“Nielsen ratings not good enough for you?”
“We don’t get those. We’re an independent. Fan mail is a better indicator anyway. Some of it’s good, some bad. By the way, both SBN and CBS are here now.”
“I knew it was only a matter of time. I’d keep a close watch on your boss, Dan Phillips. Those scouts are players, and they represent serious money. It’s going to be hard for him to stay out of the decision-making process. Harder still for him to resist putting pressure on you.”
“He knows how I feel. Besides, my career and where I go aren’t his decision, no matter what he thinks.” She savored the tart flavor of cranberry on her tongue and mentally waved the thought of Dan away. “I don’t want to talk about work anymore. Tell me about your life in New York.”
He exhaled sharply in place of a chuckle. “What life? I jet around the country scouting shows. The baristas in the Starbucks at JFK have more interesting stories to tell.”
“So are you happy doing what you do?”
He met her gaze and shrugged. “I get my joy in other ways, like Music on the Street. And lately, seeing you.”
“Charmer.”
“I meant it, Eve. I’m developing this amazing capacity for fooling myself. I have an ultimatum from my boss about getting your signature by close of business today, and I don’t even care. In fact, I’ve convinced my conscience that seeing you has nothing to do with work. That it’s a pleasure I savor every day with no ethical relation to the whole reason I’m here.”
There was none of his usual teasing in his eyes. In fact, his gaze on her was intense to the point of sheer eroticism. Words failed her, and she licked her lips.
“You make it sound like a bad thing.”
“It isn’t. And just so you know, there’s no one waiting at home. Like you, the care and feeding of a relationship is too much for me under normal circumstances. But I’m beginning to wonder exactly what ‘normal’ is. And whether I want to tolerate it anymore.”
What was he saying? Was he leading up to something? And more important, how did she feel about it?
It was one thing to have a few sexy interludes with an attractive man. To banter and touch, to enjoy the longing and hint at something more. Like a game-one that kept the attraction simmering on the surface because it helped to balance the stresses of a decision that was creeping up on her faster than she wanted. But what if he made her dip below the surface? To start something bigger?
Could she handle that? Did she want more than-let’s face it-a hot fling with a man who would fly out of her life in a few days?
Or was that even what he was talking about? Eve’s everyday honesty faltered-and that in itself should tell her something.
She had to think about this properly. Somewhere where he wasn’t sitting within touching distance, looking scrumptious and casual in an off-duty linen shirt and khakis.
A glance at her watch told her she was saved. She crumpled her paper and drained her smoothie. “Let’s put a bookmark there and talk more about this later, okay? I have to get back.”
“Sure.” He looked easy and relaxed, but if it had been her waiting for an answer and getting none, Eve wasn’t sure she’d handle it so well. Especially if she had the ultimatum he did. “Give me a call.”
Back at the station, Nicole slipped into Eve’s office with a doomsday look on her face. Once again, Eve put her wayward thoughts in their compartment in her brain and smiled in a way she hoped was encouraging. “What’s up, girlfriend?”
“I finally managed to get Dr. Birdsall to commit to Friday.” Nicole sounded out of breath, as if she’d run down the hall as soon as she’d hung up the phone. “But we can’t do Friday because that’s the town-hall show. And we still have a hole for tomorrow. Cole needs to run a teaser during the six o’clock news and I don’t know what to do.”
Eve thought for a few seconds. “How about this? We’ll switch and have the town-hall show tomorrow, so run the usual teaser tonight. Instead of having the audience react to her talking about how men and women hide their motivations when they deal with the opposite sex, why don’t we tape segments of people telling their stories, and Dr. Birdsall can analyze what’s really going on when she comes on Friday.”
“Brilliant,” Nicole breathed.
“Bill it as a two-parter, a before-and-after, whatever you want. We’re good at making something out of nothing. You can handle it.”
“Thanks, Eve.” She vanished into her office, leaving Eve with her thoughts until she had to go into makeup.
Part of her admitted that it was crazy to talk to Mitch the way she did during these stolen hours. He was on the same side as the dark forces, i.e. the networks. But on the other hand, she was sure she’d go around the bend without his calm views on what amounted to a crisis situation.
Who else understood what she was going through? Who else seemed to know exactly what it took to change her perspective or set her heart at ease when her mind was blasting away at a hundred miles an hour?
She knew it was foolish and couldn’t last, but she put Mitch the Scout into a compartment labeled Business and put Mitch the Sexy Confidant into one labeled Friend. Okay, so it had a little subheading called Possible Lover in very tiny font below that. But anyway, there she’d keep the two of them until she was forced to combine them.
In the meantime, she was going to take his advice. The script that had been so troublesome on the weekend went off better than she expected. When she got back from taping, she sent out a scheduler message to the computers and PDAs of all her staff. She had just enough time to work up a business case before everyone gathered in the conference room for what they thought was the production meeting. She was going to tack another item onto the agenda and find out once and for all if her team was going to melt away on her, or stay just that-a team.
IF JENNA HAMILTON had been ten years younger, she’d have been running after Dylan Moore before he knew what was up. But since Kevin Wade had been haunting her dreams for the last couple of weeks, she was content to give Dylan an appreciative smile as he ushered her out of the lobby and past the studios.
“Everyone named in the suit is in the conference room already,” he told her. “Eve asked me to convey her appreciation for fitting the meeting into your schedule.”
“No problem,” she murmured. “You’d be surprised how much the case is on my mind anyway.”
When she entered the room, Eve stood to greet her. “Jenna, I’m so glad you could come. You remember everyone, right?”
In a single sweep, Jenna catalogued the people whose names had become as familiar to her as her own. Cole Crawford, the producer who’d been with Just Between Us since its inception. Twenty-four-year-old Zach Haas, the camera operator. California girl and story segment producer Nicole Reavis, whom she’d already met, and Jane Kurtz, who did makeup-maybe not the flashiest job, but Jenna had a feeling that Eve Best depended on her for a lot more than that.
Cole tilted his chair back and crossed his arms comfortably over his chest as Jenna sat opposite him in an empty chair. “Gee, boss, I wonder what this could be about?”
Eve gave him a winning smile. “Very funny. You’ve seen the reps from three networks around here. You’ve seen the show’s ratings, not to mention the press we’re getting. I figured we could use a powwow to catch everyone up and strategize a bit.”
“And for this we need a lawyer?” Nicole glanced at Jenna. “Not that I’m not glad to see you, Jenna.”
Jenna smiled at her. “Thanks. As CATL-TV’s corporate counsel, I’m only here to give y’all information and advice if you need it. We’re all playing on the same team, so your concerns are my concerns.”
“So, let me tell you what I know, and then you can tell me-” Eve paused “-whatever you know. Or want to know. Or anything else you have on your minds.” She glanced around the table. “Let’s talk about the networks first. As you know, Mitchell Hayes from CWB came to see me last Friday. We’ve met a couple of times since then.”