I raised a hand in greeting, my adrenaline already firing. “Skyler Ruiz. Hi.”
He smiled. “I’ve caught you on air. Sorry about that punch.”
I pretended to check on my jaw. I was getting good at fielding these comments. “Me, too.”
A knock on the door. What in the hell? I looked behind me as a woman I’d never seen before entered. She was pristinely put together—jet-black hair pulled back to a knot, a green starched business suit—and carrying a folder in one hand and a Starbucks venti in the other. I was popular today.
Tam folded his arms and sat on the corner of the table. “Skyler, this is Evelyn Ramirez from Sylvan.”
I blinked. The Sylvan Broadcast Group owned the station. I began to understand what was happening. There was an anchor slot available. I’d recently filled in. Was it possible they wanted me to apply? Audition? There weren’t currently any Latina anchors in the San Diego market. Only reporters. This could be a big chance for me. Was it really in the realm?
“Nice to meet you. Skyler.”
I nodded. Evelyn accepted my handshake with a warm smile and quietly took a seat.
Tam didn’t delay. “You’re aware of the changes we’re making to the five and the ten?”
“Yes,” I nodded, my left leg bouncing beneath the table. I hadn’t been wrong. This was about the big chair.
“I know you and Carrie are…close.” That was code. He knew everything—that little pause he’d taken said so. Now what?
I eyed him. “Also true. I don’t think that breaks any rules that I know of. I’m not a direct report of hers.” I looked from Tam to Ted to Evelyn for some sort of reaction or confirmation.
HR Ted shook his head and slipped his coffee. Another weekday for him. “No policy violation there.”
“Good.” My curiosity could no longer contain itself in the name of good manners. “Okay, so what’s going on? Can you just tell me?” The room felt too cold, and I wondered distantly who had cranked up the air-conditioning and had it been on purpose to torture me? I watched Ted scribble a note and frown. About what? We’d been in the room three minutes.
“Fair enough.” Tam leaped in. “You may have already guessed this.” I had. “We want to give you a shot in the studio. Move you up to anchor for the five and ten.”
“Really?” I played it cool, unsure how to feel. Part of me wanted to leap from the chair and dance on the table. It was all I’d ever dreamed of. The other half of me knew the larger implications of stepping into a job that the person I cared about still very much wanted.
Tam pressed on. “You’re still green. And it’s a risk, but I’m good at picking the right risks. I think you might be exactly what those broadcasts need right now. New blood, but familiar to our viewers. It’s a great combination.”
My eyes shifted to Evelyn, who beamed at me like I’d just been crowned Miss America. I wondered if there was a bouquet of roses under her seat. “You’re saying you want me to anchor?” I had to be sure we were all on the same page. There were so many choices out there that made more sense. They could do a nationwide search. In fact, they should. “Me?”
Tam nodded. “Here’s the thing. The viewers really responded to you when you filled in for Carrie, and that’s the kind of engagement we’re looking to recapture.”
“It’s a leap, but one we’re ready to take,” Evelyn supplied.
“We’d be offering you a three-year contract,” Tam said. “There are conditions, of course. We do have an out if it doesn’t go well.”
Evelyn opened her folder and slid me an already designed ad with me behind the news desk, taken during the days I’d filled in. “Welcome, Skyler Ruiz,” I said, reading the caption out loud. “The Sky’s the Limit.”
I thought about the billboards along the highway of Carrie and Rory, and how they’d have to come down now. That made me sad. And now they wanted my face to go up in her place? At any other juncture, I wouldn’t have hesitated. But the Carrie factor was real. The particular circumstances made all this feel…off. Garish. Exaggerated. This was Carrie’s job, and I wanted her behind the desk, as much as I wanted it for myself.
“I’m sorry. I just…am trying to work through the implications.” I slid the ad back, trying to process. Tam and Evelyn exchanged a look that said this wasn’t going the way they’d anticipated.
“Why don’t we go over the offer?” Tam asked with a knowing smile. He signaled Ted, and the presentation began. The money was insanely good, a large leap from what I’d been making and enough to change my entire lifestyle. The vacation package was generous, the benefits impressive. They’d even included a nice stipend for clothes, hair, and nails. I was overwhelmed, and my head swam.
“Would I be done with reporting?” I actually liked being out in the field, ear to the ground, hunting down stories with Ty. It’s what made me get out of bed in the morning.
“There’s no reason you couldn’t still contribute features here and there. Just like Carrie.”
It wasn’t the same, but hadn’t the anchor spot always been my ultimate goal?
An hour later, Kristin found me pensive in the break room, sitting with an untouched cup of coffee. “I wondered how you’d take today’s news. Doing okay? You look a little less excited than I’d hoped.”
“No, I am. Trust me. A little part of me wondered when I filled in if I’d have a future behind the desk at KTMW. I let myself dream a little.” We were alone, and I felt like I could speak freely. “But now it’s here, and it feels so different than I imagined it would. Mainly because there’s Carrie to consider, and this is not the way I wanted it all to go down. It was one thing when she lost her spot, but it’s another now that it’s been offered to me. That’s Carrie’s chair. Her job.”
“I get that it’s not easy. But here’s the thing. Don’t for a second feel guilty about this,” Kristin said. “Whether or not you go into that chair doesn’t change the fact that the station is moving on from Carrie. Do you want it to go to someone else, on principle? That doesn’t make anything better, and you’d regret it one day when your career isn’t where it could have been.” She shrugged, sad but professional in her demeanor. “It’s just part of this business, unfortunately.”
“The part I hate.”
Kristin sighed. “We all do. But Caroline McNamara is a damn pro in this industry. She will see this for what it is. Trust me.” I’d avoided Carrie and our area of the newsroom since talking to Tam. I wasn’t ready to tell her until I had a firm grasp of the situation, and I was nowhere close.