Talk of the Town Read Free Page B

“Did
everyone
know except me?”
    Kate held out a copy of
Crain’s.
“Today’s issue has a story on the
Daily Mail
acquisition.”
    “Did they spell my name correctly?” Rebecca asked, still trying to be funny, for everyone’s sake—including her own.
    Kate didn’t appear amused. She shook her head. “They only mention that the paper has been acquired by an unknown buyer. Very hush-hush. However, they do speculate that there will be personnel changes.”
    “Personnel changes,” Pauline echoed and straightened her hunched shoulders. “I suppose I’d best get back to the switchboard. Are you sure you’ll be all right, Rebecca?”
    “I’m absolutely wonderful.” Reaching into the cardboard box, Rebecca pulled out the silver canister. “Here, I promised you chocolate. Take two. Remember the small ovals are the caramels. Your favorites.” She kept smiling while Pauline slipped two chocolates into her pocket and Kate took one.
    Rebecca held her painful forced smile until Pauline was safely away. Then she collapsed in a heap against the cardboard box and glanced up to find Kate watching her like a benevolent schoolteacher.
    She stiffened her spine and tried to recapture her fake grin, but her face hurt too much. “I’m fine. Really, I am,” she lied to her new boss.
    “You don’t need to pretend for me. We should talk in my office,” Kate said in her crisp, matter-of-fact way.
    They stepped around the short gray partition separating Kate’s barely adequate cubbyhole office from Rebecca’s lone desk, situated in what was essentially a short hallway.
    Afraid her facade was cracking around the edges, Rebecca carefully sat firmly on the small, hard chair. “Kate, I promise not to become hysterical. If you have any information that might shed light on what just happened to me, I’d really like to hear it.”
    Leaning against the file cabinet, Kate gazed down at her with clear brown eyes. “Here is what I know. Our owner, Perry Communications, suffered a year-end loss of four hundred million after it had to slash the value of its stock. The PC board voted to pull the news megalith back to its media foundations in an effort to stop any further corporate crumbling. The
Chicago Daily Mail
is one of the crumbs someone picked up. There will be others.”
    Grateful for Kate’s no-nonsense approach instead of sympathy, Rebecca nodded. “Thank you. Brilliant and concise.” She glanced at the Pulitzer for business writing on Kate’s desk. “The owners of
Wealth Weekly
were fools to let you get away from them.”
    A flicker of a smile curled Kate’s narrow lips. “I thought so at the time. They wanted younger, hungrier writers. A similar situation to what just happened here to you.”
    Drawn to Kate, Rebecca leaned forward. “Isn’t it
unbelievable
when it happens?”
    Unblinking, Kate stared her straight in the eyes. “I didn’t believe it at first. It took a breakdown and four months in a hospital to come to grips with it. Now Prozac makes it possible for me to happily edit the stress-free Home section. But you knew all this, didn’t you?”
    There wasn’t a hint of self-pity in Kate’s voice, but her pain hit Rebecca right between the eyes. Of course Rebecca knew, but she had forgotten. It had been the talk of the media community when the brilliant Kate Carmichael came out of forced retirement to edit the
Daily Mail
’s lowly Home section. But she hadn’t known until this instant that Kate was hiding her real feelings, just like Rebecca did. “I’m sorry to have brought it up, Kate. I’m an insensitive, selfish bitch to have forgotten.”
    Kate shook her head, folding her arms across her neat but utterly shapeless black jacket. “You’re not a bitch. Or insensitive. Which is why you’ve been successful for so long. Now may I ask what you plan to do? Nothing as drastic as what I did, I hope?”
    Deeply touched by Kate’s unexpected kindness, Rebecca stood with new determination. “I plan to