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

after he’d withdrawn it, I thought about Aric’s suggestion all day as I struggled to lug my bags and equipment from shoot to shoot and get the interviews and video I needed, trying to somehow not look haggard in the process. He was absolutely right. If we combined our efforts, our weekend shoots would go twice as fast. More importantly, having a photographer would allow each of us to come up with and execute creative stand-ups for our packages, and as a result, have better escape tapes. It was what I’d said I wanted. It was the fastest route out of this place. But it was also scary as hell.
    Why couldn’t my new co-worker have been someone more like Hale? Approachable, comfortable, non-threatening. I would’ve taken that guy up on the offer without thinking twice. But Aric—he was the other kind of guy, the dangerous kind. Like Josh.
    The worst part was, Aric didn’t seem to realize how dangerous he was. At least he put on a good show of being harmless. He was probably like one of those big alligators who lie motionless on a sunny bank all day long, while the little turtles swim closer and closer, and then SNAP! I so didn’t want to be that little turtle. Not again.

Chapter Six
Family Dinner
    The fried chicken was delicious. The rest of the evening was a nightmare. When you work weekends in TV news, your days off are likely to be Monday and Tuesday, and I was spending my Monday night off in the happy Haynes household.
    My older sister Jane Elaine grabbed me and pulled me into the laundry room as soon as I stepped into my parents’ home from the garage.
    “I need you to cover for me. I told Phillip you and I have plans tomorrow night.”
    “Why?”
    “To get out of running the Tuesday night choir practice.”
    “Let me get this straight—you’re lying to your husband, who’s a pastor, to get out of going to church.”
    Phil had left my father’s law firm three years earlier to follow the calling of his heart and go into ministry. While a lovely life choice, the career change had been a complete shock to Jane Elaine, who was also a lawyer at the firm, and to everyone else who knew him. Phil had been the firm’s pit bull, the guy they put on the dirtiest cases no one else really wanted to touch. Maybe that’s what had sent him the other way—the need to be cleansed or something.
    “It’s not church on Sundays that bothers me,” Jane Elaine explained. “It’s being there every other flippin’ day of the week. When did I sign up for this? I mean, choir practice—come on—you know I can’t carry a tune with a backhoe.” She had a point. Whenever my family did our yearly Christmas caroling, the neighbors tended to shove candy canes and hot chocolate at us after the first verse in hopes of returning to a silent night. “And, in my defense,” she continued, “I lied to the church council first, and that’s why I had to lie to my husband.” My sister, the perfect pastor’s wife.
    “Oh yes. Sounds like an air-tight defense, counselor.”
    “I know it’s bad, but I’m a desperate woman. If I keep being ‘busy,’ maybe the council will eventually get tired of asking and find someone else to run the music program, and the nursery, and the ladies’ prayer breakfasts, and the annual Tag Sale, and the Zumba Praise exercise group, and the—”
    The laundry room door swung open to reveal Phil’s friendly but confused face. “Hello ladies. Catching up?”
    “Yes. We were… folding dish towels,” I said, reaching behind me and feeling around on top of the dryer for some sort of fabric.
    “And discussing our plans for tomorrow. Tell him, Heidi.” Jane Elaine strutted past her bemused husband, leading the way out of our hiding place. I followed, not quite looking at his face.
    “Yes. We, ah… we’re really looking forward to, um, book club.”
    “Our church has a wonderful book club.” Phil beamed. “You should join. In fact, I believe they’re looking for a new leader.”
    “Oh no, I