Channel 20 Something by Amy Patrick Read Free Book Online Page A

stand-ups, though.”
    I stood abruptly. “Thanks for your opinion, Matt Lauer. I’ll get to work on that.” I moved toward the door, making it clear I wanted to get out of the cramped space. He was filling up entirely too much of it for my comfort.
    Aric didn’t move. “You know, your accent is really cute when you’re annoyed.”
    “I don’t have an accent. Excuse me, please.”
    That drew a laugh from him. “You definitely do. Every word is at least two syllables. Even ‘have’—you say it like ‘hay-av.’ It’s adorable.”
    He finally stepped aside, and I pushed past him, heading for my desk. “Well, my voice coach is totally fired.” I slammed my things down on my desktop a little too hard and started sorting through the notes left there for me by the morning crew. “Apparently I’ve been wasting money I don’t have to waste.”
    “Hey. Heidi.” Aric had followed me and stood beside my desk, waiting for me to look at him. “I’m sorry if I offended you. I didn’t mean you sounded bad or anything. I actually think you have a great voice, and most people love Southern accents. Yours is a pretty one, anyway, not a redneck one. Don’t even worry about it.”
    I exhaled loudly. “No, it’s all right. I overreacted. I mean, I’ve lived here my whole life, except for a few months, years ago, so I shouldn’t be shocked to hear I sound like it.” I sighed. “But it’s going to be so limiting for me as far as where I can get hired. No one outside of the South wants to hear a news anchor with a Southern drawl.”
    “I don’t think that’s true. But, if you’re really concerned, I could give you the vocal exercises my voice coach gave me. They work.”
    I stopped fiddling with the notes and looked up at him. “You went to a voice coach?”
    “Oh yeah. My mom’s from Sweden, you know?” He pronounced it with an over-the-top accent, like Svee-den . “And my dad’s from New Yawk City. And I lived all over the place, so I was this weird mish-mash of accents. But I think the exercises did help.”
    “They must have. You have no accent at all.”
    “I’d be happy to share them. But I’d have to kind of show them to you, you know, say them for you? To show you how to do it? We might be able to do it at work if we have time, or… if your boyfriend wouldn’t mind, maybe we could go get coffee sometime and—”
    “No—let’s try to do it here, okay? That would be great.”
    I’d just said “no” again. Sugar. Mara was right. I glanced back at my schedule for the day. “Well, I’ve got a shoot in Starkville in forty minutes. I’d better get going.”
    “I have to go to Starkville today, too, to cover tennis and soccer. You know, we could ride together and shoot for each other. We’d each have a photog and maybe get some better interviews and stand-ups out of it.”
    “Yeah, we’ll do that sometime,” I said briskly. As in never, ever getting into a tiny news car alone with you. “My thing there today is really short, though, and then I’ve got to go straight to a couple other events in other towns. So, I’d better go alone. This time.” Okay, so it wasn’t exactly a “no,” but the look on Aric’s face told me he knew it wasn’t a “yes” either.
    His mouth twisted in a smirk. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” He started walking away, but turned around and came back after a couple of steps. “You know what? I think I need to apologize. I don’t know what my problem is. It seems like I’m always asking you to do something you don’t want to do. I’m not normally such a pest. But I’m done now—promise. That’s the last invitation you’ll get from me, okay?” He smiled, but it was hard, not happy. He looked rather annoyed, in fact.
    “Okay,” I said. As Aric walked away, I was instantly more at ease. So why did I also feel kind of disappointed? “Have a good day,” I called to his back.
    “Yep. You, too. See you on the anchor desk, Heidi.”
    Of course