I wasn’t a woman who could wear practically anything I wanted. Jeans made my ass look huge, as did most pants. Anything floaty made me look bigger than I was. Fitted fifties-style attire suited my figure best, so I dressed in a lot of pencil skirts and blouses.
It was a surprise to me that I became so popular on WCVB for my curves. Don’t get me wrong—I’d had men in the past tell me how much they loved my curves, but I honestly thought they were lying in the way most men do when they tell a woman she’s beautiful so they can fuck her.
But Boston liked my curves. I was “WCVB’s Weather Pin-Up Girl.” The attention was a little daunting at first, and truthfully I was at war with myself over it. Part of me got a huge confidence boost from it, and the other part of me was uneasy that they were focused on my appearance. Yet, I knew that was a huge part of the industry I was in, and I knew that before I got into it. Thankfully, as it turned out, just as many women liked me on the show as men did. They said I was funny and down-to-earth. Real.
That made me feel better.
Dick, however, never made me feel better.
He made me wish I could wear a burlap sack to work.
“Don’t worry, it’s not about the bikini.” He waved the thought away.
Under normal circumstances I might have relaxed, but this was Dick.
So I didn’t.
“I have a proposition for you.”
I knew it.
This was the moment I’d been dreading.
Yeah, I was going to be sick.
“How would you feel about taking over Angel’s job?”
Shock rippled over me, putting a pause on the nausea. “In entertainment?”
“Yes. She gets more airtime than you, which makes no sense considering you are why viewers are tuning in.”
“Not all of them. They love Barbara and Andrew.”
Dick rolled his eyes. “Right. Well, if it were up to me, you’d be getting Barbara’s job but the powers that be upstairs like her so she stays. For now.”
Bastard.
“But I want more of you on our show.”
“I’m a meteorologist.”
“Whether you like it or not, you’re Boston’s new ‘it girl’ and I want more of you on my show.” His eyes bored into my folder, as if he stared long and hard enough, he’d see through it to my chest. “And I have a story that will get you there.”
I didn’t want Angel’s job. I wanted to keep my job. “I’m not interested.”
Dick’s expression hardened. “I have a private investigator friend. Did you know that?”
It was never good when someone asked that question out of the blue like that, right?
My stomach flip-flopped.
“It always befits a boss to know his staff as well as he can. I know my staff very, very well.” He stood up from the desk and I had to steel myself from pressing back against his door. “For instance, I know that you’re not quite the sexy-but-nice girl next door you make yourself out to be. You’re also not a natural redhead and your real name isn’t Nadia Ray. And I know why.”
Sudden understanding dawned.
The bastard thought he knew who I was because of my past. He thought I was that kind of woman. No wonder he was more abrasive with me than any of his other female staff.
Fuck.
“How do you know that?”
“It’s easy enough to find out these things if you know where to look.” He took a step toward me, smirking. “Somehow I don’t think Boston’s ‘it girl’ will fare too well when they discover she was a home-wrecker at the tender age of twenty-one.”
I hated him.
I truly hated him.
“What do you want?”
“That’s easy. I want to be the highest-rated breakfast show in Massachusetts. I’ve failed in the past, Nadia. Let’s just say I didn’t like the way I was treated while I was struggling to climb my way back up. Until now. With this job, I’ve been given a second chance. I can’t fail again. And I think you’re the key to my success. So, we’re going to prove to the powers that be that you deserve the top spot. First, Angel’s job… then we’ll work on getting you Barbara’s.”
“I don’t want their jobs.”
“It’s not about what you want. Or haven’t I made that clear?” He grinned as if he were telling a joke instead of blackmailing me. “And I have the seeds of what could be a brilliant story.”
I thought about the log on my iPad. Since Dick started working here, I’d kept an exact account of every sexual comment he’d made to me. The plan had been if he pushed me too far, I would take it to the station executives. Unfortunately, I knew how these things went. Dick would be fired but eventually they’d find a way to get rid of me too, not wanting to be tainted by a sex scandal. And I was afraid there were few employers who would hire someone who’d accused a colleague of sexual harassment. I needed this job. This job was the first thing in a long time that made me feel good about myself.
“What’s the story?”
“This one we’ll need to be careful with, and it will test your research skills.” Dick stepped toward me again and I braced myself. If he so much as touched me… “I slept with an older woman this weekend while I was at a family wedding in Philly. She was drunk, we got to talking after sex, and she let slip something very interesting.”
“What?” I snapped. I wanted out of his office. And I really, really didn’t want to hear about his sex life.
“She let it slip that I wasn’t the first younger man she’d been with. She developed a taste for living in Cougar Town after paying a hot young guy to fuck her. And do you know who that young guy was? Caine Carraway. CEO of Carraway Financial Holdings. She told me that while he was at Wharton, he prostituted himself to her and her wealthy friends. That’s how he got the capital to invest.”
Uneasiness crawled through me. If this was true… Even I, a newbie to Boston, knew who Carraway was. He’d strode into Boston high society despite his lack of blue blood because he was immensely wealthy, intelligent, and ruthless. This story… this story if true would be the biggest scandal to hit the city in a long time.
I didn’t judge people. I couldn’t care less if it were true and I wasn’t in the business of destroying a person’s reputation. I knew how that felt firsthand. “That sounds like nonsense and without proof, you’re asking for trouble. Carraway is a powerful man, Dick.”
“Exactly why we need evidence.” He reached behind him and plucked a card off his desk. Handing it to me, he said, “My one-night-stand’s card. She won’t return my calls but she might talk to you. Try to get in touch with her. While you’re at it, get digging. There’s something here. Carraway is practically untouchable. Bringing him down would take this station to another stratosphere.”
I stared at my boss in horror. He was truly a disgusting human being.
Reading my expression, Dick sobered. “I’m doing this for us both, Nadia. With sex appeal and charisma like yours, you deserve to be a star.”
With a heart like yours, you deserve nothing. But I didn’t say the words out loud. Instead I crushed the business card in my hand and turned to leave.