Rock Radio (12 page)

“Oh, Cody!” she squealed with delight, wildly tearing away his clothes, revealing his tanned, muscled frame.

He unclipped her bra with ease removing it with his mouth.  This was revenge sex.  His hands moved intently down her body, deftly sliding off her skirt.

“Cody, you are amazing!” she murmured running her hands across his body.

You see Laura, someone wants me,
he thought as he ripped off the blonde’s panties and threw her on the bed taking everything his ego desired.

                                                                      *
             

Cody woke up the next morning with a huge headache.  He barely remembered the night before.  He rolled over and saw the naked girl next to him.

Oh, yeah.

The drinks.

The show.

The sex.

He didn’t even know her name.  He tapped her on the shoulder.

“Cody.” 
She smiled at him with expectant eyes.

“Hey...ummm...”

“Michelle.”

“I knew, that...Michelle.”

“No, you didn’t,” she said kissing his ear, “but, that’s okay.  I bet you won’t forget it now.”

Cody sighed.  He had to figure out how to get rid of her.

There was a knock at the door.  Cody pushed her away dismissively and grabbed the sheet to pull around his waist.  “Probably Alex,” he said walking to the door and opening it.

It was Laura.

“Cody,” she said, eyes red, words rushing from her mouth, “maybe I made a mistake.”

Cody was so happy to see her, he couldn’t believe it.

“Laura, I thought you had a test...you said it was over...”

“I did, I mean, I do, but I couldn’t let you go so easy.  Not after all we’d been through.”

“Oh, Laura.”  Cody was stunned and ashamed.

“Co-dy...”  Michelle’s voice broke the moment.

A look of sheer horror came across Laura’s face as she pushed passed Cody into the room.

“It’s not what you think,” he said, not knowing why he bothered to lie.

Laura’s eyes grew wide as she saw Michelle, naked, sprawled across the bed.  An empty condom wrapper glared like a neon sign from the nightstand.

“Oh, my God,” she exhaled, “Oh my God!”  Laura ran out of the room with tears burning in her eyes.

“Laura,” Cody called out, running after her down the hall with the sheet wrapped around him.

He caught up to her at the elevator.  She was pushing the down button repeatedly.

“Stay away from me,” she hissed.

“Laura, I thought it was over, I thought...”

“I’m glad I meant so much to you that three days later you could jump into bed with some tramp.”  Tears fell down her face like rain.

“I’m so sorry...” he whispered.

“I’m the one who’s sorry for ever loving someone like you.”

Cody had no response.

“It is over Cody.  It is really over.”

The elevator opened and Laura went inside.  Cody didn’t bother to follow her.  It was no use.  She was right.

It was over.

Jonny just finished his last break when Dana came in for her shift.

“Hey Jonny.”

“How you feeling today, Dana?”

“Not much better,” she sighed.  “You know, I can’t believe I haven’t heard from Sam since he left.  We lived together.  Don’t you think he’d at least call to see how I was doing?”

“Men are pigs.”

She leaned against the opposite side of the console.  “You speak from experience?”

“I’ll ignore that remark given your delicate state.”  He smiled at her.

Dana returned the grin.  “You’re sooo sensitive.”

“The songs almost up Dana, you gotta talk.”

Dana walked around the console and took the headphones from Jonny.

“Good evening...Dana Drew here, back again for four hours of music and mayhem.  Let’s kick off this rock block with a little Pearl Jam.”  She hit the music and took off the headphones.  The phone board lit up.

“Looks like you’ve got listener calls already,” Jonny observed.

“Don’t go anywhere, I still wanna talk to you.”

Dana hit the button on the audio board to answer the phone.  The phone line ran through the board to record listeners they wanted to put on the air.  Dana spoke into the microphone to talk to the listeners while their voice came over the speakers.  If she was recording them, their voice only came through her headphones.  She wasn’t recording the call.

“Hello…Dana Drew here.”

“Hi Dana, it’s Larry.”

“Larry, hi, what can I do you for?”

“Dana, it’s your friend, Larry.  We finally met in person last night.”

“Oh, right, Larry.  How the hell are ya?”  Dana shrugged her shoulders at Jonny and mouthed, “chronic.”  He understood immediately.  Some listeners truly believed the deejays were their friends.  They listened every day and felt close to the jocks.  Unlike TV, radio deejays were accessible.  You could call them and see them at appearances.  “Chronics” were the ones who confused the line between show and reality.

“I’m great now that we finally met.  I gotta thank you for your advice.  You were right.  I could do much better than my ex.”

“Glad I could help.”  Dana distractedly flipped through the liner cards for her show that evening.

“Me too.  So what’s new in your life?”

“Everything’s okay Larry...” she motioned to Jonny to interrupt the call.

“Dana,” Jonny said loudly, “I have to talk to you.”

“Oh, sorry Larry, I have to go.  That’s my boss.  He needs me.”

“Sure Dana, I understand.  I’ll call you later.”

“Great,” she answered and hung up, then turned to Jonny.  “Thanks.  That guy’s been calling like crazy today.  He left some messages on my voicemail and he showed up last night at Scully’s, wanted a picture with me.”

“Maybe he’ll make you forget about Sam.”

“Oh, yeah, right.”

“Dana, you’ll get over him and you’ll start to feel better.  You’re still young.”

“I may be young, but that doesn’t mean I’m not ready to settle down.”

“Don’t let your fans hear that.  Somehow Dana Drew in a house with a white picket fence and two point five kids doesn’t fit the image.”

