Talking About Sex...

by Vicki Lewis Thompson

  Dr. Astorbrooke had been a real asset to her campaign. Judging from the number of callers during the second half of the show, the topic had stirred up plenty of controversy, which was Katie’s bread and butter. Boosting the ratings even higher while taking potshots at Harkins Construction made for a fine evening’s work.

  At ten on the dot Jared ambled into the studio. A tall, lanky guy with glasses, he loved his wife Ruth and weird sports statistics, in that order.

  Katie got up and turned the microphone over to him. “Did you catch any of my show?”

  “Absolutely.” Jared grinned at her as he sat down and reached for the headset. “Just for the record, I have no urge to construct tall buildings.”

  Katie laughed. “I didn’t think so. Ruth seems like a very satisfied woman.”

  “Yeah, she got a kick out of your show tonight. She was still listening when I left home.”

  “Tell her I appreciate the support. Every listener counts.”

  “Will do.” Jared glanced up at Katie as he adjusted the headset. “Have a good weekend.”

  “Thanks.” Katie gave him a wave as she slipped out the door and walked down to the hall to the station’s modest lobby.

  “Great show,” said Ava Dinsmore, KRZE’s most recent intern from Pima College. Interns worked well for KRZE, which operated on a tight budget.

  Ava obviously understood tight budgets. On her twenty-second birthday she’d decided to go back to school and climb out of the minimum-wage rut. She favored multiple piercings and an ever-changing rainbow of hair colors, so radio was a more logical venue for her than TV.

  Besides being a general gofer, she covered the switchboard in the mornings and every evening until the station signed off. “You had lots of calls,” she said.

  “I know! Wasn’t the response terrific? We even had to bleep out some language. I loved it.”

  “You got a few personal calls, too.” Ava picked up several slips of paper.

  Katie made no move to take the messages. Ava lived for moments of drama, which included reading messages aloud instead of handing them over. From the beginning Katie had admired Ava’s ability to talk clearly with her tongue stud.

  “First priority, Edgecomb called. The owners are pissed about tonight’s show. They’re afraid the negotiations with Livingston Development will go south.”

  “Good! Then Livingston can build its precious parking garage somewhere else.”

  “Yeah, like on the lot on the other side of us, with the station sandwiched in between. Our signal will be ruined, regardless.”

  “That’s why we have to stop all the construction! I’m not accepting defeat yet.”

  “Edgecomb wants you to accept defeat. He wants you to go back to the original format—sex toys, foreplay techniques, stuff like that.”

  “Last night I reviewed two adult videos and interviewed a topless dancer.”

  “I know.” Ava’s spiked hair didn’t move when she nodded. “But in between you’ve been dissing the construction. And tonight the whole show was about that. Edgecomb wants you to cut it out.”

  “We’ll see.” On Monday night Katie had a guest scheduled who would talk about the sexual significance of hardware items like bolts, screws and nuts, which would give her an opening for more anticonstruction comments. She really wanted to do that show.

  “As Edgecomb put it, you can rag on this project all you want—on your own time.” Ava’s grin was framed by purple lip gloss. “I have to give you credit, though. I never would have dreamed you’d find a way to connect sex with construction.”

  “Google is a girl’s best friend.” But the leap had been an easy one. Jess Harkins and sex were forever linked in her mind, although she’d take splinters under her fingernails before admitting to anyone at the station that she had a personal grudge against the general contractor for the project.

  “I would love to be a fly on the wall when somebody tells that builder about tonight’s show. Can you imagine some manly construction dude being called a wimpy-dick on the air? Good thing your phone number’s unlisted.”

  “I didn’t call him a wimpy-dick.” Katie smiled her secret smile. “That was Dr. Astorbrooke’s theory, not mine.” She hoped the word would get back to Jess, though. Served him right.

  “Yeah, I noticed that you protected yourself nicely.” Ava’s dimples flashed. “So are you gonna ease up on the smear campaign?”

