Deflected

Chapter 7: Tiffany, Part 2

Picking up my bags and the little bit of usable mail, I head toward the stairwell. "I'm gonna be upstairs now, away from the cesspool of germs."

"You know you just jinxed yourself," he calls after me.

"Took my Airborne this morning," I yell back with a laugh.

Okay that's a lie. But Caleb doesn't need to know that. It's too much fun getting a rise out of him. When I get to the sports office, Steve is already there.

"What are you doing here early?" I toss my bags on my desk and plop down in my chair.

"Wanted to make sure everything was set to go for the Cowboys game," he grumbles.

I don't like his tone. "And that put you in a bad mood?"

"No. Finding out today of all days our photog has been moved to news put me in a bad mood."

"Don't worry about it. Caleb and I got it worked out."

His looks at me and blinks, obviously not believing me. "What does that mean?"

I shrug. "Oh, ya know. We get fourth quarter footage and post-game interviews."

"How did you pull that off? Did you use your womanly charms against the defenseless Caleb?"

"What? Defenseless Caleb? What the f**k are you talking about?"

Steve clasps his hands behind his head. "That boy has had a crush on you since the first day of your internship."

I roll my eyes. "He has not. Give me a little credit. I came up with a good idea on how we can work together."

"Which is?"

"I'm calling Jason Hart's manager to set up a post-game interview asking about his foundation. And right now, someone downstairs is calling the cancer center to compare bone marrow numbers from before and after the drive at the stadium."

Steve nods his head once. "Wow. Nailed it. How come I didn't think of that?"

"My guess is, when you found out there was a switch-a-roo, you stomped off like a child, pouting instead of thinking it through."

"Ah, Tiffany, you know me well."

I spend several minutes booting up everything I'm going to need for the day, including digging through the archives.

For the most part, Steve and I work in silence, which isn't unusual. It's like the calm before the storm of multiple games on at once. It can get loud in here during peak hours.

But for now, the only conversation is when I call Hart's manager, Adam, and get everything set up. He's surprisingly pleasant about me calling last minute. But I guess Hart to Heart Foundation is important to them, since it was started when Jason's own son was fighting leukemia.

Going through the archives, I pull all the b-roll we're going to need for both the news and the sports story. It's above and beyond my job description, but everything about putting together a newscast is a team effort, so there's no reason to complain.

"Holy s**t," Steve says behind me.

"What?" I'm only half listening, as I watch old video to make sure it's what we need.

"What do you think of New York?"

"New York the city? Or New York the state?"

"New York the market."

I freeze and look over at him. "As in the number one television market in the country?"

He nods.

"What about it?"

"News One has an associate sports producer position open."

My eyes widen. New York City is the largest local television market in the country because it has the largest demographic. It is quite literally the top of the local news food chain and because of that, almost never has open positions. No one leaves New York unless they go to a national network or die. And even then, it's not often. For a position to be open is huge, huge news.

"Don't you have family in New York?"

Steve nods slowly. "My wife does. She's always wanted to move closer to her family."

"Then I think you should go for it. You've gone as far as you can in this market. It would be a huge step up for you."

He nods thoughtfully and then quickly smiles, like the whole thing is ridiculous. "It's just a pipe dream anyway. Everyone knows how hard it is to get in there." He's right. There are going to thousands of applicants. He knows it. I know it. Everyone who works in the biz knows it.

"Yeah, but what a nice pipe dream."

I get back to my research but watch him out of the corner of my eye. He's downplaying his excitement, but I know he wants that job. And I want him to have it. Not just for him but for me.

Steve is the best boss, and I won't be happy to see him go. But if he leaves, that means his position will need to be filled. And maybe if we're lucky, both our dreams will come true.