“The image is when I’m at work, not at home.”

“You can let yourself believe that Dana, but you know as well as I do it’s hard to leave the job behind.”

“I know.  I still want to do it though.”

“You’ll get what you want.  Sam just wasn’t the one, but, hey...maybe he’ll hear your voice in his car and realize what a mistake he’s made.”

Dana’s face brightened.  “You think?”

“Who knows?  Don’t count on it though, just get on with your life.”

“Easy for you to say.”  She twirled a lock of black hair through her fingers.  “How’s Jill by the way?”

“She’s fine.  She’s swamped with a big project at work.  She has to partner with Nick Coleman.”

“Poor Jill.”

“I know.”

“Well, send her my sympathies.”

“I will.”  He looked at his watch.  “Speaking of Jill, I better go.  Don’t want to be late for dinner.”

“No, we wouldn’t want that.”

“Hav
e a good night Dana,” Jonny said, his voice softening.  “I mean it, take care of yourself.”

“Thanks I appreciate it.”

Larry Carter took out the picture from the night before and studied it.  Dana’s smile looked fake he decided.  She didn’t seem genuinely happy.  Although, he did have to admit, they made a stunning couple.

He had doubles made of the photo and was going to send her a copy.  He wanted to enclose a letter, he just wasn’t sure what to write.  He bought a sweet card with a picture of a rose on the front.  The card was blank inside.  None of the messages in the other cards said what he wanted to say.  He stared at the blank space in front of him.  He didn’t know exactly what to say either.

Larry pulled a scrap piece of paper and began writing, scribbling out words as he went along.  Two hours later he had the perfect message.  Carefully he wrote his inscription inside the card, taking time to make sure each letter was even with the last.

Dearest Dana,

Roses are red

Violets are blue

You were meant for me

And I was meant for you

Love,

Larry

He was impressed at his own heartfelt creativity.  Beneath the last line he printed his phone number, then he placed the picture inside the card and put it in a bright red envelope.  He wanted to catch her attention.  With a thin black marker he addressed the card to Miss Dana Drew care of the radio station, placed a stamp on the envelope so it made a perfect right ang
le with the corner and drove to the post office to mail it.

Romance was definitely in the air.

Jonny and his wife actually had a romantic Friday night.

Jonny arrived home to find a candlelit dinner and soft music.  Jill was dressed in a short black silk nightgown.

             
She looked good.

Jonny and Jill ate dinner and had the comfortable conversation that only comes from years together.  They laughed over wine
, flirted and ended up in bed.

It was nice for Jonny to be with his wife.  They shared an intimacy that wasn’t easily duplicated.  He did truly love her.  It felt good to fall asleep in her arms.

At three-twenty four a.m. the phone rang.

“Hello,” Jill answered sleepily.

“Hey I’m looking for Jonny,” a woman’s voice said.

Jill was instantly awake.  “And you are?”

“Heather, I’m on the air and I’m having a problem.  Is Jonny there?”

“Oh, hang on.”  Jill was used to problem calls from the new overnighters.  She shook Jonny.  “Hey, wake up.  It’s someone named Heather from the station.”

Jonny jumped awake, sleep making him forget she was on the air tonight.  “Why is she calling here...?” he said without thinking.

“She says she’s having a problem on the air.”

“Oh, yeah,” he said quickly, grabbing the phone from Jill.

“This is Jonny, what’s up?”

“Jonny, it’s Heather...did you hear my last break?  The guy I was talking about was you.”

“So the computer isn’t loading the next song on the log?” he replied.  Jonny couldn’t believe this.  It was the middle of the night.  He was in bed with his wife.  Where was her discretion?  Then again, what did he expect?  She was so young.

“Oh, you can’t talk,” she said, catching on slowly.

“Yeah, just locate the song in the computer and drag it over.”

“Listen to my next break, I’m thinking of you.”

“Keep it professional,” he warned.

“I will baby, thanks.”

Jonny gave the phone back to Jill who he knew heard the whole convers
ation.  Well, just his half he hoped.

“Inexperience, huh?” she said rolling on top of Jonny.

“Yeah,” he answered, distracted.  Jill tried to start something, but he didn’t want to.  Heather was starting to make him nervous and when he was afraid, he had no desire.

“What’s the
matter?  Don’t you want me?”

“I’m tired Jill, sorry.”  Jonny rolled over.

Jill breathed heavily.  Frustrated.

                                                                      *
                                         

Jonny woke up Saturday morning knowing he had to talk to Heather.   She wasn’t going to the station today, he wasn’t due there either, but he knew he needed to see her to cool things off.

“Jill, I’m going to take a quick ride to the store to get bagels.  I’ll be right back.”

“Okay.”

Jonny got in his car and called Heather immediately.  It was nine in the morning, she got off the air just three hours ago so she was still asleep.

“Hello.”  She sounded groggy.

“Heather it’s Jonny.  We need to talk.  Meet me at the station at noon.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Oh, so it’s something good,” she said.

“Uh, yeah, just meet me there.  And bring your air check tape.”  He hung up the phone abruptly, throwing in the line about the air check tape to give some credence to their meeting in case it was ever questioned.  The station was open twenty-four hours a day, seven day a week with people working there all the time - on air personalities and sometimes even salespeople who needed the quiet of the weekend to get things done.  While the weekends were significantly less busy than the weekdays, they would still be seen.  He thought of meeting her someplace out of Miami, but that, he felt, was even more dangerous.  At the station they could be there for a legitimate reason, any place else was suspect.