8.
The sun was yet to rise as Jonathan drove out of the basement parking garage of the building. He was as calm as the quietness of the morning – rush hour was still three hours away. He slid his slick sports car onto the road and pushed down hard on the gas pedal. The car revved into speed, and soon Jonathan and his baby were hightailing down the highway - way, way over the speed limit towards the studios. He loved this time of the morning when he was able to get a little power out of the engines and drive the car as it was meant to – super fast. If he did ever get caught well then he was Jonathan Bale after all, and he was positive he would get away with it, or he’d just pay the fine. It definitely wouldn’t make a dent in his bank account.
He breezed into the studios whistling smiling and greeting everyone, even if it was just a nod of his head.
‘Jonathan.’ Glynn shouted from his producer’s office as Jonathan was walking past. He stopped in his tracks, backed up about four paces and popped his head in Glynn’s office door.
‘What’s up?’
‘Come in. Close the door.’
Jonathan proceeded to do so as instructed not losing his bounce since he had woken up.
‘There a problem?’
‘Have you seen the headlines this morning?’ Glynn asked and handed a copy of the Times newspaper to him over the desk.
Jonathan sat in the chair and opened the paper to see the huge photo on the front page of Jonathan behind the podium of his church “Bale gets bailed out.” the headline read. He read the article to the end gave a “humph” afterward and handed the paper back to Glynn.
‘And?’ Jonathan asked not sure whether they were happy or unhappy with the article.
‘Bravo!’ Glynn applauded. ‘We couldn’t have scripted that better ourselves. Mr. Eckenberg phoned and told me to congratulate you on the excellent damage control.’
Jonathan laughed, lifted his hands from the arms of the chair and said ‘What can I say, it is my gift.’ He was smug and full of it, and he knew it. He knew he was taking the credit as if he had planned the whole thing, but who would know otherwise unless he informed them so, for now, he would be the hero to the network bosses.
‘One more thing, the gifts lately have been mediocre so in next week’s show it is going to be a whopper, get prepared!
He saluted Glynn as he stood up and left his office whistling once more on his way to his dressing room.
He mirrored his image and was pleased with himself. He looked exceptionally handsome today. His sleek black suit enhanced his grayish blue eyes – a most unusual colour that merely added to the intrigue of his personality. His thick finely styled hair matched that of the suit, perfectly groomed and the groomed gentleman.
A knock on the door interrupted his admiring thoughts of himself; ‘Come in.’ he said and groaned when Gertrude’s face appeared around the door.
‘Good morning boss.’
‘Glad you know it?’
‘Know what boss?’
‘That I’m your boss. I can also get you fired too.’
‘That’s why I call you boss.’ She mocked him. As much as he tried to get her to do or say something wrong he just couldn’t she had won every round of their continuous dance. ‘You can’t, you won’t so I wish you would give up trying.’
She went to his dresser table and plopped the script for the show on it. ‘Well done on the damage control. It’s the talk of the studio this morning.’
A little taken aback by hearing a compliment from Gertrude, Jonathan nodded his head never taking his eyes off her in distrust. ‘Thanks, it’s what I do best.’
‘Really now. Hmm.’ Gertrude replied on her way out leaving Jonathan’s good mood dampened.
‘No ways! She is not going to ruin my good mood today. She can go to hell; she is not going to win this round.’ He spoke to himself in the mirror, reassuring himself that he was going to remain in his current mood status the entire day.
The pre-rehearsal meeting was announced to begin any minute, and everyone concerned sat around the large oval-shaped mahogany table in the boardroom.
Again Jonathan was praised for his supposedly self thought-up damage control article in the press, and again he took all credit for it. Everyone except Gertrude and Suzanne applauded. Jonathan stood and took a bow.