Jesus. All over the stupidity in Omaha.

She acts like it was all my fault. Like I took her out and got her drunk and then tried to do something. Or did something. Whichever the case was. Kelsey isn’t saying, so I’m thinking it happened. Why else would she be so upset?

Come on, Harper, focus. You’re not at work. You’re about to join friends, and relax a bit.

I roll my shoulders, loosening them, and hang my helmet off the handlebar. I pat my Fat Boy tenderly and head over to the door.

Snake, the regular bouncer, smiles at me. "I’ll take good care of her for you, Harper." He will too. Snake is a small mountain of flesh encased in leather. No one fucks with him.

I push a twenty dollar bill into his hand. "Thanks, Snake. Anyone inside worth noticing?"

He smiles, a gap between his two front teeth makes him look friendlier than he would otherwise. "Oh yeah. There’s a little blonde in there that’s real easy on the eyes."

I nod, considering the possibilities. "Last time you mentioned someone, they had come in with a date. Am I gonna have someone trying to kill my ass for flirting with this little blonde?"

Snake chuckles, remembering the incident all too well. He had to give up his watch over my beloved bike to stop a brawl in the bar before it began. Fortunately, my bike had been unharmed in his absence, or there would have been another fight on his hands. "Nah, she came in alone. Can’t promise she wasn’t meeting someone though."

"Fair enough. Later, Snake."

I push my way in the heavy door and take a deep breath. God, I love it here. This is the smell of a real place, real people, real liquor, real smoke. The Rio doesn’t have room for bullshit or mind games. Here, if you want to get laid, you can get laid. If you just want to drink, you can drink unharassed. If you want to just relax with friends, you do what I’m gonna do.

"What’s an ugly son-of-a-bitch like you doing in a classy bar like this?"

Gary gives me the finger. "They let you in again? Damn, this place is going downhill. I may have to find me a new hangout." He presses his hands to the bar and pushes up, as if he might actually leave.

"Yeah, right. Most of the respectable bars have banned you." I take a seat on the stool next to him, my back to the bar. I’m looking for the cute blonde that captured Snake’s attention. Despite his ill-conceived moniker, Snake has good taste in women.

Gary laughs and claps me on the back. "How the hell are you, Harper? How are things down at the station?"

The bartender puts a beer down by me. "Sent by the woman at the end of the bar."

I glance down and see the blonde I had last night. I raise the glass to my lips and smile at her. Doesn’t hurt to be polite.

"I don’t want to talk about work, Gary."

"You haven’t want to talk about work for two weeks. What the hell happened up in Ohio?"

"Omaha, you idiot. Nothing."

"You sure?"

I put the glass down a bit more forcefully than I should. "Nothing happened. Just drop it."

"Ice Bitch getting to you?" he asks, teasing me.

"Don’t call her that," I growl.

"What’s wrong, Harper?" Suddenly, Gary is all serious and sincere. "Something’s eating at you."

"I wish," I mutter.

"What?"

"Nothing. Look, Gary, it’s been a long couple weeks. I nearly had my fucking head blown off in Omaha and we’ve been pushing it hard lately."

"Has she been able to do much? I saw her parading around with that actor boyfriend of hers last night. They were on all the news broadcasts – even your rivals."

"I don’t want to talk about her, Gary."

"Because you can’t have her?"

"Goddammit!" I slam the mug down on the bar, sloshing some of the amber liquid onto the counter. Heads turn our way, but I don’t care. "Enough about her! Jesus H. Christ, since when did you become so interested in my sex life?"

"Since I can’t seem to have one of my own," Gary replies softly, realizing he’s been an asshole of first rate.

"Well, Gary, you gotta stop wearing those fucking plaid shirts. Jesus, man, you look like a lumberjack. People will think you come complete with Babe the Blue Ox."

He guffaws, nearly snorting beer out his nose. "God, what an image."

"Tell me about it. Scares the crap out of me." Then I join him in the laughter.

We’re all right now. That’s what I like most about Gary. He’s so much like my brothers. We give each other shit all the time, but it never lasts long. So different from women. They hold grudges. Forever.

Forever and ever.

And Kelsey is all woman.

I spy the little blonde. Ooo … she is sweet. She’s small, but not in the important areas, and she has a nice smile. She looks friendly. I could use friendly in my life around now.

Imagine Kelsey thinking I sent her flowers.

Yeah right.

Maybe dead roses. I hear there are places in LA that will send them. Perhaps I’ll look into that.

But, now, I have better things to look in to. The blonde’s blouse is cut low. And I am quite tall. "Excuse me for a bit, Gar."

"But of course. I’ll just sit here by my little lonesome. Again."

"Change the shirt, I tell ya. It would do wonders." I give him my parting advice as I amble over toward the blonde.


* * *

As I climb out of the Mercedes and make my way into the studio, I take stock of everything that’s going on in my very screwed up life at the moment.

I saw Erik off at the airport this morning. He’ll be gone for over a month filming on location in North Carolina. The press showed up at the airport so we were required to share a rather intense little kiss at the gate. Whoever taught him to kiss really should receive a thank you note.

I miss him already.

Maybe I really am straight.

Oh, I don’t think so. All evidence is certainly to the contrary. I mean, I do have witnesses.

Maybe I just need more friends.

Bingo! Give that woman a cigar. Or some other phallic shaped device.

I shake my head, wondering what has gotten into it. God, Kels, you’ve been alone too much lately. And you’ll be alone for Thanksgiving, too. Yet another holiday spent in the movie theatre eating popcorn instead of turkey.