  Not on your life. “I’ll talk to Edgecomb.” Katie checked the clock on the wall. “What were the other messages?”

  “One was from Cheryl, who said—” Ava paused to read from the message “—‘Give ’em hell, Katie. Let’s go for margaritas at six tomorrow. Usual place.’” Ava looked up. “She said a bunch more stuff, but that was the gist.”

  “Got it. Thanks.”

  “Can I come?”

  “Sure, why not?” Katie suspected that Ava was outgrowing her regular crowd of slackers and wanted to find a different group to hang with. Katie and her best friend Cheryl, a trial lawyer, might look pretty good to Ava right now.

  “Great! Thanks.”

  “It’ll be fun. Any more messages?”

  “Uh, yeah. Your mother wants to know why you’re picking on that nice Harkins boy.”

  “Oh.” She heard the sound of a second shoe dropping. Obviously Ava had saved that message for last. She was like a bloodhound when it came to sniffing out juicy gossip. Doggone Mom anyway.

  Cheryl knew better than to leave any incriminating messages with Ava, but Mom…well, she’d always liked having Jess around. She’d been upset when Katie had broken up with him. She might even want people at the station to know he was an ex-boyfriend.

  Ava eyed Katie with interest. “I’m assuming she means the guy who runs Harkins Construction.”

  “Um, yeah.”

  “Your mom knows him?”

  Katie thought quickly. She hadn’t wanted anybody at the station to figure out her connection with Jess, but thanks to dear old Mom, Ava already had an idea there was one. If Katie didn’t come clean, Ava might start to speculate, which could be worse.

  Moving closer to Ava’s desk, Katie lowered her voice. “Listen, this can’t become common knowledge.”

  “You can trust me.” Ava’s dark eyes gleamed.

  “I’m serious. If this information gets out, it could be really bad for me.”

  “It won’t get out.”

  “Good.” She had to hope that Ava was highly motivated to continue the friendship and be invited to future happy hours with her and Cheryl. “Back in high school I dated Jess Harkins my senior year.”

  Ava blinked. “No shit. Wow. I guess it didn’t work out, huh?”

  “No, it didn’t.”

  “Um, are you into revenge or something?”

  “No.” She kept telling herself it wasn’t revenge. Justice was more like it. Protecting what was rightfully hers. “It’s one of those crazy coincidences.”

  “But you said he was sexually compensating by putting up that high-rise. That sounds like you have an ax to grind.”

  “Remember, I didn’t say he was. Dr. Astorbrooke—”

  “I know, I know. But you’re the one who invited her to be on the show. Was he that bad in bed?”

  “Ava, I’m not going to answer that.” Katie realized that in trying to prevent gossip, she might have made things worse.

  Ava slumped back in her chair. “Which means you’re not gonna tell me why you guys broke up.”

  “Nope. Sorry.”

  “Damn. I suppose your mom doesn’t know either, or she wouldn’t be saying he’s a nice boy.”

  Katie wasn’t so sure about that. A high percentage of mothers, including hers, would have been deliriously happy with Jess’s prom-night decision. But Katie had been wounded beyond belief.

  She’d thought she was over it, but then the Harkins Construction sign had popped up next door. The developer’s long-range plan to demolish this entire block that included her grandmother’s house was bad
enough, but having Jess be a part of it added insult to injury. She wondered if he even remembered that her grandparents had owned this house.

  She might not have told him. They’d been too busy making out in his old Ford Galaxie to talk about family history. She remembered feeling in control of her life again, recovered from the blows of losing her grandmother and the house she’d loved. She’d been sure she could make it all happen—become a disc jockey just like her grandfather, stay in Tucson where her friends were and lose her virginity to Jess on prom night.

  But Jess, her first love, the boy she’d counted on to be crazy about her in the same way her grandfather had been crazy about her grandmother, had declined to cooperate with that last part. Once again she’d experienced that horrible loss of control over something important to her. She never wanted to feel that vulnerable again.

