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Holly
It appears that news travels fast because as I make my way through the already busy office, there’s an excitement building that’s unusual. Whispered conversations over computer screens and nervous glances make me wonder what I missed. I’ve only been gone ten minutes and I’ve walked into a nervous ball of energy that wasn’t there a short time ago.
The coffee is taken without a look in my direction. No thanks, no smile, just an understanding it’s my job and I feel invisible most of the time because these reporters are just like me—ambitious.
I don’t have the courage to ask what’s happening because any words I speak may as well be background noise for all the attention they get. Yes, I’m on the bottom rung of the ladder and nobody is in a hurry to let me pass.
I make it to Ray’s office and pull myself up straighter. Nobody else matters but him because he is the key to my future and is the only man I need to impress, so I fix a smile on my face and tap lightly on the door.
“What?”
He sounds angry, fearful even, and a cold feeling washes over me as I step inside the room, sensing change in the air.
I approach his desk, but his attention is firmly fixed on the monitor on his desk and he doesn’t even acknowledge my presence as I set the mug down on the coaster that tells everyone he’s the boss.
I hover awkwardly as if waiting for words of thanks, maybe even an explanation of what’s happening, but all I get is air and so, with a sigh, I turn to the door and head outside.
The office is always busy, that kind of comes with the territory, but today there’s a nervousness that I can’t place and I even see Wayne whispering earnestly in the corner with his colleague Mason and whatever they’re saying, it’s not good news.
Taking to my desk, I glance at my own computer screen and see the reason for the madness staring me right in the face.
For some reason, my heart starts beating even faster and I feel the sweat dripping down my back as I stare at the email that has circulated among the entire staff.
Staff meeting at 10 am. All staff to attend. Dexter Prince has an announcement to make.
Unlike my peers, a shiver of excitement passes through my veins because I sense change.
Dexter Prince is coming here.
In all the time I’ve worked for him, I’ve never actually met him and for the most part, have never wanted to.
Even his name invokes fear and casts a shadow over the day. They whisper his name and tremble in their shoes at the thought he may even look in their general direction.
The man in charge. The playboy owner of Media Corp and a man who resides in his ivory tower and invokes fear in his employees.
His temper is legendary and his reach impressive and no other media organization can hold a candle to him. He is the best and deserves to sit on his throne as the biggest bastard of them all and rather than feel afraid, I am now more excited than I have ever been in my life. Bring it on because I can’t wait to see perfection at its most raw, its most gritty and finally meet the man who has inspired me since I first decided I wanted a career in journalism.
It takes all my concentration to get through the next hour. Alyson stops by my desk and whispers, “Change of plan, we leave at eleven after the meeting. I must say I’m nervous. Do you think our jobs are on the line?”
I look up in surprise because somebody here is actually asking what I think and I’m so taken aback, I just stare at her for a moment as she bites her nails that have never been allowed to grow past the tip, and looks as if she’s about to hyperventilate.
“Do you?”
I keep my voice steady and she shrugs. “Who knows, but I swear something’s going down because that man doesn’t just visit on a whim. Something’s happened and it may cost us our livelihood. Maybe he’s replacing us with technology or something. I wouldn’t be surprised.”
Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I’m guessing Alyson was a graduate of Wayne’s career progression program because she certainly fits the mold. Blue-eyed blonde with a stick thin body and no morals whatsoever. Rumor has it, she even spread them for Ray, which is how she got to be a reporter in charge of local affairs. Ironic really, when he’s a married man. Having spent time shadowing her moves, I’m under no illusion she got where she is by hard work and a knack for a story. A high school graduate could write a better piece than her and it makes my blood boil when I think of the easy hall pass girls like her get, while the rest of us struggle to even get noticed.
She shrugs and turns her attention to the next group of people and as they huddle in the corner with their heads bent, once again I feel increasingly out of the loop. I know I don’t play the game. I won’t lower myself to their level and do what’s expected. I don’t gossip, and I don’t join them on their drug-fueled binges on Friday night after work.
I work. Period.
I resist the office gossip and I don’t make small talk. I am driven by a hunger I can’t explain and I crave success, recognition and a glowing career that wins me awards and cements my future as a premier journalist admired by everyone. Which is why I struggle to move past the bottom rung, because it appears the only way up is to lower your standards and abandon your principles.
Briefly, I wonder if the story I submitted has rocked the boat a little. I took a chance and wrote an article that nobody asked me to. I had some information that I ran with and let it fly. I wonder if it landed on the wrong desk and yet far from feeling worried about that, I hope it did because the only way I will get anywhere here is by taking a chance. That’s why I submitted an explosive piece that would rival any breaking scandal that will keep the wires buzzing for weeks.
Hunter Blake. The King of Wall Street is struggling, and that alone is news in itself, but when I was passed some information on his current love interest, it made for interesting reading. Lexi Mackenzie, trailer trash made good and word is she definitely spread her legs to get where she is now. Riding Hunter Blake to the finish and propelling herself up the ladder on a rocket ship.
Part of me felt bad for ripping her reputation to shreds and blaming her for Hunter Blake’s fall from grace, but I’m a journalist and deal with facts that are dressed up to sell news subscriptions and go viral. I had some powerful intelligence and rather than run it by Ray, I took a chance and pressed ‘send’ in one rash moment of destiny.
I doubt it’s the reason the great man himself is paying us a visit because that just doesn’t make sense, so it must be something way bigger than that and the reporter in me is sharpening her pencil and turning to a clean page in her notebook because 10 am can’t come quickly enough for me.
