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Charlie smiled at Mark. “No, she just didn’t like it with you.”
“She didn’t like your linguini, either,” Joe pointed out. “She said it was rubbery.”
Charlie frowned at Joe. “That’s funny. She said the same thing about his—”
“Oh, great,” Allie said.
“Don’t be childish.” Mark stood up, almost knocking over the waitress who’d come with their salads. “Obviously, we’ve intruded, and you don’t want us. Come on, Lisa.”
They watched him stalk across the room, Lisa trailing behind, throwing them curious looks over her shoulder.
“Feel free to discuss my sex life at any time in public,” Allie told the two of them when the waitress had gone. “Don’t mind me.”
“We won’t,” Charlie said around a mouthful of salad.
“I almost feel sorry for Lisa,” Joe said.
Allie picked up her fork and stabbed at her lettuce, shoving thoughts of sleeping with Charlie out of her mind to consider Lisa. She ate for a couple of minutes, looking at the situation from all sides. “I guess I do feel sorry for her,” she said finally. “This isn’t her fault.”
“She ended up with your boyfriend and your job,” Joe reminded her. “She has some responsibility there.”
“Nope.” Allie’s voice grew firmer as she grew surer. “This is Mark. Mark wanted me out and her in. And he got it. I just don’t know why.”
Joe shook his head at her. “It’s obvious. Mark’s jealous of you.”
“That makes no sense.” Allie waved her fork at him to end the discussion.
“Yeah, it does.” Joe pointed his own fork at her. “Everybody at the station knows that Mark’s success is because of you. He likes to think it’s because of him.”
Charlie stabbed another chunk of lettuce. “So, if he shoves Allie out and puts Lisa the newbie in, everyone will know that his success is—”
“His success,” Joe finished. “Except that’s not going to happen.”
“Why not?” Charlie shoved his empty salad bowl aside and reached for another bread stick.
“You eat like you’re starving,” Allie told him, amazed at the speed with which he’d destroyed his salad. “Don’t they feed you back home?”
“You should talk.” He pointed to her own half-empty bowl. “I’ve seen locusts move through vegetation slower.” He turned back to Joe. “Why not?”
Joe scooped up a forkful of his salad. “Because the only reason Mark is a success is because Allie plans out every second of his show. She even has his ad-libs on cue cards. You have to see it to believe it.”
Charlie raised an eyebrow at Allie. “How do you manage that?”
Allie shrugged. “There are only a dozen or so expressions that are really useful, anyway. I just pick the card that worked best. And he isn’t that bad. In almost two years, he’s never misread a cue card. Could we talk about something else?”
“Oh, that’s talent, reading cue cards,” Charlie agreed. “You were with him for two years?”
“Professionally.” Allie squirmed a little in her chair. “The other thing only lasted about six months.”
“Six terrible months,” Joe added. “Thank God for Lisa, or I’d have had to kill him just to set you free. And you’re right, Al, I do feel sorry for her. She’s going to pay.”
Charlie looked around the table for something else to eat. “Why? What did she do now?”
“Nothing.” Joe grinned at him over his salad bowl. “Do you remember the flack Deborah Norville got when she replaced Jane Pauley?”
“Yeah.” Charlie fished a pepper strip out of Allie’s bowl, narrowly avoiding her fork.
“Well, that’s going to be nothing compared to what happens when the station finds out Allie got screwed. Lisa is not going to have an easy time of it.”
Allie was afraid for a moment that Joe might have a point. She didn’t mind Lisa failing to keep Mark’s ratings up, but she didn’t want her to fail because everyone turned on her. She stared at her plate, not seeing the food. She didn’t need this. She needed all her energy to revive her career.
Which now depended on Charlie.
She stole another look at him over her glasses and began to really think about Charlie and the new show for the first time. Things weren’t nearly as bad as they’d seemed earlier. Charlie had potential. After all, he was intelligent. Verbal. Even occasionally funny. She could make him a star. All she had to do was study him, design a format that fit him and plug him into it. He and his mouth could take it from there, while she goosed the publicity along.
She could have him a household word by Christmas. Three months easy, and she’d be back on top.
She waited until the waitress had brought their dinners, and then she began her pitch. “You’re really verbal,” she told him, batting her eyelashes at him. “I like that in a man. Especially in a man whose show I’m producing.”