  “I can see why you don’t want anybody knowing he used to be your boyfriend,” Ava said. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep quiet.”

  “I appreciate that more than I can say.”

  “No problemo.”

  “Thanks.” Katie had no choice but to trust Ava with the volatile information. At least they hadn’t gotten into the nitty-gritty of her sexual history with Jess—or rather, her lack of a sexual history. “Well, I’m outta here. See you at six tomorrow at Jose’s. You know where it is, right?”

  “Of course.”

  “Maybe we can sit outside on the patio.”

  “If I get there first, I’ll snag a table for us.” Ava sounded overjoyed to be included, so maybe she would resist the urge to gossip.

  “Sounds good.” Katie headed for the door, an antique that had been hand-carved in Mexico. Her grandfather had hauled it back from Nogales in the back of his pickup, along with several carved interior doors, as a special present for her grandmother. He was always doing things like that to show how much he loved her. And she’d been the same—baking his favorite desserts and haunting garage sales to find the old LPs he collected. They’d had something special going on.

  Before Katie could reach for the knob, it turned with a soft click. A thrill of premonition ran down her spine as the door opened. A second later she was looking into a pair of angry brown eyes that brought a jolt of recognition. Her heart raced exactly as it used to back in high school.

  Jess Harkins had caught tonight’s show.

  2

  JESS HADN’T SEEN KATIE in the flesh in years…thirteen, to be exact. But he’d passed her picture hundreds of times while driving around town. A giant version of her gazed down from at least three billboards that he knew of. He’d had a few wet dreams involving Billboard Katie, and he probably wasn’t the only guy.

  Billboard Katie reclined on a red velvet couch while wearing tight black pants and a black blouse with a plunging neckline. Her blond hair hung from a center part and framed her face, which wore an expression that promised incredible sex. If she’d looked at him like that on prom night, he wouldn’t have been able to resist her, but at eighteen she hadn’t had the sophistication to pull it off.

  Real-life Katie wore a sedate gray pantsuit and her hair in some girly arrangement on top of her head. There wasn’t a hint of sexiness in her expression. Alarm would be more like it. Good. She should be alarmed.

  A few minutes ago she’d sounded so carefree that he’d almost lost the urge to create a potentially ugly scene. A window at the front of the building had been left open, and as he’d approached, he’d recognized Katie’s voice as she’d made plans to go out for margaritas tomorrow night.

  Then his name had come up and the volume of the conversation had dropped considerably. Knowing she was discussing him with the receptionist had riled him up all over again.

  But now that the moment was at hand, finding the right words was more difficult than he’d expected. He should have anticipated that. Making speeches had never been his long suit. Katie, on the other hand, had always been extremely verbal—she’d been senior class president and captain of the debate team.

  But now the opening sentence had to be his. “We—” He stopped to clear his throat, irritated with himself for having to do that. “We need to talk.”

  “So talk,” said a spiky-haired woman sitting behind the receptionist’s desk. “Don’t mind me.”

  Jess had completely forgotten someone else was there until she’d spoken. Apparently Katie still affected him to the point that he blocked out everything but her. That was an unwelcome discovery. He wanted to keep the upper hand in this interaction, and going gaga over Katie wouldn’t help.

  Katie glanced at the receptionist. “Ava, this is Jess Harkins, an old friend from high school. Jess, this is Ava Dinsmore, our intern from Pima College.”

  “Nice meeting you,” Jess said.

  “Same here.” Ava studied him with interest.

  “I think I left some files in the conference room,” Katie said to Ava. “Would you check and see if they’re there?”

  “I’d be glad to, but I’d better watch the phones. We always get a bunch of calls for Jared’s show on Friday nights.”

  “Good point. Then I’ll go check. Jess, why don’t you come on back with me so we can discuss this on the way?”

