I knew this was him before he even spoke, because of that primal fear reflected in his eyes.
After introductions, I asked nicely, “Can you bring me to the station manager's office please, Jerry?”
He shook his head. “I can contact his personal secretary and get a meeting scheduled...” He trailed off at the look I gave him.
I asked patiently, not wanting to be as big a bitch to him as I was to Devon, but he was making it so hard not to, “Did I ask you to schedule a meeting?” I shook my head, and when he just stared at me, I reached out and put my hand on his curly red mop of hair and turned his head side to side.
Then I asked, “Did I ask you to bring me to the station manager's office?”
I nodded, and he opened his mouth. “But...”
I rolled my eyes and nodded his head for him. Then I let him go and turned expectantly toward the building.
He hastily opened the door, “Yes ma'am.” Then he grabbed something from an entry table in the lobby and thrust it to me. I took the clear plastic cup with the straw from him and cocked an eyebrow at the orangish slurry it.
I prompted, “What's this, Jerry?”
His eyes widened in fear again, and I wondered what horror stories he was told. He said quickly, “A guava-melon smoothie. Devon said you liked them.”
It took all the power in the universe I could pull in to me to stop myself from snorting as I handed it back to him.
I sighed and said, “Eww. I just did that to torture poor Devon.” Then I blinked innocently at him.
He stared at me incredulously for a moment then remembered our quest, and he said with a bit of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, “This way Miss Dupree.” He took pleasure in Devon's displeasure? Was the PA gig that competitive? Was this the atmosphere Karmin had to work in?
I answered myself as I remembered that it was exactly why I was there, the fuckin' games the station was playing. That thought made any remorse I had about treating Devon so terribly, fade away.
He brought me wordlessly to the top floor. I grinned at Porter, as my producer saw our arrival and tried to get to us before we entered the elevator, “Miss Dupree?”
I stopped Jerry from holding the elevator as I waved at Porter and said, “Hi.” as the elevator closed. She was curious at to why I said I was coming in, but I had told her nothing through Jerry.
I actually liked Porter. The only thing that didn't sit well with me about the woman was the fact she apparently hadn't fought for Karmin. But the more I learn about the environment here at KVRL, the more I'm starting to understand. It was a culture of “Keep your head down and don't make waves.” If one perceived mistake, real or not, could sideline a person or their career, I'd probably be a little hesitant myself.
If I wasn't Na Na fuckin' Evermore, that is.
We reached the corner office at the end of the hall on the top floor. There was a huge outer office that had a desk with a professionally dressed Hispanic woman almost barring the way to a door with a plaque which read George W. Kernan III, Station Manager. She was the gatekeeper, the Gandolf to tell us we shall not pass.
The woman perked up when she saw us coming, not even raising an eyebrow at my punk looks. She gave a smile just as professional as everything else about her, and she started to ask as she looked up through a stylish pair of black rimmed glasses, “Hello, how may I...”
I winked down at her as I stepped right past saying, “Hiya gorgeous. He in?”
She was up and quickly moving in front of me, “Mr. Kernan is in a meet...”
I slipped around her. “Love your hair. I'll just see myself in.”
She tried again to stop me as one hand absently touched the tight bun that her shiny ebony hair was up in. “You can't just...”
I heard the elevator ding down the hall and glanced back to see Porter stepping out and looking our way. I winked at her and laid my hand on the secretary's hand on the door lever and pushed down, the door swung open as I smiled at her while I pushed my way past her.
I stepped in, the secretary, Jerry, and Porter in tow, like they were all holding onto a Sherpa safety rope tied between us in some epic climb.
The well-groomed middle-aged man in the large leather chair behind an impressive dark wood desk, sat up a little straighter, as did the man sitting in one of the three chairs which sat in front of the desk. I cocked an eyebrow in recognition of the deputy mayor, Sherman Oaks.
I flopped myself down in one of the other chairs, slinging a leg over one of the arms to let it swing lazily as I draped my arms over the back of the chair, “Georgie, Sherm, how's tricks?”
