AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I glanced across the desk. April was smiling at me. She gave me a wink of encouragement.
“Okay…” I leaned in to the mic and lowered my voice, making my tone personal and whispered. “Missy, this is Jericho James. I’m talking to you now - the woman who is John’s wife and submissive. I want you to take a step back… give the man some time and space to develop. I want you to appreciate the fact that you have a man in your life who loves you enough to want to change for you. Now, let him change, in his own way, and at his own pace…”
I nodded at April and she intercepted the call. Her voice, after mine, sounded loud and effusive.
“Thanks for being a part of the program, John,” she said as more music began to filter through the background. “And good luck with your lady love.”
By 4am I was exhausted. The rest of the phones had come back online, and the three hours that followed the sub-club segment were filled with callers as we struggled to get the program back onto schedule and fulfill our commitments to advertisers.
When April finally signed off for the night and sat back with a weary sigh, I knew exactly how she felt.
I snatched the headphones off and scraped my fingers through my hair.
“Well that was hectic.” Somehow April managed a smile.
I nodded. “Do the phone lines go off the grid often?”
April shook her head. “Rarely,” she said, and then shrugged her shoulders. “But hey, this is radio. There are a million things that can, and do, go wrong.”
I got up out of my chair, stretched and yawned. April snatched up her handbag. “See you tomorrow?”
I smiled. “Of course. I’ll be here by 11:30pm.”
April laughed, and somehow I missed the mockery. I rubbed my eyes. They felt red raw, as if someone had thrown a handful of grit into them. I was looking forward to a long sleep.
“Tomorrow is Tuesday,” April reminded me abruptly. “8:30am meeting in the dragon-slayer’s office for all on-air announcers. Be there – or risk the wrath of the evil one.”
Chapter 28.
All of the station’s on-air announcers were gathered in Nancy’s office when I arrived the following morning. There were about a dozen people, which included the weekend teams. The only person missing was the guy from the breakfast show – and that was because he was on air until 10am.
Heads turned as I entered the office and silence descended on the gathering. They looked me over with curiosity and the kind of veiled resentment that greets any new person into such a group. I returned everyone’s gaze, my eyes steady. They were an unusual mix of people – an eclectic mix of shapes and sizes and ages. Most of the announcers were men. I saw April in a corner of the office. She looked like a delicate rose in a field of scruffy thorns. She waved at me. She was talking to Cindy. The young secretary had a clutch of folders held to her chest. She handed one to April, glanced at me, and then drifted silently away into the mingle of bodies.
I gestured with my thumb. “Have I done something to piss her off?” I glanced over my shoulder. Cindy was handing out the folders to all the other broadcasters.
April shrugged. “Not that I know of. Maybe you have that effect on all women.” She smiled.
“Well have I pissed you off yet?”
She rolled her eyes with the kind of theatrical drama that only a woman knows. “Every night,” she teased me. “Every single night.”
I glanced again at Cindy before she disappeared through the office door. There was a wiggle in her bottom that I hadn’t noticed before – a provocative tease in the way she walked…
“Maybe she’s just shy,” April laughed aloud like she had just delivered the punch line to the joke of the century.
Not funny.
The sound of conversations ebbed and flowed around the room for a few more minutes and then Nancy came through the door. She had a Styrofoam cup in her hand and a scowl on her face. Tucked awkwardly under her arm were long rolls of paper like architect plans. She lifted her arm like it was a wing, and the papers fell in a heap on her desk.
“Sit, sit,” Nancy said. There were chairs stacked against the wall. Everyone found a piece of floor space and we sat, sat.
Nancy flicked her eyes over the group, maybe taking a silent roll call to be certain everyone had arrived. Her gaze as it swept over me became an abrupt glare – no sign of recognition.
“Okay, let’s get down to it.” The way she spoke it was clear that she had no good news. She unrolled one of the tubes of paper and turned to pin it on a presentation stand beside her desk. It was a graph of some sort – a squiggle of lines in red and blue. There was more red than blue.
Nancy slapped a point on the chart and turned to the assembled group. “Revenues are down in three key areas – breakfast, drive time and afternoons,” she said. “We’re four percent behind last quarter, and we’re getting our ass kicked in the important demographics…” she paused for a moment as if seeking out the broadcasters who covered those shifts, and then her gaze turned to steel and her voice rose to a seething accusation. “What the fuck are you assholes doing to my radio station?”
There was tense silence. No one spoke. Nancy ripped down the chart and pinned the next one up. This one was different – a blue rising line.
“The graveyard shift is the only program that is performing above revenue projections,” she said. She fixed her eyes on April like I was invisible. “Well done.” Nancy didn’t smile and the praise was grudging, delivered in a gruff voice. “The figures I am seeing indicate that listener numbers have more than tripled in the last week alone, and advertisers are now being charged a premium. Your show is carrying the load for everyone else who is failing miserably!” Her voice became shrill. I saw grown men around me cringing. Nancy huffed and her mouth twisted into a snarl. “Meeting over,” she decided. “Fix your fucking programs or start looking for new careers.”
Everyone got to their feet at once, keen to clear the room. Nancy caught my eye. “Stay,” she said.
I glanced at April. She looked worried. I gave her a reassuring smile and she fled from the office. Suddenly Nancy and I were alone. She stalked to the door and pulled it shut with a violent slam.
I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my jeans. “Very inspiring,” I said casually. “That’s the kind of pep talk Hitler used to give to his Generals.”
Nancy turned on me. There was a wild fury in her eyes. Her arms were folded across her chest. She hadn’t heard a word I had said. She was breathing hard, panting with pent up rage.
“Did you fuck her?”
I blinked. “What?”
“Did you fuck her?” Nancy shouted. She was incensed with anger. Her eyes were black, her face twisted into an ugly mask of hatred.
I frowned. “Fuck who?”
“April!” she screamed at me, h
er voice cracking in a shriek of indignation.
For long seconds there was only silence in the room. Nancy was trembling with pain and anguish. Her jaw was clenched tight, her hands gripped into fists.
“No,” I said calmly, holding her gaze, not blinking, not averting my eyes – just staring at her with sincerity. “No, I didn’t. I haven’t.”
Nancy’s expression became incredulous. Her expression changed and then changed again. She shook her head at last, in a gesture that was bleak with despair and disappointment. “You’re denying it,” she said, the words hollow, empty with desolation.
“Of course I am denying it,” I said. “Nancy, I don’t know what you think, or what you might have heard, but it’s wrong. April and I have become good friends and nothing more. We are not lovers.”
She glared at me and I saw the fury reappear in her eyes. “You lying bastard…”
My hand snapped out – like the strike of a snake – and I grasped her wrist and tugged her to me. She gasped in surprise. I pressed my face close to hers and my expression turned black.
“I am not lying,” I snarled through clenched teeth. “I am telling you the truth. And if you are going to submit to me, you are going to need to learn to trust me.”
Nancy froze. She wanted to believe me – I could see it in her face. I let go of her wrist. Her arm fell limp to her side. She staggered away from me and paced the room, prowling with her brow furrowed, her lips pinched into a dark scowl. She glanced up at me and then looked away again, eyes on the carpet, circling me like a shark.
“You need to trust me…” I said again.
Nancy stopped pacing.
“How can I?” she cried out. Her voice rose sharply, and then suddenly everything she had held pent up spilled out in a torrent of tortured words. “You tell me you didn’t fuck April, but Grover tells me you did! He saw you, Jericho. He saw you through the blinds while you were doing last night’s program!”
