Chapter 1 #2
“So? The ex never lived here, right? Has anyone spoken to her? Maybe she’s not over him.
Maybe he’s getting remarried because of the scandal between him and the bride.
From what I’ve seen, no one ever came forward and said it was her in that picture, but it obviously was.
Did she trap him? Or did he trade a marriage with her for funding that summer camp of hers? ”
“Nothing like that happened,” I argued.
Gretchen’s brows arched expertly. Her lips curled up at the edges.
“Since you seem to know so much, you can surely find out more. Use your connection to them. We need a reason to write this story. I think you can make it good, but we need more brainstorming. More ideas. Or the story is dead before you start.”
“I understand.”
“Find out more about the mayor, and the bride, and…” She trailed off as she opened her laptop.
She tapped a few keys, then continued. “Be back Friday at eleven. I’ll put you on my calendar.
If you have a good enough pitch, I’ll let you roll with a four-article series. If not, I’ll hand it over to Mike.”
I swallowed my groan and nodded. Mike was a shark. He never let anything go until he found dirt, whether the dirt was relevant or not. I could not let Omar and Natalie be exposed to him.
“Not fluff, Casey. A story,” Gretchen said, her gaze sliding to the door, then back to her computer, dismissing me.
I took the hint and let myself out of her office, closing the door behind me as Gretchen picked up the phone.
I had four days to come up with a story. One about Omar and Natalie that wouldn’t be fluff and wouldn’t make them look bad. And I had zero ideas of what to write.
Two days later, I was still trying to come up with ideas about Natalie and Omar that weren’t bad for them, or the town.
Out of options, and with two more days before my meeting with Gretchen, I showed up at the Community Center, hoping to catch Natalie before the kids got out of school and flooded the afterschool program.
“Can I help you?” a voice asked when I buzzed the door for the Community Center.
“I’m Casey White. I—”
“Oh, Casey. How are you? How’s Mikayla?”
The door buzzed to let me into the building.
I heard footsteps approaching and saw Amelia Rucker.
“Hi, Amelia. We’re good. Mikayla misses coming here.
” My daughter joined the afterschool program as a fifth grader, something she hated, but after I had to get a job, and then two more, to support us, I insisted.
Amelia and the rest of the staff made it fun, and Mikayla stopped fighting me after the first few days.
Amelia chuckled. “That’s what we like to hear. But I’m guessing you’re not here to convince us to take her in. What can I do for you?”
“I’m actually looking for Natalie. Is she here?”
“Natalie!” Amelia shouted, turning her head away from me as she bellowed. “Visitor!” Amelia smiled at me. “She has a tendency to hide, and if she thinks she can get away with it, she pretends not to hear me.”
“I don’t do that,” Natalie said, appearing from a door on the far side of the gym with a look that said it was exactly what she planned to do.
“Yes, you do. Be nice and talk to Casey. She always writes nice things about us. You should thank her for that,” Amelia said, giving Natalie a scolding look tempered by a slight grin.
“I do thank her. Every time. How are you, Casey?” Natalie smiled at me.
“Good, mostly. I need your help, though.”
“We don’t really have space for Mikayla to join the program, and a lot of older kids fight when they come. We don’t have anyone her age this year.” Natalie scrunched her face.
“I already asked about that,” Amelia said.
“Oh.” Natalie shook her head, her dark ponytail flicking over her shoulder. “Then what can I do for you?”
“I wanted to write a series of articles about your wedding. A behind-the-scenes kind of thing. Maybe highlight some of the local businesses. Something about the two of you balancing work and the wedding. Something like that.”
“That sounds fun. Sure. Do you want to come to appointments and stuff with us?”
“Um, well, yes, but I also need something more.”
“More?” Natalie looked at Amelia, who shrugged, then back at me.
“My editor thinks a basic story about your wedding isn’t interesting enough. She wants something…”
“She wants dirt,” Amelia provided.
“She… yeah,” I agreed. “I’m sorry.”
“Dirt? On me and Omar? Like what? We’re not dirty people.”
Amelia snorted.
Natalie flashed her a mock glare. “You know what I mean. That came out wrong. Please don’t print that.”
I shook my head. “I’m not here to trash you guys. But if I don’t come up with a good angle on the article, she’s going to give it to someone who will twist things and not care what it looks like.”
“Ugh!” Natalie cried. “We’ve been through hell already. Why can’t they just leave us alone?”
“I’m sorry. It’s my fault for proposing something. I just thought it would be a good article. Something residents would enjoy.”
“I don’t blame you. I would love to read a story about the mayor getting married. If I weren’t the one he was marrying.” Natalie smiled sheepishly. “There’s nothing special about us except his job. We’re just two people who ended up falling in love.”
“What about his first wife? Or your summer camp? I know the funding was all above board, but did working together change things? Maybe I can talk about how that factored in?”
Natalie exchanged a look with Amelia that I didn’t understand. Amelia shrugged.
“What?” I asked.
“I was the woman in the picture with him,” Natalie confessed.
I nodded. “Um, yeah. I know.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. I think Melody told me. I never told anyone else, though. But my editor knows. I don’t know how, but she mentioned it. She wanted to know if you traded favors after that picture or what the deal was with it.”
“Favors? No. It was taken out of context, but that scandal brought us together. He was protecting me. The night that picture was taken, we weren’t together.
He chased down the photographer to try to get it back, but the guy refused.
I thought it was going to tank the summer camp project, but they were only after Omar. ”
“I can pitch it. See what she thinks,” I said. “Will it hurt you, though?”
Natalie shrugged. “I don’t think so. The summer camp is growing every year. We’re taking as many kids as we can. And the wedding is coming up. The picture wasn’t what it looked like, but I still get people asking me if I know who the woman was and if I’m worried she’ll try to stop the wedding.”
“If they only knew,” I said.
Natalie chuckled. “Right? If you run with this as an article, they will.”
“I don’t know if it’ll be enough for Gretchen. She seems pretty set on there being more to a story.”
“She has a job to do,” Amelia said. “Her job is to sell newspapers. It makes sense she’s going to look for something juicy that would help with that.”
“But why does it have to be about me?” Natalie asked. Her whine was well-earned.
“Again, I’m sorry about that. I’ll talk to her about doing something leading up to you being the woman in the picture, and I’ll let you know what she says.” I hoped it would be enough. If not, I was afraid Mike would take over and make things really uncomfortable for Natalie and Omar.
“If she approves it, you can have full access to everything for the wedding. All the ugly behind-the-scenes stuff. Whatever you want to see,” Natalie said, shuddering. “I think Omar is more excited that I am.”
“You’re going to have a great day,” Amelia said.
“I hope so. The best part for me will be when it’s all over and I can sneak away with my husband.” Natalie’s cheeks flamed red. “I mean… That sounded bad. I didn’t mean it like that.”
I snickered. “I know what you meant. It’s one day. What really matters is the marriage, not the wedding.”
“Yes, that’s what I meant. Jeez. I feel like I need an editor to sit in my brain and change the words before they come out of my mouth.”
“That would be handy,” Amelia teased her.
Natalie laughed again. “Let me know what your editor says, and we’ll figure it all out. Thanks, Casey.”
“Thank you. I’ll be in touch.”
I let myself out of the Community Center feeling a little better. Hopefully, Gretchen went for it, and Natalie and Omar didn’t have any dark secrets dug up before the wedding.
And if I were really lucky, maybe this article would seal a future for me at the paper. And give me the opportunity to have only one job and more time with my daughter.