The secretary almost whined, “I'm sorry Mr. Kernan, I tried to stop her, she...”
The man seemed to be studying me, he schooled his face well, masking his reaction. I couldn't tell if he was annoyed, enraged, or amused at me barging in.
The man didn't move his eyes from mine as he said, “It's ok, Rose.” Then he looked away to the deputy mayor, “Sherman, can we finish our discussion over lunch? I know you were pressed for time this morning.”
The other man wasn't as unflappable as Kernan was, and stood indignantly, buttoned his suit coat, and the reached out to shake Mr. Kernan's hand. “Of course George, I'll see myself out.”
As he stalked past me, I said, “Hey Sherm, tell your boss she's doing a kickass job. I voted for her.”
I gave a smug grin as he left without a word. Then George made a gesture with his hand and the secretary started out the door as he called after her, “Please get with Mr. Oaks' aid and set up lunch, would you Rose?”
As she shut the door behind her, she said, “Of course, Mr. Kernan.”
He turned to Porter as he made an ushering motion to the chairs with his hand as he stood and stepped around the desk to sit on the front edge of it leisurely. “To what do I owe the pleasure, Miss Graves? I wasn't aware we had a meeting this morning.”
Porter sat while Jerry stood behind my chair, acting like a piece of furniture lest he be noticed by the big bad predators in the room.
Porter cocked her head toward me, a look of bemused confusion on her face as she looked at me while replying to him, “I'm not sure sir. Miss Dupree has taken us all by surprise this morning.”
I shrugged and offered, “I'm here to find out what kind of fuckin' circus you're running here. You're playing musical assistants with me. You take away Hughes, the only one who could keep up with me, and then you give me Devon, who I snapped like a twig in a day. Now I'm assigned Jerry here, who is already about to break, and he hasn't even been on the job for more than a few minutes.”
Jerry made a strangled sound, and I glanced back at him. He had a look of indignation mixed with his fear of me on his face, and I sighed. “Admit it, kid, you're two seconds from running away screaming, and I haven't raised a single fuckin' finger yet.”
He opened his mouth to protest, then dropped his head. That silent confirmation told us all that we needed to know right there. I felt a little sorry for him too, though I hadn't even done anything yet. I don't think any of them had handled anyone like me before, well Na Na not me. And the funniest thing was that I didn't need any handling when it came to maintaining my brand, you better damn well believe I took it more seriously than any of them. I wasn't going to jeopardize it by leaving anything important in the hands of one of these PAs who put the news station before my needs.
Though I didn't need any of their assistants, they were the ones who insisted upon it in our contract. I knew they were really supposed to be my handlers, not mt helpers. And since the station insisted, then I didn't want anyone but Karmin at my side.
I turned to Mr. Kernan and turned my palms up where my arms were draped over the back of the chair and said before he could speak, “So Georgie, why don't you just make it easy on all of us and reassign Miss Hughes to me before I break the rest of your misfit toys?”
There was silence in the room for a long five beat before he replied, “The image of the station is par
amount in any management decisions we make...”
I turned in the chair to sit up properly and pinned him with an unblinking stare as I interrupted. “Yeah, yeah. And you don't want people to think you're running some sort of fucked up escort service for your talent. Even if the gossip rags publish outright lies like the Tattler did.”
I leaned forward. “Well I have a question for you Georgie, if your station wanted to avoid controversy and scandal, you backed the wrong horse. So why me?”
I narrowed my eyes and stated what I knew to be true the entire time, from the moment the station approached me, “No, KVRL knew exactly what it was doing by approaching me. It is the viewers that such a scandalous individual like myself would bring in, wondering what I'd do next, that brought about the offer, to begin with.”
I smirked, “Viewership of the morning segment were up twenty three percent with the first Seattle Evermore broadcast, that's money in the bank.” He cocked an eyebrow over the fact I knew the numbers.
I sighed. “So let's not fuck around with all these false pretenses, and just reassign Karmin to me, and we can go back to pretending that you all are shocked by anything that happens around me? Shall we?”