Charlie stopped, his fork in midair, and eyed her cautiously. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Allie smiled at him, hearty and encouraging. “I’m going to make you a star, Charlie.”
“The hell you are.” Charlie went back to his dinner.
Allie pulled back a little and exchanged glances with Joe, who shrugged. Okay, so he’d have to be convinced. No problem. She returned to Charlie and her career. “Look, I know your show was a sort of cult hit in Lawrenceville and you like to do things your way, but you’re starting all over here in a bad time slot. And radio is not exactly a secure career, as you well know. I can—”
Charlie pointed his fork at her. “No, you can’t. Bill should have told you. I’m temporary. I’m going to be here five or six weeks, tops, probably not that long. I’ve got places I have to be by November. And this guy whose show I’m covering, Waldo, right?” Allie nodded. “Well, Waldo’s coming back.”
Allie frowned at him and even Joe blinked. “Waldo’s not coming back,” he told Charlie. “He’s in San Diego with his sister. Resting comfortably at last report.”
Charlie shrugged. “Must be for a visit. Bill knows I’m just temporary.”
“Now what’s Bill up to?” Joe asked Allie, and she shook her head, clearly as mystified as he was.
Charlie’s eyes went from one to the other. “He’s not coming back?”
“Waldo shot the console his last night on the air,” Allie told him. “He said it was talking to him and wouldn’t shut up.”
“Maybe he just needs a nice vacation,” Charlie suggested.
“Maybe he needs to be away from stereo equipment,” Joe said. “He’s not coming back.”
“So that means,” Allie began, ready to make her pitch.
“So that means you’re going to be breaking in another guy in about six weeks,” Charlie told her. “Do not bother making me a hit. I’m temporary.”
He returned to his dinner and began to quiz Joe on Tuttle, and Allie sat back and regrouped. The problem wasn’t that he refused to help her make him famous. She could do that without him. She’d made Mark a success without any appreciable input from him.
The problem was that he wasn’t going to be around long enough for her to rebuild her career.
Unless she hit the ground running a lot faster than she’d intended.
Allie gave it a minute’s thought. All right, she could do that.
And in the meantime, the news made the penicillin project a lot more possible. If he was only going to be around a few weeks, she could have a one-night fling with him without any consequences. She wasn’t used to having flings actually, but she was thirty-six. Her flinging years weren’t going to last forever. She had every intention of getting married and having children some day, and then flings would be out of the question. This might be it.
She looked at the situation from all sides. There didn’t seem to be any serious obstacles, aside from Charlie himself.
“All right,” she said and began to eat her dinner.
Charlie stopped eating and looked at Joe. “Why do I have a bad feeling about her giving in so easily?”
“Because you’re a student of human nature,” Joe told him.
Allie ignored them both to put her plan into action as soon as they were finished eating. “Let’s take Charlie on a tour of the city on our way home. He should see Tuttle a little before he goes on the air tomorrow night. It’ll give him something to talk about.” And I can find out what he’s interested in and plan a program on it.
“The tour sounds great.” Charlie picked up his check. “But you don’t need to put me up. I’ve got a room at a motel. Thanks for the offer, though.”
Not good. She needed to get to know him fast if she was going to get the show moving right away. And then there was the Fling Plan. It was going to be hard enough for her to seduce him in her own apartment. A motel room would be impossible. Allie smiled at him. “I think you should stay with us. You told Mark you were.”
Charlie shrugged. “Who cares?”
“Mark won’t be mad if you’re not staying with us.” Allie batted her eyes at him again. It wasn’t one of her better skills, but she was desperate.
Charlie leaned close until they were almost nose-to-nose. “You know, I haven’t known you very long, Alice McGuffey, but I can tell you’re up to something.”
“As I said, a student of human nature.” Joe leaned back in his chair to watch.
“Joe will make waffles for breakfast if we ask him nicely.” Allie grabbed Charlie’s hand again so he couldn’t escape. His hand was broad and warm, and she was beginning to feel absolutely cheerful about seducing him. “We can talk about the station tonight. Where’s your suitcase? At the motel?”
“Just a duffel bag. It’s in my car.” Charlie frowned at her. “I still think you’re up to something.”
Allie tried to look innocent and guileless while she cast around for a selling point. “Joe puts pecans in the waffles.”
“I’m probably going to regret this.” Charlie looked at Joe. “What do you think?”
