Page 47 of Dirty News
Nina and I left together. She wanted to see her aunt, so she and I caught a ride together to go to the bed and breakfast. After the visit with her aunt was done, she came up to my room to see me for a littlevisit.
Everyone was getting excited about going live now that the premiere was just a couple days away. I was nervous as well. “Nina, I can’t believe we’re so close. I’ve got goosebumps nearly all the time now.” Duke was part of that reason too, but I couldn’t tell herthat.
“I bet you do. You’re going to be in front of the camera—your whole life is probably going to change. I’m not as nervous since I’ll be behind the scenes. It takes some of the pressure off for me.” She took a drink of the wine I’d poured us. “I need to use your facilities, Lila. This wine has gone straight through me, itseems.”
Jerking my head toward the bathroom door, I said, “You know where itis.”
Just as she closed the door behind her, a knock came to my door. I got up and went to see who it could possibly be. When I peeked out the little peephole, I found Duke standingthere.
I opened the door quickly, hissing, “Nina’s here. What’re you doing here,Duke?”
He just smiled at me like it wasn’t a problem at all. “You and I have forgotten to exchange phone numbers, Lila. And as co-anchors, we should have them. Chill out, baby. I can play thisoff.”
I stood there, not knowing what to do. But when the bathroom door opened and Nina came out, the decision was taken out of my hands as she asked, “Who’s here?” She saw Duke, who stood there waving at her. “Oh, it’s you, Duke. What brings you here?” She glanced at me before looking back athim.
“Lila and I haven’t exchanged phone numbers yet. Artimus said we should just in case we needed to do any prep for the premiere outside of work hours. I stopped by to grab her number. How’s it going, Nina?” Duke came inside as I stepped back to let him in. Might as well, since he’d already come up with his littleplan.
But I didn’t feel good about things at all. I didn’t want to be found out this close to our first newscast. I wanted to at least get on the air once before I gotfired.
“It’s going good, Duke.” She took a seat on the small chair at the table for two near the bed. The only other place to sit was a small loveseat, and I took a seat onit.
Duke sat right next to me. He held out his hand. “Give me your cell, and I’ll put my name and number in yourcontacts.”
I had to get up to grab my phone off the nightstand by my bed. As I walked back to him, Nina asked, “And how did you know where Lila lived,Duke?”
Only Duke could see me, and I knew my eyes had grown to the size of saucers at her question. He was playing it cool as he answered, “I’ve been herebefore.”
Before he could go and confess anything, my brain took over and I sat down, handing him my phone and taking over the story. “We were sharing a cab, and I’d gotten out of the car without my purse. Duke noticed before they got too far away, and he ran it up to me. He caught me heading up the stairs. He said he called out to me, but I didn’t hear. I didn’t realize I’d left my purse until I get to my door and needed the key, and when I turned around to run after the cab I saw Duke, wiggling my purse atme.”
Duke had finished putting his number in my phone. Then he called his phone from mine and saved his number. “There, we can communicate effectively now.” He looked at the two glasses of wine, Nina’s empty, mine half full. “And if I recall correctly, you invited me in and gave me a glass of Scotch. You have any of thatleft?”
Nina’s eyebrows shot up, and I wanted to kick Duke in the shin for what he’d said. “You invited him in?” she sputtered. “And gave him alcohol? You two were drinking alcohol together? All alone?” She shook her head. “This is notgood.”
“Why’s that?” Duke asked as he got up and went to the dresser where the Scotch still was and poured himself a glass. Then he came back with the open bottle of wine and filled both our glasses. “Which one is yours,Nina?”
She pointed. “The one on theright.”
He took it to her. “Now, why is it okay for you two to have a couple of drinks together and she and I can’t? We are friends, you know. We will be working closely together from now on. Why wouldn’t we getalong?”
Nina sipped the wine while I tried not to freak out and gulp mine down like a lunatic who was close to being caught in an affair that would end my career before it evenbegan.
“Well, I guess you’re right. It’s just that the strict rules of the company have me on edge. I don’t know what’s okay and what’s not. Like the camera crew was all together the other day. The others headed off, and Ashton and I were left alone in the studio. He asked me if I wanted to go grab a bite to eat and I told him that wasn’t a good idea with the rule and all.” She took a long drink, and I could tell she was a littleworried.
Duke asked, “Did he make you feel uncomfortable, Nina?” He genuinely looked concerned about her, which softened my heart toward the man evenmore.
“No,” Nina shook her head. “Not at all. I like Ashton.” She stopped abruptly. “Not like in an inappropriate way or anything like that. Please don’t tell anyone I said that. I just mean that I like him as a person, is all. If there weren’t the rules at work, then I would’ve gone to eat with him like it wasn’t a big deal oranything.”
Nodding with complete understanding, Duke and I both knew what she was talking about. Things were hard to understand, and it felt like everyone was under a microscope. What could we do, and what couldn’t wedo?
So I offered her my advice. “I think going to grab a bite to eat with a coworker of the opposite sex is okay. Duke and I have eaten together on a few occasions, and Artimus has come into the café, and he even joined us once. He never said a word about it being a problem. He even told us that he hoped we wouldn’t let the anchor job wouldn’t stop us from becoming friends when that was still all up in the air. He does want us all to get along—just nothorizontally.”
Nina nodded, and Duke had a look that worried me a bit. “Nina, don’t let anyone ever get away with doing anything or asking you anything that makes you uncomfortable. But if someone asks you if you want to grab a bite to eat and you want to go, you shouldn’t overthink it. Don’t let all this harassment stuff interfere with anything that’s not harassment, you know what Imean?”
“I know it shouldn’t be this complicated, but I feel like Artimus is just watching us all so closely and it’s gotten confusing. You guys should do a show on this stuff.” She sipped her drink. “You know, to help others understand the difference between harassment and genuine attraction, and how a person can go about figuring out if another person is attracted to you without making them feel odd aboutit.”
“I wish I knew how to explain that,” Duke said before putting the glass to hislips.
“Me too,” I added. “I guess it’s kind of hard to put into words. But the bottom-line is that if someone asks you to do something you don’t want to, then you can say no. If they threaten to fire you or blackmail you over not doing what they’ve asked, then that’s unacceptable, and you should report that right away. If a man asks you out and you don’t want to go out with him, you tell him no thank you, and if he respects your answer then that’s okay. I think it’s mostly just about respect,right?”
