Jos stiffened at Eden’s tone, but that was all. “The truth is still important to me.” How she managed to say it like she was both drowning in rage and perfectly unfazed was beyond Eden.
“Are you sure? Because I think that a big house, a nice car, expensive clothes, and a high-profile lifestyle in the public eye became way more important to you fifteen years ago.”
“Fifteen years ago, I was still green as grass, and when I got asked to be on that show, I was ecstatic. I was totally in disbelief. I wasn’t the only host. There were three of us at the time. It only happened, as Sheldon and Ray got older and retired and things took off for me, that the show became more something that was mine.” Jos rolled her eyes. “And high living is for big cities like New York. I’m not the evil celebrity villain that you seem to have issue with. I live within my means the same way doctors, lawyers, businessmen, and many other people do here. Well, well under the level of your parents.”
Eden let the comment about her parents go. Jos wasn’t going to turn this around on her.
“Hmm. Funny that you said retired, but then, they were male, so they were probably allowed to do that and didn’t have to worry about getting pushed out because they’d reached their prime and no longer held value for the world. Their cup size and the fact that they had a few more wrinkles every year probably didn’t mean anything for them.”
Jos picked up her cup but set it down hard enough to slosh liquid up over the hole in the plastic lid, drenching the white plastic like a brown sea before it receding, a low tide dribbling back in one drop at a time.
“I think that’s quite a bitter way to look at things.”
Eden shrugged. “I know the type of men who run your network, who own the station and the studio and everything else. I know it’s a male dominated industry and I know that, universally, women over the age of forty become invisible.”
“Again, the way you view the world is rather bitter.”
Eden sat back and laughed, but it was a hard sound. “I think the word you should be using is realistic. I’m a realist. I know how the industry works. Much to the chagrin of my very rich parents, I changed my major from business to journalism, which included doing an internship, as you well know, since you went to J school yourself. I might not have gone the broadcast route, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t seen for myself how shit goes down.”
“Maybe in some places. Not at ours.”
Eden grunted. “You’re lying through your teeth.”
Jos apparently didn’t like that. She shifted in her seat again and a flash of discomfort ebbed across her face, gone as fast as that splash of coffee had disappeared.
“You can’t tell me that you’re not here to headhunt me because upper management told you to do it and gave you an ultimatum. The cruelest one they could have given. Find your replacement. Train her right. Maybe if you’re lucky, they’ll let you stick around for a few more years. Contract extension to save your bacon. That was the exchange, wasn’t it? I can’t see you coming here and sucking up to me for any other reason other than to save your own ass. Maybe once upon a time, but we both know the caliber of your journalism has gone way downhill in the past decade or more. You’ve gone from making the world a better place to just reporting the damn news. You don’t find your own stories anymore. You don’t have your own sources. You just sit there and regurgitate whatever comes across your desk and that stupid teleprompter. You ask preplanned questions because heaven forbid you should ever say the wrong thing or step on the wrong set of toes. You’re not searching for anything anymore. Do you even care about anything?”
“I care,” Jos snapped, clearly pushed beyond her limit for politeness. “I’m here because my boss wanted me to talk to you, and he’s not a man who takes no for an answer, but don’t lay the blame at our door for everything. It was actually your father who intervened. He wants you to take the job because he’s worried sick about you being out here. He doesn’t like that you’re risking your health and safety, maybe even your life, to do this. He offered a generous contribution to have you come to work with us. So, before you think you’re the be all end all of the world, that a nobody journalist with zero experience in front of a camera and passible looks at best would be singled out and chosen to co-anchor a prestigious news program in a spot that really counts at the number one station for news in the entire state, you had better think again. It seems I’m not the only one with an ego problem.”
Eden had no idea how she could have once idolized this woman, let alone had a crush on her. How freaking embarrassing. She was ashamed of her younger self. If she could go back in the past and change just one thing… Except that if it wasn’t for Jos Frank, she never would have become a journalist herself, and she loved what she did. She’d absolutely found her calling and she knew that this was what she’d been put on earth to do. People searched so hard for their purpose in life, the meaning behind all of it, but Eden had found hers the second she’d done her first interview and written the story afterwards.