I glanced over to a tight-lipped Porter, she knew I spoke the truth, and that was all the confirmation I needed. They needed the boost to their viewership, and I was that vehicle to do it, by hook or by crook. “Penguin farts in the Sahara people, just do what's smart.”
The Station Manager didn't move a muscle from where he sat staring at me intently. There was absolutely no surprise on his face, reaffirming that I had hit the nail on the head. Then he sat back a bit on the desk and said, “It isn't quite that easy, Miss Dupree.”
I blurted, “Oh for fuck's sake. Yes, it is. And it's Miss Evermore to you and all the people around here now. You don’t get to be so familiar with me after jerking my chain around.”
He shook his head. “No, you don't understand. I let Miss Hughes go this morning. Less than an hour ago.”
Both Porter and I blurted out in incredulity in unison, “You did what?!”
While he grabbed something from beside him on his desk, he had the decency to look a bit sheepish as he said, “After the new piece from the Tattler this morning, we couldn't afford the appearance of any impropriety to stain the reputation of the station. We can't have our employees galavanting around, getting into brawls... sleeping with our talent.”
I was out of my chair, and halfway to him before Porter was up, desperately trying to hold me back. I dragged her the rest of the way with me, as I was far stronger than her. Mr. Kernan was on his feet, with a sensible edge of fear in his eyes despite his calm exterior. Porter moved in front of me, holding my arms ineffectually, pleading with her eyes.
I wanted so badly to lay the ass out on his desk for implying Karmin was that kind of girl. A good shiner would remind him not to speak ill of her.
I locked eyes with him and ground out through gritted teeth as I said, “I'm going to give you this one warning, don't believe everything you read in a gossip rag. Karmin is neither sleeping with me nor doing any 'galavanting' or brawling.”
I took a breath to center myself and give myself a moment to try to rein Na Na in a bit. She wouldn't have it as we continued, “She was doing her fucking job that first night and delivering a message to me from the people who run the Pike. We found out we had gone to school together and we spent the night reminiscing about old times.”
I barred my teeth and then continued. “After you removed her as my personal assistant, I invited her to come watch me do a podcast at the Spartan. Partially as a professional courtesy, but mostly to woo her. She's an awesome woman, and I'd be lucky to have her. I got into an altercation while defending her honor. That's why we were ejected from the Spartan.”
Then I growled in challenge, “Besides, you had already removed her as my assistant. What fucking business is it of yours what she does or who she dates on her own personal time? ...Georgie?”
He regarded me a moment as Porter looked back over her shoulder at him. “Sir, Cassandra... Karmin is possibly the best personal assistant this company has ever had, she works ten times as hard as the others...” She shot an apologetic look at Jerry, who just shrugged, not taking offense as he appeared to agree with her assessment as she plowed ahead, “At the risk of raising your ire, I think you made a big mistake letting her go.”
He shook his head slowly. “What is done is done. We can't un-ring that bell. We'll see what we can do to better accommodate your needs, Miss... Evermore.”
Fut the actual ostrich plucking, frog jumping wuck?! The man was too proud to ask her back?
I looked down at Porter and placed my hands on her waist, lifted her and moved her aside. She was looking a little afraid of what I might do. But I respected her for standing up for Kar. I stood nose to nose with Kernan, and said in an arctic cold tone, “Eight.”
Then I spun on my heel and started toward the door. Jerry started to follow but the glare I shot him made him stop in fear. The boy likely almost shit himself.
Kernan called after me, “Eight What?”
I hissed out, “Eight more contracted broadcasts in our trial period for Seattle Evermore and I'm out.”
I hesitated after I yanked the door open and it banged loudly against the doorstop when I heard Porter speak in a shaky voice, “Please consider this my notice sir. When Miss Evermore's contract is fulfilled, I'll be taking my leave as well.”
I smirked a bit. Porter had a big brass pair on her didn't she? I wondered how long she has wanted to do that in this poisonous corporate environment. Ok, Porter was ok in my book now, even though I think she had a little doubt about Karmin when this whole fucking mess started.
