Page 29 of Perfectly Matched

“Holy shit,” Payson said as she and several others rushed over to help. Madison was sitting in a chair that was lying on the floor, her hands gripped the arm rests, and her feet were straight up in the air. “Madison, are you okay?” She hooked her arm around Madison’s shoulder and helped her up.

“That damn chair!” Madison snarled as she straightened her clothes and patted her hair. “Jason,” she screamed. “I want my own office with brand-new furniture…now!” She stormed into the corner office and slammed the door.

“That’s so weird,” Payson muttered as she returned to her cubicle. “I know I put that chair in the corner yesterday with a sign that clearly said it was broken. I don’t know how it ended up in Madison’s cubicle.”

“Huh…imagine that,” was all Hannah said as she displayed a slight grin.

As the day progressed, Payson received several flirtatious texts from Madison, all alluding to her coming over for an after-dinner drink. At one point, she caught Madison wink at her as she walked past. But if a suggestive exchange was what Madison had in mind, it fell short of its mark. Because instead of returning the gesture, she choked back a chuckle as the image of Madison lying on the floor flashed in her head. The unexpected reaction caught her off guard. She was excited about the prospect of having a romantic evening with Madison, that was undeniable, so why the humorous reaction to an overtly suggestive signal? And not only that, there was something else that had her feeling a bit off, and it had nothing to do with Madison.

She began noticing it every time she was close to Hannah. There was a strange, almost magnetic pull that seemed to make her want to gravitate toward her. And each time they touched,a feeling of warm calmness surrounded her heart, as though it recognized Hannah in some familiar way. She had to admit, she had never felt that sensation with anyone before, and it was a bit unnerving.

She shook the thoughts from her mind as she tried to concentrate on writing the show’s opening teaser. “Get it together,” she mumbled to herself because as the day wore on, she was having a harder time figuring out which of them was causing her desires to be pinged in a way she hadn’t felt in a long time. If ever.

Thirty minutes before the show was to begin, the police scanners began screeching. Payson jumped up, grabbed her notepad, and hustled to the assignment desk. Jason lumbered out of his office. “What’s going on?”

“Sounds like a street performer and a tourist got into a fight on Fremont Street, and the end result was a stabbing.”

“That’s your lead.” He called. “Pull Tegan away from the neon boneyard and get her over there now. I want her to be at the scene when the show opens. Come on, people, move.”

Payson scurried back to her cubicle, notified Tegan of the change in plans, and reminded her to check in when she was set up and ready to go. This was the sprint before the show; stories needed to be shuffled around, reporters shifted, information gathered, and scripts written. She tilted her head from shoulder to shoulder as her neck cracked. She needed to focus and get in her zone. She let out a long breath as she stared at her computer and blocked out everything around her.

“Talk to me,” she whispered to the screen, and a moment later, her fingers flew over her keyboard as words filled her mind.

As the countdown to the show neared, she started tapping her leg. She was ninety seconds over. “Damn,” she mumbled. She still needed to cut, but she didn’t want to take any moretime away from the puppies, so she pulled a segment about an elderly woman who was going to do a charity swim in Lake Mead for her eightieth birthday and shelved it for tomorrow’s show.

Fifteen minutes out, Payson hit the print icon. “Done,” she announced as Hannah scurried to the printer and gathered the scripts. They hustled into the studio and placed two copies on the desk as Madison and her male co-anchor shuffled in, ready to deliver the tragic, bizarre, and strange to the viewers with a smile. The anchors settled into their designated positions and mic’d up as Hannah and Payson took their seats in the control room and threw their headsets on. Payson flipped buttons and called reporters to make sure everyone was in place and ready to go as the overhead clock ticked down the seconds. This was the adrenaline rush of the business, and it invigorated her as much as exhausted her.

“Get ready, Tegan. You’re on in thirty,” Payson told her over her phone.

“And…cue, Tegan,” the director called, and a shot of Tegan standing on Fremont Street, surrounded by a crowd, filled the screen. The red and blue flashing police lights added to the overpowering neon and made for a picture that would definitely grab the attention of any viewer. Tegan spoke with concern on her face as she explained how a dispute over the price a street performer was charging a tourist for taking a selfie of the two of them had turned into an altercation that sent one person to the hospital in serious condition.

“And cue, package,” Payson said after Tegan delivered her live monologue.

Tegan’s story, peppered with interviews and eye-witness accounts, went live, and Payson let her know she would toss to her again in a minute and forty. The piece was not the most riveting, but it would get the locals talking about how the cityneeded to keep the street performers safe from drunken tourists. This was, after all, one of their own who was attacked.

“Get ready, Tegan,” Payson told her. “You’re back on in thirty. And heads-up, Madison said she’s going to pitch a question or two to you, so be prepared for that. But I’ll need you to wrap it up within a thirty-second window.”

“Got it.”

As stories unfolded, one after the other, Payson got into a synchronized motion. For thirty minutes every weeknight, this was her stage. This was the performance she had prepared all day for. She was the puppeteer behind the scenes, and how successful or not the show looked to the viewer was a direct result of her. It was as addicting as it was exhilarating, and it was why she stayed in a job that was slowly sucking the life out of her.

As the newscast began to wind down, so did her adrenaline. By the time she pitched to the puppy segment, she felt like she had run a marathon. She exhaled an accomplished breath. She was at the bottom of the C-block, the show was about to end, and she now had one more newscast under her belt. As the studio cameras shot closeups of the fuzzy faces of the latest puppies available for adoption at the local shelter, her heart melted. She thought of eighteen years of Kona kisses, and tears welled in her eyes. Kona had left much more than pawprints around Payson’s house; she’d also left them all over her heart, and they became heavier with each passing day.

“And we’re clear. Good show, people.” The words of the director brought her back to reality.

“Yes,” Payson added. “Good show, people.” She pulled the headset off and glanced at Hannah. “Well, let’s go out there and pet some puppies before Jason comes in and ruins the mood with his list of criticisms,” she said as she stood and arched her back. Every now and then, the perks of the job outweighedthe stress and made it all worthwhile. Being in a studio full of puppies every week was definitely top of that list.

“Payson.” Hannah gently grasped her arm.

A shiver shot up her body, and her erect nipples made another appearance. “Yeah?”

“I just wanted to say that I hope you have a wonderful dinner tonight with Madison.”

Payson glanced at Hannah’s arm as a slight warmth infused her body. There were definitely moments in the day when she could have sworn that she and Hannah had chemistry. She would catch her from the corner of her eye, staring, or their hands would linger and not move after an accidental touch. But maybe she was wrong. Maybe she was just projecting her own feelings; after all, ever since Hannah had come to the station, she seemed more focused on getting Payson together with Madison then herself.

“Thank you,” Payson muttered as she gazed at Hannah. She was beautifully sexy, seemed uncomplicated, and smiled with childlike wonder at almost everything. She seemed interested in Payson’s life, marveled at the things Payson took for granted, and had an insightful way of explaining the world. “Well, uh…” Payson teetered a bit as she became lost in Hannah’s eyes and contemplated leaning in and kissing her. But when Hannah broke eye contact and looked down, she shook her head in embarrassment. What was she doing? She had a date with Madison tonight, and here she was almost kissing Hannah. She rubbed her temples as she thought again about how strange the past twenty-four hours had been. With the sudden attention from Madison and the instant attraction toward Hannah hitting at the same time, maybe she was confusing her emotions. After all, it was clear that Madison was the one interested in her, not Hannah. But still, there was that gut feeling about Hannah that told her that there was something about her that connected them.

“Well,” she said as she brushed the thoughts off. Whatever it is, she’ll worry about it later. “I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.”

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