Well, at least I did receive one bit of good news: the judge who is hearing my parents’ case pushed it back on his docket until after the first of the year.

I love it. Make them suffer through the holidays, too.

I had Beth handle that mess for me. She told me I owed her "big." I look forward to paying her back when I fly to New York in January for the hearing. That’s the only up-side to that trip. No matter how bad it might get, Beth will make it better.

And seeing Martha will make it better as well. I smile at the thought. I wish I saw her more often. My parents’ retired housekeeper was my one constant friend growing up. And even then …

I need to send her flowers.

And stop being so damn melancholy.

My thoughts betray me and stray to Harper.

Jesus, she’s been pushing us hard lately. The NRA had its executive meeting here in LA for the last three days. Of course, that sparked protests three days before, during and after. We covered the protests, the meeting itself, NRA advocates, and more. Of course, the shooting of a child a block away from the meeting took on epic significance. In one day, I think we did almost 100 cut-aways for our affiliates nationwide. We’re all exhausted from the pace we’ve kept for the last two weeks. Not that I mind, it’s been nice to be focused since Harper and I don’t seem to be speaking to each other yet.

As I consider that fact, I sort of feel a little bad. I wish she’d come clean about what happened in Omaha. I know she knows. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have laughed at me like that when I asked her. She would have admitted it. Right?

I asked her to be honest with me. She promised me she would. Then she laughed at me. That hurt worse than anything else. She laughed at me.

As I make my way into the building, I see Harper ahead of me in the hallway. She’s waiting for the elevator. I take a deep breath and enter through the glass door. As I take my place beside her waiting for the elevator, she glances down at me.

"Good morning," she says as she resumes her stare at the door.

"Good morning. What’s on the agenda for today?" I am proud of myself for being so civilized and polite.

"The guys are going to do some final editing on a couple of the pieces. Then we’re gonna sit down and talk over a few story ideas. Is that all right with you?"

"Un-huh."

"Good." We have just had this conversation without ever looking at each other. I follow her onto the elevator with a sigh. No words are spoken on the trip up. As the doors slide open and we exit, the office messenger meets me.

"This came for you this morning, Miss Stanton." He hands me a medium-sized, stuffed, white teddy bear holding a rose. "I was going to put it in your office, but the door was locked."

"It was locked?" I echo. I never lock my door. I glance at Harper, immediately suspicious. "Did you lock it?"

She makes a face. "Hardly."

The messenger kid pipes up, trying to diffuse the tension he can feel between us. "There’s a new janitor working the third shift. Maybe he locked it."

"I’ll have to leave him a note about it. I tend to leave my keys in my desk drawer. Which would be bad if he locks the door." I explain all of this unnecessarily. I realize I am babbling because I know I was just a bitch to Harper.

What is wrong with me?

"Do you need me to take anything for you, Ms. Stanton?"

"No, thanks."

He smiles shyly and leaves.

I risk a glance at Harper who still looks annoyed at me. "Sorry."

"It’s nothing," she replies, but I know it isn’t.

I notice the card attached to the rose as we continue our walk toward our offices. I open the card up and read, "From your secret admirer." "Oh no, not again," I groan.

"What’s up?"

I’m surprised she asks so I decide to answer her, and to try to be friendly about it. We’re both feeling annoyed enough at the moment without it getting any worse.

"You remember the roses day before yesterday?"

"Yeah."

"Well, yesterday it was Godiva chocolates and today this." I shake the teddy bear at her. "All from someone claiming to be ‘A secret admirer’."

"Isn’t that sweet?" she offers as she stops to make herself a cup of coffee.

I lean against the wall. "I mean, does he really think this is going to make me fall in love with him?"

Harper smirks. "How do you know it’s a man?"

She’s right. I don’t know for sure. "Just a gut feeling."

Harper sips her coffee. "Sure the stuff isn’t from Erik or Beth?"

"Nope, I already asked them both. They aren’t doing it. That’s why I asked you about the roses."

Her back stiffens. "You didn’t ask, you accused."

"Yeah, I know. I’m…"

She waves it off. "Whatever. Water under the bridge, right?"

I suppose. But I still don’t completely believe her denials.

We’ve arrived outside my office. I try the doorknob. It’s definitely locked.

"You got the key?"

"Hold on." I hand her the teddy bear and start looking through my purse for the key.

As I lay a few things out on a desk, I hear her laugh and I look up. She’s grinning down at me holding a diaphragm case in her hands. "This is priceless. What do you do, keep mints in it?" She laughs again as she shakes her head.

"It’s for show. In case I lose my purse."

"Everything you do is for show."

Ouch. "Yeah, I know. Disgusting, isn’t it? Not everyone can be so open about things as you are. Do you know what I would give for just one day of being allowed to be myself?"

She doesn’t answer, but I didn’t really expect her to.

I finally retrieve the key from the bottom of my purse, cram everything back into it, then turn and unlock my door.

"Everything look okay?" Harper asks from the doorway.

"Seems to be." I glance around the office, nothing seems out of place. In fact, everything seems cleaner than normal. I like the new cleaning guy, if we can just skip the door locking in the future. "Your office or here for the meeting?"

She shrugs. "Doesn’t matter. Ah hell, let’s do it here so we can take a look at the morning news too. Chambers still hasn’t installed TV’s in my office yet. Let me get my notes." She tosses the teddy bear at me and then the diaphragm. "Here you might need this."