I wish I'd never agreed to the segment.
No... that's a lie. If I hadn't, I'd never have reconnected with Karmin. I wouldn't trade that for anything. But now her career was in shambles because of me. Because of this fucking Na Na persona I've crafted.
I heard Porter's heels on the hardwood behind me as I stalked out of the office past Rose, who clutched some papers to her chest as she absently touched her hair with her other hand. I spared her an apologetic smile.
Porter was calling after me, “Nala. Na Na.”
I didn’t want to talk just then, my temper could make things worse. I needed to think, to decompress, to find Karmin. So I opened the door to the stairs and slipped in and took the steps down three at a time.
I heard the door open again behind me, but she didn’t follow. Her shorter legs wouldn't be able to keep up. I was fuming and didn't know if it was Na Na or me as I stomped to Brandon's Escalade while I fished the key out.
I was going to need to get on my bike today and ride long and hard to work off some of this anger. The worst part of it was that I knew most of that anger was directed inwardly at myself. I cost Kar her job, whether the station was being unfair to her or not, it had been because of her association with me.
I called her up as I drove, but my call went directly to voicemail. It struck me that that was my only way to reach her. That and email, as I didn't even know where she lived. Something I had been hoping to rectify tonight when I called to find out where to pick her up for dinner.
I smiled at that. A date. A real, actual date. When was the last time I had one of those? Had I ever? I mean Na Na has had a few hookups from time to time when I got lonely, but that was just sex. I don't think I've really ever dated or even wanted to date anyone.
Would she even give me the time of day now, now that I had cost her her job?
Stop dwelling on what ifs Nala. Pull yourself together. Your posse doesn’t need to see you like this and lose confidence in Na Na. Just go to the Empire and cool down and think.
Oh shit! The Empire. I was supposed to meet with the contractors this morning, and I left my people high and dry.
I needed to go take care of that, then maybe I'd be cooled down enough to contact Porter. She'd know where Karmin lived, the
n I can go apologize.
I pulled into the lot and hesitated. There were multiple construction company trucks in the lot and a couple parked in the front too. Had Kat had them all come at once? That would be a mess with competing companies under the same roof at the same time. What was she thinking?
Oh well, time for Na Na to kick some ass and take names, and hopefully I'll get some bids finalized, and I can select a contractor by the end of the week. At least that part of my life is moving forward the way I want it.
I smiled sadly, the Majestic wasn't the only thing I wanted. Oh god, I was one of those pining girls I've always made fun of.
I got out of the vehicle and headed toward the back door. Brandon must have seen me pull up because he met me at the door and I tossed his keys to him. In one smooth motion, he caught the keys in one hand and slipped them into his pocket.
I nudged my chin up in acknowledgment. “Thanks for the loan.”
He returned the gesture, and I hissed as I passed through the door as he held it open for me. “The fuckin' suits fired Kar.”
I hesitated a bit when he replied, “We know.”
They knew? Oh crap, had she called here looking for me? Shit, my cell was off for my impromptu meeting at KVRL. Had she tried calling me? And I didn't answer. There wasn't anything for it now. Just then I had to rein in what was likely unholy chaos here.
I asked as I headed toward the Crib, “Where are they?”
He nudged a thumb toward the curtain. Ah, the auditorium. I stepped toward the office, Kat and Bethany were leaning against the wall on either side of the door, texting away on their cells. I grinned over the fact that they looked like sexy and edgy guards.
What were they doing out... Brandon interrupted my thought, “Umm, you don't want to be going in there. She kicked us out while she does her thing. The contractors are waiting their turn out there.”
I furrowed my brow in confusion as he led me past the door and out onto the stage. “She, who? What's going...”
I paused when I saw a group of contractors, not in the chaos I had imagined in my head, but all sitting quietly, writing on clipboards or on iPads. I blinked and smirked at Brandon. “I thought there'd have been more... friction. And here I was going to apologize to you losers for leaving you to deal with them till I returned. Who's brilliant idea was it to schedule them all at the same time? That could have been catastrophic.”
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