Chasing the Wild Sparks (31 page)

There’s a knock on the doorframe and we all look up from our laughing fit. “Sorry,” Rhonda, our blonde receptionist, says with a shy smile aimed at Rod. It’s not a secret that she has a huge crush on my ridiculous friend. She’s cute, but Rod says she doesn’t do anything for him. I think she’s pretty with her dimples and sweet smile. Morgan claims it’s because she doesn’t have a penis.

“Hadley, Security said they tried your extension, but they couldn’t get ahold of you, so they tried me.” Oops. Dancing on the job again.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“Finn Wilder is downstairs wanting to see you.”

“He is?”

“Yes. Security wouldn’t allow him up because he’s not on the schedule of visitors today. I guess they don’t know that he’s your boyfriend.” Rhonda giggles as she peeks at Rod and shifts nervously. “They wanted to verify with you if it’s alright to allow him up.”

“No.”

“No?” she asks, surprised.

“No. I don’t want to see him right now.”

“Okay. Do you want me to tell them that you’re busy?”

“No. Tell them I don’t want to see him.”

Her eyes widen, yet she nods. “Okay. I’ll let them know.”

“Isn’t he supposed to be on the Air pretty soon?” Morgan observes, looking at the clock.

I check the clock as well. “Yes.”

“What the hell is he doing here then?”

Rod sneers, “A recon mission.”

“You’re really not going to see him?”

“No. He said some really hurtful things last night, Morgan. I can’t even look at him.”

“I’m proud of you. That takes a lot of strength.”

“I know, so someone please keep me from running downstairs right now.” She hugs me and I hold onto her. “I want to see him so much.”

Rod heads for the door. “You can. Morgue’s office overlooks the parking lot.” We quickly walk out and go around to the other side of our office suite to Morgan’s office. The hallway does a U shape and we enter her spacious, and expensively decorated office. Rod runs over to the window like a little kid watching a parade.

“Rod! He might see you!” I hiss.

“He’s not there yet. His sweet car is, though.” I surreptitiously move to the side of the window and wait for Finn to come out of the building. Is he putting up a fight down there? I’m sure the guards recognize who he is without knowing he’s my boyfriend. A few of them know that he is, but there are always different ones popping up, since we share the building with four other businesses

“Do you think he could overtake the guards and get past them?”

I almost laugh. “He’s not John McClane or a superhero, Rod.”

Morgan says under her breath, “An evil villain is more like it.”

“Morgan. He’s still my boyfriend… I think.” My voice unexpectedly catches and Morgan puts her arm around me.

Rod turns from the window. “Doesn’t he wear glasses?

I take a tissue from Morgan’s desk. “Yeah, but he hates wearing them in public. I don’t even see him wear them much when we’re together.” And fuck if he isn’t hot wearing them, too.

“That kind of gives him a secret disguise.”

“There he is,” Morgan says. Finn is walking out from the main entrance two floors beneath our window. He’s wearing a black suit. Both of his hands are in his hair as he strides to his car.

“He should really watch he doesn’t mess up his hair if he has to be on camera soon.”

“Shut up, Dick Rod.”

Finn reaches his car and plunks his elbows up on his roof. His head droops, his hands cupping the back of his neck. He stands that way for almost a full minute.

Rod gapes.  “Is he crying?”

I stare at Finn to see if maybe he is, but I can’t tell. Why would he cry over me? I’d probably be a huge weight off of his shoulders and mind if he didn’t have to deal with me anymore.

“No. Finn said he never cries.”

“He must’ve been a dream of a newborn.” Morgan and I look over at Rod like he just told us he’s allergic to kites.

“Well, he
should
cry. He just lost the best fucking thing that will ever happen to his sorry ass.”

Not taking my eyes off of Finn, I say, “He didn’t lose me, Morgan. I’m just hurt. I need some time from him.”

Morgan moves next to me. “What the hell did he say to you, Hadley?”

I look over at Rod and he shakes his head before looking up at the ceiling. “Hadley, I already heard most of it. I’m sorry.”

“Great. Now you also know why I’m the worst girlfriend ever.”

He closes his eyes and crosses his arms. “Stop it.”

I swing my arm out to my side. “You said it yourself, Rod. Guys like that done to them, and I don’t do it.”

