As if reading my mind, Fish was on his feet and heading in our direction. He looked nervous, and I very much doubted it was Sabrina he feared.
“Is there something you want to tell me?” I drawled when he’d closed the distance.
Even though Fish was my boss, he looked nervous in the shadow of my disdain. “There is.” He plastered a fake smile on his face and focused on Sabrina. “I need to talk to Avery for a few minutes. You should probably go to the storage closet and collect the supplies you’ll need for the day.”
Sabrina looked unsure. “For the day I’m going to spend with Avery? You haven’t changed your mind, have you?”
“Of course not.” Fish’s smile was benign until she disappeared and then it dropped into a grimace as he regarded me. “Now, I know you’re upset ....”
I didn’t give him a chance to finish. “Oh, you have no idea how upset I am.” I kept my voice low, although it took monumental effort. “She’s not coming with me.”
“She’s a big fan of your work.”
“So what?”
“She wants to be just like you.”
“Is that supposed to soften me up?”
“Hey, I told her that using you as a role model was a bad idea.” Fish’s expression hardened and I knew things were about to get worse for me, if that was even possible. “She’s been reading your articles since she was a kid.”
“Yes, she told me ... except she was a kid like three years ago.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that she wants to be paired with a female reporter.” Fish folded his arms over his chest. “As you well know, our news department is mostly men. Of the four females, you’re the only one who is a hard news reporter.”
He couldn’t possibly be blaming the lack of diversity in the newsroom on me. “That’s because you hire women for features and men for news. That’s on you.”
“It’s not my fault that women gravitate toward features.” Fish refused to back down. “You’re always complaining there are no other women news reporters. You’re finally getting your wish.”
“Yeah, but she’s an intern. Interns are stupid.”
“Not if you teach them correctly.”
He couldn’t possibly think I was going to teach anybody anything. “I’m not a professor. If I wanted to teach people, I would’ve chased an education degree. I mean ... who better than me to mold the minds of today’s youth?”
Fish rolled his eyes. “Anybody would be better than you,” he muttered.
“Exactly!” I jabbed a finger into his chest, causing him to jolt. “I can’t deal with idiot young people. I especially can’t deal with people like her. She’s bubbly. She’s smiling and I bet she hasn’t even had coffee yet. She’s psychotic. I read about it in a medical journal.”
Fish didn’t look convinced. “What medical journal?”
“It’s French. You wouldn’t recognize the name. That doesn’t matter, because she’s not coming with me.”
I thought it was a fairly good argument, right up until the point Fish shook his head.
“She is going with you.” He kept his voice low but firm, and I knew I’d lost. “She wants to learn from a female reporter. I’m not subjecting her to Duncan and Marvin because I don’t want a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against this newspaper.
“Now, she’s a sweet girl who wants to learn from the best,” he continued. “For some reason, she thinks that’s you. I won’t let you disappoint her.”
He had to be joking. “You know I’m going to be mean to her.”
“I do. I’ve warned her that you will be mean to her. She doesn’t seem to care.”
“Which only goes to prove she’s even more of an idiot than we realized.”
Fish’s eyes narrowed. “She’s your responsibility. I expect you to teach her, not terrorize her.”
That was a tall order. “And what if I can’t pull it off.”
“Then I’ll assign you to cover the wedding event special section.”
I swallowed hard. As far as threats go, that was a doozy. Special sections were advertising boons full of fluff pieces and ridiculous editorial content. A wedding special section meant I would have to go to shops ... and churches ... and reception venues ... and bakeries.
Okay, that last part wouldn’t have been a hardship, but the rest sounded like a nightmare. “Fine.” I kept my glare in place to let him know I wasn’t happy. “I won’t be nice to her, though.”
“Do what you have to do.”
“I will.”
“I’m convinced this will end in tears – hers – but it’s my best option. You’ll have to live with it.”
And just like that, I was suddenly a babysitter. This day was already looking like a downer.
7 Seven
Sabrina’s enthusiasm was cloying. She wouldn’t stop gushing about the way I’d shaped her life, going so far as to equate me to her mother, another personal hero. She was a nonstop chatterbox during the drive to the scene, no matter how loud I turned up the radio.
“Oh, this is grim.” She bobbed her head as I parked behind the deserted factory. “I mean ... this is really grim. This is life on the street.”
I slid my eyes to her and did my best to hide my hostility. “Where did you grow up?”
“Washington Township.”
Well, that answered that question. The people of Washington Township were pleasant, well-mannered and rich. There was little diversity in the township. The only thing gritty Sabrina had probably been exposed to was the dirt from some of the rural side roads.
“Well, I wouldn’t get too worked up,” I supplied. “This is Roseville, not Detroit. The neighborhood isn’t that bad.”
“Yeah, but ... there are homeless people.”
I waited for her to add a little something extra behind the statement. “There are homeless people everywhere,” I said when she didn’t continue. “Times are tough for people of limited means.”
“Yeah, but ... those are real homeless people.” Her eyes widened. “Maybe I should lock my purse in the car. You know, just to be on the safe side.”
I’d
