Chapter 4
Saturday
afternoons were always lazy ones for Gennie.
She had slept in after getting in later than usual from her date.
Now she just sat on the couch mindlessly flipping through TV channels.
“How can I pay so much money for so many channels and still there’s
nothing on!” she said out loud to herself in frustration.
Just as she was getting ready to chuck the remote and do some laundry,
the phone rang.
“Hey
Stace. Sorry, I forgot to call
you,” she said without even a hello. She
knew it would be her the moment it rang.
“It’s
OK,” Stacey said cheerily. “So,
did you get a chance to look at those forms yet?
Do you know what you’re going to say?”
To
be honest, Gennie had completely forgotten those papers in her purse.
“Uh,
no, I haven’t had a chance yet,” she lied.
“Well,
go read them now, and call me back in thirty minutes and we’ll go over what
you’ll write.” Stacey was
really excited for her. She knew
her friend could do this, she just didn’t understand her lack of enthusiasm.
“You
know, Stace, they aren’t going to select me to do this.”
“Don’t
count yourself out yet. If you
don’t do this, you’ll always regret the missed opportunity.” She tried to urge her pal on,
“Go read ‘em now.”
“But…”Gennie
objected before being cut off.
“NOW!…and
call me right back. Bye” and she
quickly disconnected not even waiting for a goodbye.
Groaning,
Gennie trudged over to the entry table to dig through her purse.
She pulled out the slightly crumpled sheets, made her way back to the
couch and plopped down. “At least this got me a reprieve from my laundry,”
she mused.
She
read through the information and if she didn’t think she was an ideal
candidate before, she really knew she wasn’t now.
She was more than a tad older than they were implying that they wanted,
for one thing. She had no broadcast
experience; she’d never even met anyone famous at the station.
There was no way she had the credentials for this assignment!
But she called Stacey back anyway.
“Hello?”
“Hey,
it’s me. You know, I read these
things over. Did you happen to look
at them at all?”
“Yeah…briefly…well…not
really.” The truth came out.
“Well,
if you had, you’d have realized they want someone about 10 years younger than
me! And I was right about the business office theory. I’m not what they’re looking for.”
“That
doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it though,” she urged.
“I
don’t think so. I’m not going
to make a fool of myself. If it
were VH1, maybe…” she laughed.
“Please,
do it for me. I really have every
confidence in you. You’re fun,
you’re witty, and you love the band. And,
you wouldn’t get all gooey on them.” She
chuckled at her inadvertent joke. “No pun intended there.
Really, you’re perfect for it, they just don’t know it yet.”
“Fine.
I’ll think about it this weekend and we can discuss it over lunch on
Monday.”
“You’ll
be glad you did it, Gen.”
“Did
I mention you’re buying?”
“Whatever…as
long as it gets you to do something.” Her
call waiting beeped in. “Oh, that’s my other line.
It’s probably another mom wanting to ask me about Megan’s birthday
party tomorrow. I’ll talk to ya
later, OK?”
“Sure.
Have fun at the party tomorrow, will ya!”
“Sure
thing! I love a room full of six
year olds,” she moaned sarcastically.
“Bye, now!”
There
was one thing about Stacey…she was persistent.
She was also about the best friend anyone could ask for, especially when
she didn’t even ask for help with her daughter Megan’s party.
Not that Gennie wouldn’t have done it gladly.
She loved Megan like her own daughter, but the rest of the six-year-old
girls were another story. That
would’ve been more Barbie than she could handle in one day!
Gennie
gave the dreaded papers one more glance then stuffed them back in her purse and
promptly forgot about them in favor of doing laundry. She couldn’t avoid it forever.
Besides, if she was to meet her favorite band, she couldn’t very well
do it in ratty sweats, an inside out sweatshirt and dirty socks and underwear,
which is about all she would have left if she didn’t get to the laundry soon.