Charlie All Night

Charlie smiled at Mark. “No, she just didn’t like it with you.”

“She didn’t like your linguini, either,” Joe pointed out. “She said it was rubbery.”

Charlie frowned at Joe. “That’s funny. She said the same thing about his—”

“Oh, great,” Allie said.

“Don’t be childish.” Mark stood up, almost knocking over the waitress who’d come with their salads. “Obviously, we’ve intruded, and you don’t want us. Come on, Lisa.”

They watched him stalk across the room, Lisa trailing behind, throwing them curious looks over her shoulder.

“Feel free to discuss my sex life at any time in public,” Allie told the two of them when the waitress had gone. “Don’t mind me.”

“We won’t,” Charlie said around a mouthful of salad.

“I almost feel sorry for Lisa,” Joe said.

Allie picked up her fork and stabbed at her lettuce, shoving thoughts of sleeping with Charlie out of her mind to consider Lisa. She ate for a couple of minutes, looking at the situation from all sides. “I guess I do feel sorry for her,” she said finally. “This isn’t her fault.”

“She ended up with your boyfriend and your job,” Joe reminded her. “She has some responsibility there.”

“Nope.” Allie’s voice grew firmer as she grew surer. “This is Mark. Mark wanted me out and her in. And he got it. I just don’t know why.”

Joe shook his head at her. “It’s obvious. Mark’s jealous of you.”

“That makes no sense.” Allie waved her fork at him to end the discussion.

“Yeah, it does.” Joe pointed his own fork at her. “Everybody at the station knows that Mark’s success is because of you. He likes to think it’s because of him.”

Charlie stabbed another chunk of lettuce. “So, if he shoves Allie out and puts Lisa the newbie in, everyone will know that his success is—”

“His success,” Joe finished. “Except that’s not going to happen.”

“Why not?” Charlie shoved his empty salad bowl aside and reached for another bread stick.

“You eat like you’re starving,” Allie told him, amazed at the speed with which he’d destroyed his salad. “Don’t they feed you back home?”

“You should talk.” He pointed to her own half-empty bowl. “I’ve seen locusts move through vegetation slower.” He turned back to Joe. “Why not?”

Joe scooped up a forkful of his salad. “Because the only reason Mark is a success is because Allie plans out every second of his show. She even has his ad-libs on cue cards. You have to see it to believe it.”

Charlie raised an eyebrow at Allie. “How do you manage that?”

Allie shrugged. “There are only a dozen or so expressions that are really useful, anyway. I just pick the card that worked best. And he isn’t that bad. In almost two years, he’s never misread a cue card. Could we talk about something else?”

“Oh, that’s talent, reading cue cards,” Charlie agreed. “You were with him for two years?”

“Professionally.” Allie squirmed a little in her chair. “The other thing only lasted about six months.”

“Six terrible months,” Joe added. “Thank God for Lisa, or I’d have had to kill him just to set you free. And you’re right, Al, I do feel sorry for her. She’s going to pay.”

Charlie looked around the table for something else to eat. “Why? What did she do now?”

“Nothing.” Joe grinned at him over his salad bowl. “Do you remember the flack Deborah Norville got when she replaced Jane Pauley?”

“Yeah.” Charlie fished a pepper strip out of Allie’s bowl, narrowly avoiding her fork.

“Well, that’s going to be nothing compared to what happens when the station finds out Allie got screwed. Lisa is not going to have an easy time of it.”

Allie was afraid for a moment that Joe might have a point. She didn’t mind Lisa failing to keep Mark’s ratings up, but she didn’t want her to fail because everyone turned on her. She stared at her plate, not seeing the food. She didn’t need this. She needed all her energy to revive her career.

Which now depended on Charlie.

She stole another look at him over her glasses and began to really think about Charlie and the new show for the first time. Things weren’t nearly as bad as they’d seemed earlier. Charlie had potential. After all, he was intelligent. Verbal. Even occasionally funny. She could make him a star. All she had to do was study him, design a format that fit him and plug him into it. He and his mouth could take it from there, while she goosed the publicity along.

She could have him a household word by Christmas. Three months easy, and she’d be back on top.

She waited until the waitress had brought their dinners, and then she began her pitch. “You’re really verbal,” she told him, batting her eyelashes at him. “I like that in a man. Especially in a man whose show I’m producing.”

Charlie stopped, his fork in midair, and eyed her cautiously. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Allie smiled at him, hearty and encouraging. “I’m going to make you a star, Charlie.”

“The hell you are.” Charlie went back to his dinner.

Allie pulled back a little and exchanged glances with Joe, who shrugged. Okay, so he’d have to be convinced. No problem. She returned to Charlie and her career. “Look, I know your show was a sort of cult hit in Lawrenceville and you like to do things your way, but you’re starting all over here in a bad time slot. And radio is not exactly a secure career, as you well know. I can—”

Charlie pointed his fork at her. “No, you can’t. Bill should have told you. I’m temporary. I’m going to be here five or six weeks, tops, probably not that long. I’ve got places I have to be by November. And this guy whose show I’m covering, Waldo, right?” Allie nodded. “Well, Waldo’s coming back.”

Allie frowned at him and even Joe blinked. “Waldo’s not coming back,” he told Charlie. “He’s in San Diego with his sister. Resting comfortably at last report.”

Charlie shrugged. “Must be for a visit. Bill knows I’m just temporary.”

“Now what’s Bill up to?” Joe asked Allie, and she shook her head, clearly as mystified as he was.

Charlie’s eyes went from one to the other. “He’s not coming back?”

“Waldo shot the console his last night on the air,” Allie told him. “He said it was talking to him and wouldn’t shut up.”

“Maybe he just needs a nice vacation,” Charlie suggested.

“Maybe he needs to be away from stereo equipment,” Joe said. “He’s not coming back.”

“So that means,” Allie began, ready to make her pitch.

“So that means you’re going to be breaking in another guy in about six weeks,” Charlie told her. “Do not bother making me a hit. I’m temporary.”

He returned to his dinner and began to quiz Joe on Tuttle, and Allie sat back and regrouped. The problem wasn’t that he refused to help her make him famous. She could do that without him. She’d made Mark a success without any appreciable input from him.