  “It won’t take long.” Jess looked into Katie’s eyes and was rocketed back thirteen years.

  She’d been his first love, and he’d had so little to give her back then. He and his mom had moved their meager belongings from Globe to Tucson his senior year in high school. He’d been the new kid, the one with no money and big dreams, a quiet guy who’d been fascinated with Katie’s gift of gab and her blond good looks. He’d envied her sense of belonging.

  When she’d taken an interest in him, he’d been thrilled. They’d been a good combo because she’d done enough talking for both of them. To compensate for not saying much, he’d written her poems.

  One he happened to remember now had compared her eyes to every blue thing he could think of, including his favorite stonewashed denims. God, he’d been pathetic. And a lousy poet. But her eyes still had the power to make him lose his train of thought.

  “Just come with me,” she said. “I need to take those files home tonight and we can talk on the way, kill two birds with one stone.”

  “That’s not necessary. I just—”

  “I think it is.” She turned and started toward a hallway.

  He wasn’t about to deliver his ultimatum to her back, so he had no choice but to follow her like an obedient lapdog. This was not going the way he’d scripted it in his head. He was forced to pass the receptionist, who took no pains to disguise her curiosity.

  “I think she still likes you,” Ava said in an undertone.

  He stared at her. Surely she didn’t know that he and Katie…surely not.

  Ava met his stare and shrugged.

  Then again, no telling what Katie had revealed and to whom. But if she’d made her life an open book, she wouldn’t be trying to keep this discussion private. He was confused, not a good state of mind for accomplishing his mission.

  Katie paused at an open door and glanced back at him. “Jess?”

  Instinct told him not to go in there. His plan had been simple—confront her at work and threaten legal action if she didn’t stop her attacks on his project and on him. Especially on him. But now that he was here, his threat seemed silly and belligerent. Defensive. As if he’d taken the sexual-inadequacy thing seriously.

  He should have thought of how it would look, him storming over here to demand better treatment. Instead he should have ignored the whole business. But he was into it now, and leaving without saying anything would make him seem even more idiotic. A firm stand was called for.

  He walked toward the door Katie held open. She maintained her position, which forced him to walk past her into the room. Anyone would think she’d initiated this meeting with the way she’d taken charge. He needed to reverse the dynamics, but one whiff of her perfume—the same lemony scent she’d worn in high school—and his brain took a major hit.<
br />
  Instead of planning his line of attack, he was wondering if she was seeing anyone. She wasn’t wearing a ring—that much he’d noticed right away, though he shouldn’t have taken the time to notice. Her comments on the air made it clear she considered him pond scum.

  Focus, Harkins. He was good at that. Harkins Construction, built from scratch in only seven years, was a testament to his powers of concentration and his ability to bring others around to his point of view. Although he wasn’t much of a talker, he’d somehow convinced loan officers to take a chance on him when he’d had no collateral except his will to succeed.

  Maybe that’s where he’d gone wrong. He’d barreled over here to issue demands instead of trying persuasion first. His temper had taken control. Katie had always had the power to arouse strong emotions in him—anger, joy, passion. Reasonable discussion wasn’t normal with them, but that insight had arrived about thirty minutes late.

  The conference room had a couple of windows covered with wood-toned plantation shutters, and a desert mural decorated one wall. The large oak table in the middle looked as if it had come from a Spanish hacienda. He could imagine how much Katie enjoyed working in this old adobe house. She’d always loved anything Southwestern.

  When the door closed, he turned around. He and Katie were alone for the first time since the night of the senior prom. And just like that night, he couldn’t figure out what to say to her.

  AS THEY STOOD FACING EACH other, close enough that they could reach out and hold hands if they chose to, Katie’s heart hammered like a set of bongos. She’d always been fascinated by Jess’s mouth. His full bottom lip had been so much fun to nibble on, and when he’d chosen to use that mouth on her breasts, she’d experienced a little bit of heaven.