“That
hardly
makes you the worst girlfriend ever,” he growls, glaring at me.

I make the mistake of looking out at Finn at the same time he glances up at the window. He does a double take and I swiftly move away. He had to have seen me since we’re not that high up.

I close my eyes and drop my head to my hand. “Shit. I think he saw me watching him.”

Morgan says, “I doubt he can see that it was you.”

Rod steps back to the window. “Unless he has X-ray vision as one of his super strengths.”

“Now I do need to go down there.” I leave Morgan’s office.

“Hadley, no!” Morgan yells. I stride down the hall to my office and pick up my buzzing phone. Finn.

I almost drop it as I put it on my desk. I turn to Morgan. “I don’t know what to do!”

She sighs. “Maybe you should go talk to him. Just so that he doesn’t storm the gym tonight looking for you,” Morgan mutters. “I’ll come with you.”

Rod walks into my office. “No, I will.”

I say, “Rod, you can, but I want you to stay near the building. I don’t want you and Finn getting into a fight in the parking lot.”

He nods his head toward the door and puts his hands in his pockets. “Let’s roll.”

I answer my now constant-ringing phone as we walk to the elevator.

“Becks! I need to see you!
Please
. I’m so sorry about last night!”

“I’ll be down in three.” I snap my phone shut as Rod irritably punches the button for the lobby and the doors close.

“I mean it, Rod. Stay away. Just be there. That’s all. It’s just Finn.”

“Yeah. ‘Just Finn’ embarrassed the fuck out of you and broke your heart last night.”

“I know, but he wouldn’t ever physically hurt me.”

He inclines his head towards mine and looks hard at me. “Sometimes that hurts less.”

I retreat my gaze to the silver doors in front of us to escape his glare. “Rod, please? I’ll call you know if I need you.”

“You’d better, Hadley. I mean it, too. I’m usually an easy-going guy, but enough is fucking enough. I’m not putting up with his shit anymore. You can hate me, but I don’t care. You don’t deserve to be treated that way. I again agree with the wench upstairs, so that takes a lot to admit.”

I glance up at him. “Rod, why do you care about me so much?”

He frowns. “Because I do, so shut the fuck up.” I roll my eyes as I smile.

The doors slide open and we walk out into the lobby. I see Finn anxiously pacing and peering into the window from outside on the sidewalk. I nod and smile at the security guards at the desk. Neither one looks familiar.

“Why don’t you stay in here, Rod? I’ll be back.”

“Outside, Hadley. That was the deal.”

“Rod, it might piss him off if you’re with me.”

“I don’t give a fuck!” I cringe and look around us, hoping he didn’t offend someone. I take a deep breath as I pull open the glass door and he follows me out.

CHAPTER 18

FINN

It’s Monday morning and my head is pounding. I didn’t get any sleep last night and I had to be up early for this fucking meeting. It’s a good thing Ricky laid out my suit and tie because I would’ve shown up wearing my shorts and Richmond PD T-shirt I swiped from him a couple years ago.

Trying to be covert, I sit at the corner of the table in the rear of the conference room, sipping at a black coffee to wake me up, but it’s not helping. I don’t greet my coworkers who enter the room, but they feel the need to barrage me with good morning bylines. Not being anywhere near sociable and to not encourage any tedious banter, I mumble curt acknowledgments without making eye contact.

I want to call Becks, but then again I don’t. I don’t want to leave generic messages for her to become even more upset about. On the other hand, I want to keep calling her until she picks up her phone and beg her to forgive me, and tell her that I love her. How can I make it up to her? I’ll do anything.

I smell her perfume before she takes her seat beside me. “Good morning to you, Finn. Rough weekend?”

Raising my eyes to Cara as I also lift my mug to my mouth, I reply, “You could say that.”

“Woman troubles?” she asks with a smirk.

I eye her skeptically. “No. Why?” I lie. How does she know?

Her eyes flicker over me. “Like you don’t have women beating down your door every weekend.”

“I don’t.” Cara is one of our interns. She has short, light blonde hair, blue eyes, and freckles. I notice she’s wearing a black top that is kind of low cut. She’s definitely Ricky’s type. We’ve become friends, but I haven’t told her about Becks.

