“Yes, I think so. Where is…”
“Ah,” she leaned over and whispered in my ear. “That beech I’d like to slap across the face. I do her makeup, all pretty. You know, for the taping? She stares at me and wipes it all off with tissue, smudges her lipstick halfway up to her nose. They gonna think I gave her a bloody lip. You watch out for dat beech.”
“I already know about her. Just get some powder and lipstick on me so I don’t look like I’m sweating through my clothes, which I am.”
“Ya. I do a good job for you. I got a whole two minutes to do a good job for you. You know it takes much longer to do professional makeup.”
“Stop it, Sandy and just get it done. And, say a prayer for me.”
She said something in Spanish I didn’t understand and crossed herself.
“What did you do to get hooked up with this chika? You musta been a bery, bery bad girl.”
“You don’t know the half of it.”
“So you gonna get your butt spanked today? It going to be a regular catfight with dat one.”
“Sandy, this isn’t helping. Please, I have to get to the set.
“Oh, the set! You should see the roses got delivered for the set. Making half the older folks around here sneezing their butts off, too. Roses is too strong I tell you.”
“Who are they from? For me?” I was blushing through all the powder she was applying.
“No card. Nothing. I think they were for her.” Sandy lowered her voice and whispered in my ear, “She musta got one of them gangsta boys or a Don. Someone who’s all sorry he got nasty with her. Yea, dat’s what I think.”
But I knew otherwise. Marco was inserting himself into an already complicated and dangerous situation.
Bunny Copperfield poked her head into the room. “We gotta go, Shannon. Everything’s set.” Her headsets were falling off the back of her head. She hugged her clipboard to her enormous chest. That was the way she always ran around here, covering herself up.
“She was askin’ about the flowers, Bunny. You know anything?” asked Sandy.
“A secret admirer. We teased Rebecca about that.”
Except no one else knew she was coming in except the staff here and Marco.
“Come on, Shannon. They’re playing the weekend show credits.”
“This is live?” My knuckles clutched the metal handles on the black makeup chair.
“Yes. Didn’t Jared tell you? She requested it. He said he tried to call you.” Bunny pulled my arm and extricated me from the chair. I ran quickly behind her to keep from falling.
The set was different than the normal routine. Hanging in the background was a huge American flag. On the raised dais were two light blue easy chairs, halfway facing one another on either side of a low coffee table with two paper coffee cups. On the table was an enormous glass vase filled with heady deep red roses. I didn’t check for a card or note because if there had been one, I was going to sit on it.
Rebecca came onto the set from the other side. She pointed to my coffee. “I brought you a cappuccino, just like I promised, Shannon.”
I was frozen in place. This wasn’t happening to me right now because I was somewhere else—anywhere else, floating up to the moon or someplace never to be heard from again.
Bunny whispered, “Sit, ladies! We have to start now.”
I collapsed, kinda awkwardly onto one hip, then adjusted myself, pulled my hair behind my ears and over my shoulders, and smiled at the camera, after I licked my lips.
They had a teleprompter all ready with my introduction, which I was grateful for and hadn’t even thought about. As I focused on the letters, I heard Rebecca clear her throat and then gargle a tiny bit.
It was distracting. I was sure I looked like a cat about to be hit with a broom.
“Good morning Tampa Bay!”
The canned applause had me looking off into the blackness to see where the audience was.
“We have a very special treat in store for you today. As many of you know, this station supports veterans causes, and when we heard that headway was being made on the new Trident Towers building for disabled Navy SEALs, as well as other at risk and deserving veterans, we knew you, the viewers, would love to hear more about it. As luck would have it, we have our very own celebrity with us today, Rebecca Gambini, wife to former SEAL Marco Gambini…” My stomach lurched and almost tripped over the fact that they hadn’t mentioned they were divorced.
When my introduction was complete, and as the canned clapping died down, I turned to Rebecca, who smiled back eagerly. I could see a little of the lipstick Sandy was talking about but doubted it would show. She was dressed in red, white and blue. I was in all blue.
“Welcome, Rebecca.”
“Thank you, Shannon for having me. I’m delighted to be here. Did you sleep well?” She followed it up with a wink.
I froze again. Did she know?
I studied my fingers twisting around themselves in my lap, brushed the hair that had fallen into my eyes, tossing it behind me, and then turned to the camera.
“What Rebecca is referring to is a very pleasant evening we spent together, listening to oldies music, and drinking entirely too much wine.”
Rebecca beamed. The canned audience laughter was a little late on cue.
“It wasn’t wine, we were drinking Scotch,” she said, nodding in my direction. To the camera, she announced. “It was one of the funniest girl’s night outs I’ve ever had!”
I quickly jumped in, whispering, “Don’t tell my mother. She thinks I only drink wine.”
Again, more canned laughter.
“So, Rebecca here is working on the Trident Towers. Tell me about it and what
