Love at 11 - By Mari Mancusi Page 0,91

obviously a bribe.”

“Yeah, but—”

“First he tells you to suppress the truth about News Nine’s biggest advertiser and then offers you a huge promotion completely out of the blue?”

I picked at a hangnail. “Maybe it’s a coincidence.”

“Don’t be an idiot.”

“Well, it could be,” I said, feeling more than a bit defensive. Mainly because I knew she was completely right.

“So, what, you’re going to just throw away the best story you’ve ever produced and become one of them? Become management? Become the person who axes all the stories with journalistic integrity?” Jodi frowned. “I expected more from you. I thought you were better than that.”

I looked up, furious at her condemnation. “You don’t understand,” I retorted. “It’s a great job. And it’s a ton of money.”

“What about Newsline? You’re not going to be producing stories as an executive producer. How are you going to finish your Newsline résumé videotape?”

“Look, Jodi, let’s be realistic. We both know Newsline was a total pipe dream. It doesn’t matter how much crap I produced for News Nine. I’d never get there. My lot in life is here. In San Diego. I’m a local news kind of girl. And it’s high time I started living in the present and stopped striving for some glamorous dream job I’ll never get.” I held up the slip of paper where Richard had scribbled my new pay. “Look. It’s a good salary. I can start saving for a house. Get married. Become a mom. Live the good life.”

Jodi rose from her seat. “You disappoint me, Maddy. I never thought you’d be the one who settled.”

Anger rocked through me. “I’m not settling.”

“You are and you know it. But whatever. You’ve obviously made up your mind. Congratulations on your new job. I hope it makes you very, very happy.” And without another word, Jodi stormed off.

I glared at her retreating figure. How dare she be so harsh? She should be happy for me. She was probably jealous. Maybe she wished Richard promoted her instead of me. Maybe she didn’t like the idea that I’d be her boss from now on.

Or maybe she’s telling you something you need to hear, a nagging voice at the back of my head pestered.

Was I selling out? Sacrificing my journalistic integrity for a cushy position I didn’t even really want? But at the same time, what choice did I have? Me refusing the new job wasn’t going to suddenly convince Richard to air the drug tunnel story. And I couldn’t exactly sneak it on. Sure, I could mislabel the videotape with another story’s name to trick them into airing it. But it’d probably play for exactly three seconds before Richard realized what it was and called the control room to pull the plug. So, really, taking the executive producer job didn’t make a lick of difference in the short term and in the long term I could possibly make a difference around here. It was win-win.

So, why did I still feel so conflicted?

Chapter Eighteen

FROM: “Laura Smith”

TO: “Madeline Madison”

SUBJECT: Now that you’re me …

Hi Maddy,

Congratulations on getting promoted to executive producer. I’m sure you’ll do great. And now that you’re me, I wanted to let you in all on this job’s perks! As executive producer, you have power over a company’s public relations and marketing staff. And if you use this power for good, you can walk away with a ton of free stuff.

For example, if you want to go to an amusement park, concert, or sporting event, all you have to do is call the public relations rep and ask them for tickets. They’ll give them to you—free! Sure, you may have to promise to do a segment on them at some point—something that gives them some free advertising. I once got a whole ski weekend comp’ed just by promising to feature them in an upcoming News 9 report. (Oh, crap, that reminds me—can you assign someone to do a Southern California’s Best Ski Resort story? Make sure White Mountain wins first place.)

You can also get a ton of great stuff in the mail. If you like a new product, simply do a story on it and they’ll send you one free. (Even expensive stuff!) Sometimes they’ll only send it as a loan, but I’ve found that if you keep it, they eventually give up calling to get it back. Also, you’re already signed up to get every new DVD, music CD, and book that comes out. Once in a while, you might want to share