Reuben said from the director’s desk. “Let’s see if Anderson can go a whole hour without sticking his finger in his nose. Who’s up for that wager?”
Anderson, one of the morning news anchors, flipped him the bird.
“C’mon guys. I only need you to behave for an hour,” Lucy chimed in.
“Listen to the lady in charge, Anderson.” Reuben punched at a couple of buttons on the control panel in front of him. “Sorry, Lucy. We’re not used to a real producer keeping us in line.”
“What do you think my odds are of getting Lucy to go to dinner with me tonight?” Anderson asked.
“Slim to none,” Reuben replied. “She’s out of your league.”
Lucy smiled at him and swiped a highlighter across the top of her script, color-coding the times she’d need to track.
“Two minutes.” Reuben leaned back in his chair, his fingers threaded behind his head.
The milk from the bowl of cereal she had forced herself to eat curdled in her stomach. She could do this. Maybe if she said it enough, she’d believe it. Confluence was simply a brief stop on her flight to the next job. A layover weaved into the journey of her life.
Layovers weren’t always awful. You could meet new people, have a drink at the airport lounge, and maybe even buy a souvenir mug in the gift shop. Most of all, Confluence was the place she could build her audition reel and get in front of the camera as a reporter.
She needed to focus and not get caught up in distractions. Distractions like her neighbor. The award for avoiding attractive neighbors definitely went to Lucy. She’d managed to keep away from him so far.
“Any words of wisdom you’d like to impart?” Reuben pierced the silence through her headset. He turned from the director’s seat in front of her perch and peered up.
Blood thrummed in her temples as Lucy glanced at the stack of papers comprising the hour-long news script.
The headset crackled when she pulled the microphone to her mouth. “I think as long as Anderson doesn’t go knuckle deep in his nostrils we’ll be fine.”
The staff erupted in laughter.
“Thirty seconds,” Reuben said through a husky chuckle. He turned back to the bank of monitors against the wall, leaving her with a view of his thick dreadlocks. “She’s a keeper.”
The anchors moved onto the lead-in for the meth story, and Lucy settled in to do her job.
…