Joe shook his head. “I’m staying out of this. Although we do have a couch, and I do put pecans in the waffles.” He looked at Allie. “On the other hand, I do think she’s up to something.”
“They better be great waffles,” Charlie said.
“They’ll be unforgettable,” Allie promised.
CHARLIE WASN’T USED to struggling with his conscience, but then his life wasn’t usually this complex. His conscience said, stay away, lie low, don’t get involved with these nice people. But he never listened to his conscience, anyway.
He was going to do it, he realized as they got up to go. He was going to move in with Allie and Joe and pump them for background on the station, all the news and rumor that only friends would repeat to friends. It would be low and slimy of him, but it was a great opportunity, and he’d been around long enough to know that great opportunities in life were few and far between.
Just keep your hands off Allie, he told himself sternly. It was one thing to use her for information; it was another thing entirely to use her for… He glanced down at her, and she smiled, and he remembered how warm she’d been in his arms. Just thinking about her was a bad idea.
Waffles and gossip, yes. Allie, absolutely no.
He excused himself and went to find a phone to cancel his motel reservation. Remember, he told himself. Be virtuous.
It would be a nice change for him.
“WHAT ARE YOU UP TO?” Joe asked Allie when Charlie had gone.
Allie shoved her chair in, squaring her shoulders. “I’m going to seduce him.” It sounded pretty stupid when she said it out loud.
“What?”
“I have a plan. He’ll be like penicillin.” Joe looked at her as if she were nuts, so she elaborated, warming to her topic as she explained. “Mark’s just a bad habit, like a virus. All I need is an antidote. I’ll sleep with Charlie, and then I’ll be over Mark.”
Joe put his head in his hands. “Even for you, this is a dumb idea.”
“Why?” Allie blinked down at him. “It’s worked great so far. I don’t mind about Mark much at all when I’m around Charlie.”
“And what are you going to do to get over Charlie?”
“I won’t need to get over Charlie. From now on, I’m concentrating on my career. Charlie is just a fling.”
Joe looked at her as if she were demented. “Except you’re not the kind of woman who has flings. And you’re already concentrating too much on your career. That’s how you ended up with Mark, because he was convenient. And I don’t think Charlie is the kind of guy you forget.”
“Well, I’m thirty-six,” Allie said, exasperated. “If I don’t start having flings now, I never will. And I’m tired of getting all wrapped up in a guy and then trying to cope when he’s gone. I want a nice, simple, short, purely sexual one-night stand, and then I can forget about Mark. And Charlie’s out of here in six weeks, he said so. This is perfect.”
Joe spoke very slowly to her. “This. Is. A. Dumb. Idea.”
“Listen.” Allie fought back the anger that suddenly threatened her voice. “I know how dumb I am. I know Mark is worthless. I knew it when I was with him, but I kept making excuses. And now I’m stuck in this stupid thing where I want to be with him, and I don’t even know why. Haven’t you ever wanted somebody you knew wasn’t worth it?”
“Yes,” Joe said. “I imagine almost everybody has.”
“Well, all I’m trying to do is get over it.” Allie stuck out her chin. “Is that so bad?”
“No.” Joe stood up and the sympathy in his eyes almost laid her low. “No, of course not. But Charlie is…well…I don’t think I’d mess with Charlie.” He looked over her shoulder. “He looks like the kind of guy who makes an impression.”
“Not on me.” Allie turned and saw Charlie walking toward them. He looked wonderful: big and broad and solid and fun. But not permanent. She could take him or leave him. Or take him and leave him. No problem.
Charlie came back to the table and smiled at them. “Let’s go. You can tell me all about the station. Leave nothing out, no matter how disgusting. I’m braced for anything.”
“Good,” Allie said.
THEY GAVE CHARLIE a quick tour of old Tuttle in the late-September dusk. The town unfolded before him like a set of sepia-toned postcards: a white filigree bandstand in the park, a narrow Main Street mercifully free of aluminum storefronts, and a city hall that looked like a glowering, gargoyled sandstone castle.
“Historic preservationists, bless them,” Joe told him. “They fight tooth and nail to keep old Tuttle pure. Of course, over on the other side, new Tuttle is a symphony of aluminum siding, but who cares?”
“But even the preservationists can’t save city hall,” Allie said.
“They’re going to tear down that building?” Charlie craned his neck to look back at the ornate structure. He wasn’t a historic-building nut, but tearing down something that magnificently outrageous seemed a waste.
