(My thanks to my editor Violetlittle. Her help with these stories is priceless.)
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Brian believed he was a city boy through and through. He loved the constant sounds of traffic, the ability to sniff in a good lung full of bad city air and have a good cough afterwards. The way the 'walk/don't walk' signs would finish suddenly, leaving you as open prey in the middle of the road. As far as he was concerned, what was wrong with that? Then five years ago Brian met Rachael, to him she had everything, humor, personality by the bucket load, black hair that shone in the daylight, eyes that felt like she could see right through you. Lips that made him go weak at the knees when he kissed her.
At five feet seven she also stood eye to eye to him, he liked his women the same height as he was. The list was endless to him, when they had first started dating he said it was her rack that caught his eye first. He saw that come through the door and waited ten minutes for the owner to arrive. That comment alone eventually earned him a date, then a slap for even making a comment about her breasts. Rachael loved her body and was very comfortable with it. Rachael never told Brian that she had waited for her breasts to show up; like an expectant father would in a maternity ward. She was such a late bloomer it was embarrassing.
In high school the gym showers were the worst things in the world. When all her friends and classmates bounced about the showers showing off what puberty had done for them, she felt as though she must have been in the toilets when the tits were handed out. Eventually her body decided it was time to stop tormenting her and she slowly filled out a B-cup and painfully paused while her body teased her for a while longer, then pushed on up to a C-cup. On that momentous morning, a bright and loud "YES" was heard from Rachael's bedroom and she bounced around the room, making up all sorts of dances so she could watch them sway and bounce.
With her newly found self-confidence she felt like she could take on the world and sometimes had to take the boys on with a big stick. Rachael was a country girl to the core, born in the country and proud to have the so called small town mentality she would often think to herself, even more so when her search for work took her to the big city. Rachael had thought herself a reporter in the making. It came as a huge blow to her to discover that she hated not only city life, but the newspaper she worked at as well. Pushing paper around a desk and being the object of ridicule because she was a country girl was slowly starting to get to her.
So much so that Rachael had decided that the next person, who called her 'country girl', would get what her Daddy taught her to do to boys when she didn't want them to talk to her anymore. That fateful day came sooner rather than later, although it truly was a blessing in disguise for her in the form of Gregg Thomson, a man who was a legend in his own mind, the man who thought his article on how the paper had pressured the local council to put bigger warning signs up outside an old people's home should have earned him an award, or at the very least, more recognition by his fellow reporters. Gregg sauntered up to Rachael and slapped his latest creation on her desk and demanded three extra copies done and instantly.
Rachael looked at him and said "Say Please."
Gregg couldn't believe what he had just heard and said, "Listen 'Country girl', I've just given you an order so get off your fat ass and go do it."
Her last thoughts just before she got up off the chair were, 'oh well it was okay working here really I suppose'. Rachael stood in front of Gregg and stamped on his foot, Gregg screeched and started to scream something at her as he instinctively leaned forward, that was what Rachael was waiting for, as soon as his head was level with her shoulder she let him have it with a right hook that spun him round and put him on the floor. By now Rachael had picked up her bag from under her desk and turned, to be confronted by the owner of the paper and another man, she hadn't seen before.
"I assume you're going to be looking to press charges now?" Was Rachael's only comment.
The owner looked at Gregg still out cold on the floor and said, "No your fine, we heard what he said to you and we will be getting rid of him when he wakes up."
It was as she started walking past the both of them that the stranger put his hand in his pocket, and then said, "One moment miss."
Rachael stopped and looked at him, he held out his hand, between his fingers was a card. Rachael looked, and then she took it, and without even reading at it, stuffed it in her bag and continued to walk out the building. Her first thought was to find a bar for a drink, her second thought was to go back to her apartment, pack and go home. Rachael had come to some conclusions that day, she would never be a reporter in the big city, and she hated men, again. As she walked down the street she did smile to herself and think about taking up boxing full time, but somehow she didn't think that Daddy's trick was legal.
Sitting at the bar she decided to take her Daddy's advice, 'if ever you hit a brick wall, take a step back and then decide weather to knock it down or go around it'. So she gave herself a week off, took in the sights and even caught up with the laundry, it was while she was sorting her bag out she came across the card the man gave her when she punched out Gregg. Rachael smiled to herself. It was one of those few times in life she was actually struck dumb. The card read. Alex Hartman, owner KTXM Radio. Why would the owner of the third largest radio station in the city, give her his card? Well there is only one way to find out, she thought.
Full of more bravado than she actually felt she had, she phoned the number, a man answered, when she asked to be put through to Mr. Hartman, the man chuckled.
"You sure took your sweet time Rachael, I was beginning to think you weren't going to call, that card I gave you, has my private number." Alex said.
