Page 35 of Savannah Sweethearts

But there was no mistaking that tall frame, the tanned skin, the lilt of his voice. Alonso Ortiz was still in Savannah.

Alonso

Piper Campbell was back in Savannah. And I would be babysitting her for the foreseeable future. I walked into work Monday afternoon and was greeted by a name plaque on Jennifer’s old desk that read Piper Campbell in a clear, professional font. There could only be one Piper Campbell at Action News. I swallowed hard and prayed that there was some other young reporter with that name.

Hadn’t she moved somewhere up north? I had mostly lost track of her after I graduated from SCAD, but the alumni newsletter had said something about her getting a reporter position in another state a few years ago.

If the people at work thought I was goofy and disorganized now, they hadn’t seen anything compared to me in college. I partied too hard, I talked too loud, it was a miracle I had graduated at all.

I graduated a semester late, but I graduated. Piper and I interned at Action News together and shared a handful of classes. She, for whatever reason, hated me. Which was fine, because I thought she was a stuck-up snob in school. An extremely sexy and well put together snob, but still.

“Whatcha doing, AO?”

Tyrell snapped me out of my memory as I stood with my palms flat on the desk now bearing Piper’s name. I stood and turned to him. “Please tell me Piper Campbell isn’t a leggy girl with long, dark curls.”

It took a second for Tyrell to answer. “Um, okay. I will not tell you that. Because she was a leggy girl with short, dark hair.”

I pulled up a picture of her from Instagram. Long, pale legs folded up under herself with long, dark hair cascading over her shoulders as she stared into the camera. “Please, please, please tell me this is not the girl who is coming in today.”

With a glance, my friend nodded. “That would be the woman. I take it you know her?”

The urge to pound my fist on the desk was strong, but I stopped myself. Instead, I ran my hands through my already untamed curly hair. “I do. We went to SCAD together. She hated me.”

“I’m sure that’s water under the bridge now, man. You’re not stupid kids anymore, right? You’re both working professionals.” He led me to my edit bay.

My eyes falling on Rex, I begged him to swap with me. “I can’t work with her, Rex. How about I take Russ off your hands and you get the new girl?”

Without missing a beat, Rex shot up a hand to stop me. “Do you really think Lil will be okay with my working with a fresh young girl day in and day out while she’s at home crying in expressed milk?”

I blinked. What kind of milk? Could you get milk expressed to you from Door Dash? Whatever. “Please. I know her. It won’t work out.”

Tyrell interjected. “Face it, AO, you’re going to have to get along with the hot new reporter.” He laughed and walked away, leaving me red-faced in the darkened room.

It was a good thing the room was dark. Despite her snobbery, I had nursed a crush on Piper Campbell for the two years I knew her in college. She was poised and organized and sure of her place in the world. I was chaotic, loud, and as unconfident as one got. When we got the internships at Action News together, I had been thrilled. Until I nearly ruined her career over a stupid prank.

I still remembered what she was wearing that day. A pastel pink dress with a dark sweater over it. She had been working on her audition package and I offered to help her. She had reluctantly accepted. Except I replaced her already edited footage with B-roll of squawking ducks and stampeding cows. I didn’t delete her package, just swapped it out. I thought she would check it one last time before presenting it to her advisor, we would laugh about it, and I would swap it back for her original footage. A silly prank.

Piper didn’t do the last check. And her advisor - a large woman with the unfortunate surname of Duckson - thought the piece was a direct insult from Piper to her. I confessed my foul and gave Piper the correct version. I even told Duckson that my footage about a farm got mixed up with Piper’s story on childhood poverty. It kept her from receiving any disciplinary action, but the damage was done.

“I will never forgive you as long as I live, Alonso Ortiz! I can’t wait to get far away from Savannah and you.” She practically spat at me. Tears streamed down her cheeks and her long, dark hair stuck to the wetness.

“I’m so sorry. You know I would never want to hurt your career goals.” I pleaded with her as she stormed across campus.

“You don’t take anything in life seriously. One day you’ll need to actually focus and do work, Alonso. You can’t keep playing jokes like you’re ten anymore. Grow up.” With a huff, she spun on her heel and took off in the opposite direction.

That prank might have caused big problems for her, but it saved me. Her words were the push I needed to see a therapist, get my ADHD diagnosis, and start sorting my life out. I learned how to focus after that fiasco, and I had Piper to thank for it. Not that I had ever actually thanked her. Though maybe now that I had the opportunity, I should.

She was back in the city and back in this newsroom, and I knew it wouldn’t go well. I didn’t follow her on social media, but I knew how to find her. I didn’t figure she would appreciate my trying to be her friend or follower or whatever. Best to stay under her laser-eyed radar.

The last time I had checked up on her Instagram, she was sporting some sparkly hardware on her left hand. I wondered if her fiancé had moved with her to Savannah and if he had managed to tame the overly organized beast that was Piper Campbell. I pulled her account back up and looked through her pictures. The engagement photos were notably gone and it looked like she had trekked back to Georgia on her own.

So not only was Piper back, but a broken-hearted Piper was back. Just great. I should make up my will because there’s no way I could survive working with her. The next few days waiting for her to walk into the studio would be exquisite torture. My last days of freedom, and possibly of life.

Come on, AO, you’re being quite dramatic. Certainly she’s forgotten all about you like Tyrell said, right? You can start on a clean slate and reintroduce yourself all over again. Maybe be friends. Maybe more than that...

Whoa, those old feelings knew right where they had left off. I needed to push her from my mind for now. There was work to be done. Rex strolled in and settled a few feet away in his office chair, getting to work on a package for Russ. We didn’t talk, which suited me fine. I needed to focus on a piece for Karry Draper.

Thanks to Piper and her rage, I was on medication to help me focus, and that’s exactly what I did for the next several hours.

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