Despite her resolve to stay calm, Eden stood up sharply. Her face was probably giving away every single one of her turbulent emotions, but for once, she didn’t care. “It’s pretty clear that you have everything figured out. It doesn’t sound like you really need me or want me to come, so you’ll have to go back and tell your boss that my answer is a big, hard, fat, fucking no. Then you can explain why. I don’t imagine that will be comfortable for you.” She should just leave it at that. What she’d said was more than enough, but she couldn’t stop herself. “I’m not my parents. I wanted to take a different path in life. I appreciate that my dad wants me to be safe. Really, I’m not the classic rebellious rich kid who wants to stick it to their parents by being an embarrassment to them in every way that I can. I was made to do this. This is my truth and I’m going to keep telling it. The entire organization you work for basically stands for everything that I don’t believe in. You can tell them that if you need something to soften the blow for yourself.”
Eden turned on her heel and stalked through the coffee shop. She shoved the door open and burst out onto the street, breathing in the familiar scents of the city in the afternoon.
“Eden, wait.” That voice, so cool and controlled and oddly…intoxicating.
She spun around, annoyed that Jos had followed her. Was she coming out here to beg? To humiliate herself by pressing Eden into something she clearly didn’t want to do? Or was she out here to try to defend herself? Either way, Eden had an absurd urge to save her one-time idol and the first woman she’d ever had a crush on from totally embarrassing herself.
“Look, I’m sorry,” Eden huffed. “I shouldn’t have said those things. It probably made me sound childish and spoiled and entitled, which are all things I never wanted to be. I’m sorry you came all the way out here. Your boss never should have sent you. It was a waste of time. He could have called me himself and I would have told him I’m not interested. My dad never should have gone to the trouble. The only reason I agreed to meet you here was because my dad said it was important and you’re, well, you’re you, and I guess I couldn’t say no.” Eden stopped before she succeeded in embarrassing herself.
“They said that if you said no, I should tell you that you could pick a lot of your own stories. You could do the journalism you want to do. You could make news that matters. My boss was looking for a new angle. Something to change things up. Something different. That’s why he wanted you. He picked you for the prime spot on a show that’s had a single host for years. They want someone fresh, yes, but that’s not the only reason. I think he and everyone else might have had their eye on you for a long time. Your dad just gave him the push he needed to seal the deal and offer you enough incentive to come on board. They’re willing to do what it takes to get you there.”
Eden narrowed her eyes, staring down Jos Frank. The woman who used to make her heart beat wildly before she herself had any notion of what that truly meant. It wasn’t just a physical passion that Jos incited in Eden. It had been a burning desire for change and justice. Recalling that hero worship of the past made Eden’s head swim. If she wasn’t already so annoyed, maybe she wouldn’t have believed any of what Jos had just said. As it was, when the reality settled in, she found that her heart was beating all over the place just like it had when she was a teenager, rattling under her ribs, knocking so hard it affected the cadence of her breaths.
Maybe Jos Frank deserved a slice of her sympathy. She’d made it in a male dominated industry, not just as a woman, but as a gay woman. The early years of her career were literally something no one else would have the courage, gumption, or contacts to recreate. She was a legend, whether she’d ended up selling out for a cushy spot, regular routine, and high-end lifestyle or not, and Eden knew it. She wanted to tell Jos to go to hell. She wanted to mean it. She wanted to stick to her principles and keep doing journalism that mattered.
But, for some reason, the words refused to come.
She probably looked a tad bit crazy standing there on the sidewalk, clenching and unclenching her fists, her nails biting into her palms. Was she really considering that maybe Jos might be telling the truth? That maybe someone out there, a major station even, wanted to give her a chance to tell her truth on a broad scale that could affect the whole city and eventually a much wider circle?
If it was true, and she could bring to light all the issues people weren’t talking about, weren’t taking seriously, or just plain didn’t care about because they saw it every single day and had become numb and immune to the suffering of those around them, then didn’t she have a duty to consider saying yes? If it meant she didn’t have to sell out or trade what she believed in for a fat paycheck, should she think about it seriously?
So what if she got a big bump in her pay? She’d been living on nothing since she refused to take money from her parents. Had she been too proud for years? Could she have done so much good with that money? With her own money if she had more of it?
When she’d been offered to have her work turned into a book, she hadn’t said no, and that book was projected to become a best seller, even though it was still just in its finishing stages. She’d thought only of how much good would come of people reading her book, of waking up and becoming aware, of wanting to fix a problem that was endemic to society.
“Are you serious?” Whoa. Eden couldn’t believe she was really asking that question. Was she giving in? Was she really standing there considering taking Jos’ offer? “I’d really be able to choose my own stories?”