She props her elbow on the table, resting her chin on her hand. “How come I don’t believe you?”

I shrug and before I take another sip. “I have no idea.”

“So what did you do all weekend, besides race? You don’t go out on dates?”

“No.” The truth really.

She grins. “Same here. How sorry are we?”

I smile, but my mind is still preoccupied. “Very, I guess.”

She notes, “You look like you didn’t get much sleep.”

“I didn’t.”

“Oh. So, it was one of
those
kinds of weekends then.”

“Just me and a bottle of Jack.”

“Don’t you know you should never drink alone, silly?”

“No. I guess I missed that newsflash.”

“You should’ve called me. I know Jack quite well. We’re old drinking buddies.” I roll my eyes and she grins.

“Good morning, everyone,” Hank says from the front of the table. “I hope everyone had a great weekend. I know Finn did since I ran into him at the kite festival up north.” He laughs and everyone around the table looks at me and follows suit. Shoot me now.
“Is that your dare for the week, buddy?” Hal Cruise, one of the veteran weekday anchors, laughs loudly from across the table. Dick.

I nod and automatically plaster a smile on my face. “You bet. It was pretty intense.”

“Did your kite have one of those naked chick silhouettes?” Kyle, another intern, asks with a laugh. I smirk at him. That’s actually funny. I like Kyle, though. He’s cool.

“No. It was teddy bears and flowers,” says Darren Matthews, an evening anchor, clapping his hands, and tilting his chair back. Asshole.

I put my hands up. “That’s it. You guessed it. I’m pretty eclectic.”

“Is that the word you’re going with?” He laughs and smacks the table. Fucker.

“Aww. That sounds so cute,” Cara whispers with a small laugh. Right.

“Speaking of dares, I want to talk about new plans for them. It’s the offseason for football, and almost for basketball. Then school will be out for the summer. That leaves us with mostly baseball, hockey and NASCAR. We want to keep our Sports unique. Finn, you’re our go-to since you have your own segment and do most of the field reports. People love you. We want to keep you up-front and busy to keep an edge over the other networks.”

“Okay…” Shit.

“We need to expand our reach for shooting the dares. If someone from outside our viewing area wants to dare you, then we should reach out to them and include them more. That way you have an even bigger fan base; more videos to watch online and keep your reports current, and the thing to watch.”

“Okay. I’m with you so far.”

“That will mean that you’ll be going out of town more and working some weekends.”

And there it is. My weekends with Becks. Fuck. Not good.

Hank nods and says something to Jane, his 500 year-old secretary taking notes. Nice lady. Still, she makes the Crypt Keeper look like a kindergartner.

“Looks like we’ll have to drink the Jack during the week,” Cara whispers.

It also looks like I’ll never see Becks again. I think I’m going to be even more well-acquainted with Jack than I am now, as well. I swallow and stare down at the table in front of me.

Hank’s voice returns to the meeting. “Finn, what’s your dare for this week?”

With all eyes on me, I peer up to him. “Um, I’m not sure yet. I haven’t picked one.”

Darren snickers. “I thought you flew kites! Was the one with the kittens not
wild
enough for you?”

Sheena Thompkins, an anchor, laughs. “How about getting a good night’s sleep instead of partying all weekend with a new woman each night.” I grimace at her. Does
everyone
here think I’m a fucking relentless manwhore? Since most of them here know of my best friend, I should reintroduce them to the single version of Ricky Tesco.

Paul Brickman, one of the weather guys, jovially teases, “It won’t involve you, and a bunch of your FemFinnatics, will it? We all know how much those women want to dare you to do shit with the least amount of clothes as possible.” Everyone around me laughs, of course.

All of a sudden, it dawns on me what I need to do. “Hank, I have an idea. Can I talk to you about it after the meeting?”

Hal asks, “What’s wrong, Wilder? You think we’ll all laugh at you about it?”

I distractedly retort, “That’s exactly it, Hal.”

Todd Matthews, one of my fellow sportscasters, says, “Wait a minute. Is it going to be you doing water aerobics with those elderly ladies again? Because that was frickin’ hilarious!”

Paul Stoltz, another anchor, adds, “They just wanted to see you wet in those little shorts! All those grannies were checking you out the whole time!”

