“Did you get new cabinets?” I asked my aunt, marveling at the beautiful white kitchen that had once been a quiet medium brown.
“Oh yes. Sarah took me shopping and your uncle Roberto installed them himself. I don’t have money, but I’m rich. Pays to have a handy husband.”
“Or wife,” I countered with a smile. I’d followed in Sarah’s footsteps in more ways than one and was beyond grateful for the inroads she’d made with our family when it came to sexuality. By the time I came out in college, my relatives were well-seasoned advocates. I needed to send her a box of cookies or something. Rainbow ones.
“Speaking of getting married, have you chosen a beloved to settle down with?” She put out a bowl of homemade fried chips and onion dip. My comfort food heaven.
I balked. “Tía, there is no one even close to beloved in my life. And I have no time to locate someone.”
“They work you too hard at that news station. Your mama was telling me all about it. When are you going to move home so we can have you back?” She opened a beer for me and poured it into a glass with a lime wedge. I was never leaving this place.
“I’d need a job first.”
“You could work for Sarah. Her business is booming.”
Sarah had opened a home and closet organizing company, Immaculate Organization, and now managed a team of incredibly creative project managers that oversaw the construction and design for their clients. “I’d be fired. Have you seen my room? I can’t even organize my sock drawer.”
Yolanda frowned. “That’s true. No job for you.” She pulled the beer away in jest before returning it.
“Who’s saying my name, and where is my adorable cousin? I demand answers!”
I grinned and turned. Sarah stood in the entryway with her hands on her hips, that infectious smile on her face, and her curly dark hair down and gorgeous. I’d always longed for her hair. Mine didn’t have the curl. “I was reminding your mother that my apartment is a national disaster, and I thereby can’t work for you. I’d be a disgrace. Ditched by lunch for crumbs all over the place.”
Sarah winced. “I don’t know about a national disaster, but definitely citywide. Get over here.”
I did as Sarah said and pulled her into a big, rock-back-and-forth bear hug, happy to be with my family again.
“Oh, Sky-Sky. It’s good to see you. How’s the breaking news?” Sarah asked.
I quirked my lips in apology. “Today I informed the public about an uptick in parking tickets. Riveting stuff. I don’t know how they’re going to hang on until the next broadcast. I feel bad for them.”
Sarah opened the fridge and found a beer. “Then you won’t be mad that I put your name in the hat with a friend of mine at KTMW.”
I laughed. I’d been submitting my stuff to them for years and hadn’t once even netted so much as an email. The San Diego market was top thirty in the nation. Aka out of my league. “Yeah, I don’t think they care. Last I checked, they had to wash their hair that night.” I grabbed another lime wedge from a dish on the counter and rimmed my glass.
“Well, maybe they’re free now,” Yolanda said, her eyes now full of hope. “If you need a place to live, I can make up the back bedroom, and we’ll have slumber parties every day.” She was teasing, but my aunt had a huge heart and would most definitely open up her home to anyone who needed space.
“You are the nicest, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. How did you throw my hat in? Tell me your methods.” I squinted at Sarah, curious.
“So, Emory’s best friend Lucy, you remember her? Sophisticated. Kind of sassy. Runs the newswire.”
“Beautiful brunette. I love the way she razzes Em mercilessly.”
“Me, too. Keeps Emory in line, and she needs it. Well, her amazing girlfriend, who you have not met, is Kristin. She’s a former reporter who used to work for the Union Trib but made the shift to TV and is now an associate producer at KTMW.”
Huh. What were the odds?
Sarah pressed on. “She happened to mention over dinner that they’re looking for a fresh face to fill an on-air spot at five and ten.”
I sighed in resignation. “I have no anchor experience, Sar.”
“Which is perfect, because they’re looking for a reporter.”
That got my antennae up. “They haven’t advertised. Now I’m intrigued.” More than that. My heart thudded and my ears itched, which always happened when I hit a surge of excitement. This was a minor development, and I cued myself to slow the hell down, but it was something, and I desperately needed something to hope for right now.
“I told her to hire you immediately, as one does, and she said to send her your stuff.” Sarah pointed. “Oh, and drop our names when you do, so Kristin pays attention. Realizes it’s you.”
I was flabbergasted. An inside track at a top station from a very unlikely source. “I’ll send everything over immediately. But the chances of getting hired in the San Diego market are next to zero with my level of experience.”
“No, no, no,” Yolanda said, swatting away the negative energy like an angry swarm of flies had invaded the kitchen. “We’re not putting that out into the universe. You are beautiful and smart, and they need you desperately.”
“I like that outlook better anyway,” I said, nodding.
“Without you they are nothing,” Sarah said adamantly.
My aunt picked it up from there. “I don’t like the reporter they have with the spiky hair. He talks too loud. You know who I do like? That Caroline McNamara. She has class and tells it to you straight.”
I sighed dreamily. I’d had a crush on her for years, which was awful of me, because Caroline McNamara was so much more than crush material. A legend in the field. I nodded to Yolanda. “She’s really good at what she does. I take notes every time I watch a broadcast of hers.”
“Someone has a few feelings on the topic.” Sarah jokingly fanned me and with good reason. She knew all my secrets.
“I’m not afraid to swoon, okay?” Caroline McNamara had been a mainstay of San Diego news for a decade now. She had this uncanny ability to transcend the screen, sucking in the viewer entirely until you believed she was not only your most striking friend, but your most intelligent and informed. You felt like you could trust her and thereby welcomed her into your home, night after night. It’s how KTMW kept their longtime viewership.
“I would kill to have a sliver of the career she’s managed for herself,” I said. “That’s all.”
My aunt smoothed the back of my hair affectionately. “Then we have to make sure you get this job. Kristin is a great place to start.”