Breaking News (First Chapter of Untitled Story)
Tami looked at the empty seat in front of her. Then she looked at the time. Her cell phone said 8:15 p.m.
“Damn,” she said out loud, “not again.” It was a Saturday night, MiMi’s restaurant was crowded with people, and she had been stood up. Tami wanted to give him more time, but she came to her senses and got up from the table. The date was scheduled for an hour ago, so apparently he was not going to show up.
He, whose name didn’t deserve to be mentioned, was a fine yellow-boned man that she’d met at the news station she worked for. While she had been working at the news station for almost two years he had started two months ago. The moment they saw each other their eyes had locked. She had noticed him because of his beautiful sculpture. Later on she would discover his 6-pack hiding behind his shirt and the v-cut that proved he was packing.
On the other hand he had noticed Tami because of her skills. While Tami wasn’t the best person to stick in front of the camera, she knew everything there was to know about production. So when he was having trouble with his first news package, he called upon her. She’d helped him turn horrible b-roll into perfect shots for his package. Then she had edited his whole video, including interviews, for him. When the news package finally aired it looked as if it had been done by a veteran reporter. After that he decided he would use her as much as possible.
And use Tami is what he did. Ninety percent of his news packages for the station had been written and edited by her. At first Tami didn’t want to believe he was using her. One of the reasons was because of his sex game. In the two months that they’d known each other, he and Tami had managed to have sex on 8 different occasions. There were five different times that they’d met up on the weekend and three times where they’d left together after work. Each time they got together for a sexual escapade it was mind blowing. He made sure to make her climax every time. He was no selfish lover. He even told her that if a woman left his presence with her hairstyle still intact and an unhappy expression on her face, he wouldn’t be able to smile at himself. However, abandoning women on dates didn’t bother him at all.
This was the fourth time he had stood her up on a date. Three out of the five times they’d had sex on the weekend was to make up for his absence. However, tonight was the last night. Either he needed to start acting like he cared for her or she would have to find another man.
Tami decided to call him one more time before she headed home. As she sat in her car in the parking lot, she dialed his number.
“What’s up?” he said.
“Nothing,” Tami said, falling right into his zone as if that was a normal way of answering the phone. “I just left this nice restaurant that you were supposed to meet me at.”
“Oh shoot,” he replied. “Was that tonight?”
“Yeah, it was tonight,” Tami answered back, “and this is not your first time doing this to me. Are you trying to hurt me? Do you not care about my feelings? Let me know.”
“Whoa,” he said. “I thought we were just co-workers having a little fun.”
“Fun?” Tami sighed to keep from yelling. While she was the nicest woman anyone could meet, her attitude could go from happy to burning mad in five seconds. “Yeah, things have been fun but I thought we had a connection.”
“What connection?” he asked. The only connection on his mind was their sexual connection.
“Well, if you must insist,” Tami said as she thought about everything they had in common. “We have the journalism bond. I’ve helped you with almost all of your stories. We have a friendship connection. We can talk about anything. We have,” before she could name anything else he interrupted.
“We can’t talk about anything. I only do it because of our work environment. Most of the stuff that comes out of your mouth bores me. We do have a good sexual connection though, but that’s all. I never wanted to go out on a date with you. I only said yes to make you happy.”
Tami was shocked. She didn’t know whether to start yelling or start crying. This was very unexpected. Before she could come up with anything he started talking again.
“You probably want to yell at me now,” he said. “You might even want to hate me, but remember we work together. You’ll have to see me every time you step into the news room.”
Tami thought about what he said for a minute. He was right. They would have to deal with each other. She tried to keep the hatred that was bubbling inside of her to herself.
“You’re right,” she said. “We do have to work together, but remember this one thing. You’re a horrible reporter.” Then she hung up the phone, so she could start dialing numbers. One of her friends needed to hear about this craziness.
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