Sylvia Weekly, who does traffic, laughs. “Well, that one lady could not keep her hands off of him! Maybe she’s the one who gives him the hickeys!”

It’s definite. Someone needs to call Ricky and tell him I’m holding hostages, so shoot to kill.

I can’t believe I didn’t think of doing this dare before. It’s perfect. It kills two birds with one stone, that’s for sure.

I just pray it’s enough.

We step out into the hall outside of Hank’s office and he says, “That is a great dare, if that’s what you really want to do, Finn. Are you sure you want to do that, though? It may upset some of your more…avid…fans.”

“Yep. I thought about that, but I don’t think it’ll upset a whole lot of people. They’ll eventually get over it.”

“I do like it, though. It’s very unusual. Definitely edgy. They’ll see another side of you, that’s a given.”

“Yes, I know. Fans or not, I have to do it. It’ll be great.”

“Okay, then. How are you doing? You look like you had a hard night.”

“Yeah. I did.” I don’t offer more than that as Hank studies my face.

“How is Hadley doing? Is she okay?”

“Um, yes and no.” I give him a contrite smile. “We’re working on it.”

He nods while his eyes hover over my face. “I think I’m going to switch you out with Todd for noon, if you don’t mind doing his 11. You could use some sleep.”

“I do need some sleep, but I’ll have to work on my dare today.”

He laughs. “That’s true. Still, take a nap afterward.”

That probably won’t happen. “Will do.”

“I hope it works out for you. Let me know how things are going with you both. I don’t want to pry. I’m just concerned, as is Rita. Hadley seems like a lovely woman.”

“She is.”

“We hope one day we’ll formally get to meet her.”

I glance down to his dark blue, paisley tie. “Yes. You will. I’ll bring her to our next event.” Will I?

“Okay.” He inhales and says, “They called about the shoot for the dare collaboration setup. I’ll need you to go to Philadelphia Wednesday morning. I know it’s a drive and so close to Easter, but it should wrap up Friday morning.” I nod, feeling depressed again. “Milo will go with you, of course, and we’ll send Kyle as your assistant.”

This sucks. “That’ll be great.”

Hank checks his watch. “Go make your arrangements to set up your dare shoot. While you do that, I’ll fill Milo in about your dare today and the trip Wednesday, and then update Todd about noon. Don’t forget that you have to shoot new promos for
The Wild Side
at Chimborazo Park this afternoon before you start your dare.”

“I’m on it.”

“Oh. For your dare, do you think it’ll be a problem to get your camera crew in there?”

I shove my hands into my pockets and turn to leave. “No. I think they’ll love it.”

I just hope my target audience loves it, too.

“I guess we’re going to be road trip buddies.”

“Huh?”

Cara’s eyes fly over my face as she leans against my desk in the office I share with Todd and Tony. “I’m going with you and Milo to Philly.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “Oh. I thought Kyle was going?”

“His parents are coming in from out of town. He asked Hank if another intern could take his spot. I was available.”

“Okay. I’ll warn you, though. Milo snores.”

She laughs. “I’ll keep that in mind. What about you? Are you going to keep me up all night?” How come that sounds like a come-on? Ricky would know for sure if it were. Cara has always been friendly with me, so I don’t want to read too much into it.

I glance over to Tony’s tall filing cabinet, suddenly feeling awkward. “I don’t think so.”

She grins. “So, you’re not telling me what this dare is?”

I pick up my dare folder from my desk and flip through it. “Nope. It’s a secret.”

“I thought we were friends! You’re going to keep a secret from me? That’s not a great basis for an excellent friendship.”

“Well, if I tell you, then I’ll have to tell everyone’s uncle’s brother’s cousin’s aunt’s neighbor.”

She giggles. “Finn, I won’t say anything. You can tell me.” I regard her doubtingly. She rolls her eyes. “Come on!” She playfully pouts and then pulls on my suit jacket sleeve. “Let’s go have a cup of coffee and you can tell me about it.”

“Okay, but it has to be a small cup. I have to be somewhere for lunch.”

“Let’s go then.”

“What’s it with pushy women lately?” I laugh and toss my file back down onto my desk as I follow her to the kitchen.