In the last installment, I had learned that Paige, one of our evening anchors, had recently broken up with her boyfriend of several years. I worked with her only sporadically, since I had been on the early newscast for several years, and our paths did not cross often. Despite that, we got along well, and worked well together when the opportunity arose.
Paige is a sweet girl in her late 20's, and gorgeous. Quite tall at 5'9", slender, with long legs, long blonde hair, and D cup breasts, she was stunning. If you could bring a Barbie doll to life, she'd look like Paige. She was quite athletic as well, having been a swimmer in college. As you would imagine, she was popular with our male viewers, and got all kinds of comments and offers on her various social media accounts. She was outgoing and engaging any time I saw her at an event, but knew how to deflect the guys and keep a distance. Despite the "bubble headed bleach blonde" appearance, she was quite well read and intelligent, very introspective in her off camera moments, and a good conversationalist, something I came to appreciate early in our association.
The executive producer had put on a couple of new camera operators, and asked me if I would help out with their training. This would require me to switch from early mornings to the evening newscasts. I readily agreed, since this would get me closer to Paige. I'd start the assignment the following Monday.
I got to the station around 3:30 Monday afternoon and looked for my charges. I found them, a couple of college guys who had the usual school training, but not much in the real world. I got them set up, and showed them how we worked. I got on a unit and got ready, but my plan was to let the new guys do most of the work, as long as they didn't screw it up too badly. We were more or less ready to go by about 4:15 for a 5 PM broadcast, so I took them around to see who the talent was today. I found the sports director and chief meteorologist first, and introduced my rookies. I asked Mitch, the sports director, who was on the anchor desk. "Paige," he replied.
"Paige is gorgeous," said one new guy to his friend.
"Don't get your hopes up," I told him. "Yes, she's gorgeous, and she's the nicest girl you'll ever meet, but don't let the fact that she seems like a ditzy blonde fool you. She doesn't take any crap from anyone. Don't get the idea you're going to get a piece of her any time soon." The kid looked at me like I had taken his candy away. "Just be cool, be nice, and maybe in a couple of months you'll have a chance." He got really quiet after that. I probably saved Paige some heartache, but more importantly, I knocked him out as a contender for her attention, at least for a time.
Paige was at her desk, engrossed in getting her script ready. We walked up behind her, and I put my hand on her shoulder. "Hey, girl," I said cheerfully.
"Hey," she said, then looked up, suddenly realizing it was me. "Hey, Tom!! What are you doing out this late?? Aren't you on mornings??" She got out of her chair to give me a long hug.
"Normally, yes. The boss asked me to cover some nights while these guys are training. So I'll be on your newscast for a couple of weeks." I introduced Paige to my rookies, Greg and Neil, telling Paige they'd be with me during that time.
Paige shook hands with both, and looked over at me with a smile. "Pay attention to Tom. He knows what he's doing. You'll learn a lot." She gave me a wink. We chatted a few minutes and then went back to the studio so I could show the guys what they'd be doing that night.
The five PM news went without a hitch, and the guys seemed to be good students, following directions well, and showing some good instincts. We cut to the network feed at 5:30, and got ready for the 6 PM newscast, which usually meant some moving around, as there were two anchors on that broadcast. I showed the guys what we'd do differently, then we were back at it. That broadcast also went well, and we broke, this time not coming back til our 9 PM news on our affiliated CW station.
As soon as we were done at 6:30, Paige came over and asked what I was doing for dinner. "Probably run out and grab some barbecue," I said, not really having anything in mind.
"Wanna get Mexican??" said Paige.
"You bet," I said. I'd have picked my dinner out of a dumpster with Paige if she wanted. "When do you want to head out??"
"Let me get my sweater, and we'll go." Paige went into the newsroom grabbed a cardigan off the back of her chair, and we went out to my car. She pulled the sweater on over her dress, commenting that it was chilly in the studio.
I laughed. "Maybe if you wore some clothes..." Paige had a habit of wearing dresses that were almost party dresses. They worked for the broadcast most of the time, as the tops were not especially revealing, though often gave a hint of her ample cleavage. They were almost always quite short, which didn't matter most of the time, since we rarely showed anything below the waist. But they could give a girl chills. They gave me chills every time I saw her in one, and today was no exception. Paige was wearing a light blue scoop neck dress that just showed a hint of cleavage, but had spaghetti straps, and was quite short. No wonder she needed a sweater.
Paige slapped at me playfully. "Hey-I don't see you complaining!!"
"You do look hot," I said, only partly teasing her. Paige and I had worked together quite frequently when she first started at the station around four years earlier, though not much in the last two years or so since I went to the early morning show. The easy rapport we built in the beginning was still with us, and we ribbed each other as we drove to dinner.
"You probably tell Laura and Kelly that in the morning, too," Paige teased back.
"Those two gals do make a morning easier," I said, giving Paige a sideways look. "I miss working with you, though. We had some fun back when." I had helped Paige get familiar with our procedures when she came on, and occasionally played some pranks on her. Nothing serious, just in good fun. She got me back a few times. I used to tease her about her short dresses, saying she was going to blind me if she kept wearing them while I was working the camera.
She'd laugh at me, til one day when she was wearing an especially short summer dress. I caught her after the 5 PM news and whispered in her ear, "light blue."
Paige looked at me quizzically. "Light blue??" she said.
"Your panties," I said, giving her a sideways look. She turned ten shades of red, smiled, and walked away.
A couple of days later, she again wore a short dress. After the newscast, I said to her, "red, lace." Again she blushed. Over the next few weeks, it became a ritual, where any time Paige wore a short dress, I'd get a flash, and we'd play our little game.
Then one afternoon, she said to me, "OK, wise guy, what color today??"
I smiled. "Blonde," I said. Her eyes got big.
"You're terrible!!" She hadn't worn panties under her dress, and I had caught her. As it turned out, she was meeting her boyfriend that evening and wanted to surprise him. I got the best surprise that night.
