Page 18 of Dirty News
“Very interesting. I’m learning a lot.” It wasn’t really my style to lie, but I didn’t want him to think that I thought the classes were boring. He’d paid a lot of money for us all to attend them, and they were clearly important to him. Plus, I had listened to his explanation of why he wanted things the way he did. His poor sisters had endured a lot, and I thought it was admirable that he didn’t want any of his employees to have to go throughthat.
“Good.” He smiled and nodded. “I’ve overheard some whining aboutthem.”
“I’ve heard some of that too. I know you weren’t in today’s class, but Duke, Ashton, Nina, and I spiced it up a bit. We all made up a lot of questions to ask the instructor, and that made things more interesting for all ofus.”
“That was great thinking.” Mrs. Baker tapped the side of her head. “Way to use yourheads.”
“Duke came up with it.” I picked up mywine.
Artimus smiled at me. “It’s great to see that you two can get along. I was a bit worried about the job coming between you two, and that was never my intention in letting you both know you were up for the position. I do want my people to get alongwell.”
“But not too well,” I added. Immediately, I wished I hadn’t saidthat.
He looked off to one side as he took a deep breath. “Yes, not too well. This isn’t easy for me, Lila. But making big changes neveris.”
I knew what he wanted, what his goals were. But I also knew he was expecting too much. In my humanities class back in college, I’d learned a lot about humannature.
When you drew a line and told people they couldn’t cross it, most people would find a way to cross it. Artimus was making everything taboo. And taboo was intriguing tohumans.
Some honored the rules, but most broke them. Or at least tested their truelimits.
One of the studies we’d discussed in my class had been done at a prison. It examined the relationships within the prison, where everyone was told that there could be no relationships between an individual and anyone who was superior in rank to them. Had that stopped it from happening at all? Noway.
When you added in the explicit restriction that no one was to have any sexual contact with the inmates, you also found guards and others who would break that ruletoo.
Artimus wanted to make a difference, and most of us admired that and would do our best to help him. But I had a feeling that things wouldn’t go quite as smoothly as he hoped. Time would tell though, and no one could tell Artimus any different at that point. Anyone could seethat.
Our salads came, and Mrs. Baker started in with what they wanted to talk to me about. “Lila, as anchors you’re expected to do a lot of interaction with the community. We expect our anchors to take some initiative and find things to do on their own. We want them to become pillars of the community and win over the viewers. Show them how to do their civic duties and be proud of serving thiscity.”
“Like going to see sick children in the hospitals?” I asked before taking a bite of the cheese. It was smooth and melted in my mouth. “Wow! So worth theprice.”
“Glad you like it,” Artimus said with a happy expression. “Yes, going to hospitals is a good idea. But there are other things too, like volunteering. Serving food in a homeless shelter, picking up trash in Central Park, visiting a school. Whatever you can think of, doit.”
“And we’d like to have some footage of these things, so we can see how your interaction went,” Mrs. Bakeradded.
“I can do that. I’ve got lots of ideas.” I had a sip of wine, which perfectly accented the delicious cheese dish. “I could get used to this,” I couldn’t stop myself from saying—something about reveling in a tasty meal always made me lose myfilter.
Artimus’s dark brows rose. “Are you a foodie,Lila?”
“I suppose I am.” I thought about it for a moment. “You know what I think would be a great idea for the morning show? We could invite chefs from some of the best and most popular restaurants in the city. They can come on and cook one of their favorite dishes for us—and I’ll assist them with it. If I get the position, Imean.”
Mrs. Baker nodded enthusiastically. “I love that idea. And make enough for our cast and crew to enjoy too. Oh, they’d love that, wouldn’tthey?”
“I would too.” Artimus grinned at me. “You can bet you’d see Mrs. Baker and me on set on thosedays.”
I was so happy that they liked my spur of the moment idea. If I put my mind to it, I could map out a whole line up for them. I’d make that my next mission. But first I had to think about what I’d do in the community to impress mybosses.
I kept quiet about any plans that went through my mind. I didn’t want them to inadvertently bring up any of my ideas when they had their meeting with Duke later that evening. If he knew what my plans were, he’d try to one-upme.
We finished our meals, then I left the restaurant to head back to the NYU campus to finish the class on bullying. To my surprise, I found Duke coming up behind me as I hailed a cab. “Wannashare?”
“You’re still here?” I was somewhat surprised by thefact.
“I am. I did a little window shopping after lunch. Thought you and I could talk about the meeting on the way back to campus.” He opened the door of the cab that stopped forus.
I slid in, and he slid in right next to me. “You did, didyou?”
“Yes. So what kinds of things did they say?” He looked a little worried. “Like, was one of them that you got thejob?”
