Page 17 of No More Heartbreakers

“Good evening. I’m Heidi Haynes, and this is THE ten o’clock news.”

It was our station’s little dig at the other network affiliate serving the local viewing area. They also had ten o’clock newscasts, but ours killed theirs in the ratings.

If you didn’t emphasize the “THE” every time you said it, you’d get a call from Mr. Aubrey, who apparently did nothing but watch every minute of every newscast produced by his station, making sure his employees followed therules.

By the first commercial break, my nerves had dissipated. I laughed and chatted with Glenn and Allison. Live TV could be nerve-wracking, but it was also fun.

At 10:25, Aric walked onto the set and slid into his chair during the final commercial break. Andwow.

He wore a charcoal gray suit, crisp white dress shirt, and a beautiful tie containing threads of turquoise that transformed his eyes into the most amazing shade of Greek Island seawater.

“So how’s it going out here? Are we informing the masses and increasing viewership?” He gave me a smile that wrinkled the corners of his eyes and stole my breath as he clipped on his microphone.

I looked down to re-shuffle my scripts, stalling for a few seconds to recover. “You bet. Ratings are going up as we speak. Want me to introduce you?”

“Sure. They want us to chat a minute off the top anyway. What are you going to say?”

“I don’t know—how about: this is our new sports guy, he sleeps all day, swims in a Speedo, and discos like Michael?”

Aric laughed and put a hand to his forehead, covering his eyes. “God, no. Please don’t mention the Speedo. Or the dancing. I may never be forgiven by the camouflage-wearing, pickup-driving contingent of our audience. I may even get beat up.”

He put his hands together in a prayer position. “I’m at your mercy.”

“Hmmm…” I grinned. “I’ll think about it. It is live TV, though. You never knowwhatdamning words might come out of my mouth.” I arched an eyebrow at him.

“In three…” The director let us know we were coming back from commercial, and then Aric and I were live on a two-shot.

“Welcome back. We’ve got a new member of the WPVG family we’d like you to meet—Aric Amore is joining us from Minnesota. But you’re originally from California, right?”

Aric gave me a grateful smile before turning to dazzle the people watching at home in their pj’s.

No doubt the ratingswouldgo up, but it would have more to do with those perfect teeth than anything I did.

He did a nice job with the sportscast, especially for his first night, and he didn’t seem nervous at all.

Damn him and his never-ending confidence.

After the newscast, the crew congratulated Aric and me on getting through our first show together. Allison told us goodnight and scooted out to try to salvage at least a partial Saturday night.

Entering the newsroom, I saw the back of Mara’s head in an edit bay. A day of doing grunt work shooting in the field will motivate you to work on your reel for sure.

Only Aric and I were left in the newsroom, packing up our things. He walked over to my desk, draping his suit bag over my chair.

“So, you feeling better?” he asked, no doubt alluding to our pre-show collision outside the bathroom.

“Yeah, I’m fine now. I just get a little keyed up beforehand. It’s embarrassing.”

“Nah—you shouldn’t be embarrassed. It’s common. My problem is I’m so hyped when I finish. Like right now—I won’t be able to sleep for hours.” He paused. “Want to go get a drink or something?”

“Oh.” Caught off-guard again. He had a gift for doing that to me. “I’m gonna just go home. I’m pretty wiped out.”

“Okay. Well, maybe tomorrow before work you could show me around town or something? Maybe we could go get some lunch. I gotta try this famous Southern food—”

“I don’t think so.”

I didn’t know what to say. I felt bad for the guy—he was lonely in a new town—but I couldnotbe alone with him.

“I can’t—sorry.”

---