chapter 19
Jonny and his wife actually had a romantic Friday night.
Jonny arrived home to find a candlelit dinner and soft music. Jill was dressed in a short black silk nightgown.
She looked good.
Jonny and Jill ate dinner and had the comfortable conversation that only comes from years together. They laughed over wine, flirted and ended up in bed.
It was nice for Jonny to be with his wife. They shared an intimacy that wasn’t easily duplicated. He did truly love her. It felt good to fall asleep in her arms.
At three-twenty four a.m. the phone rang.
“Hello,” Jill answered sleepily.
“Hey I’m looking for Jonny,” a woman’s voice said.
Jill was instantly awake. “And you are?”
“Heather, I’m on the air and I’m having a problem. Is Jonny there?”
“Oh, hang on.” Jill was used to problem calls from the new overnighters. She shook Jonny. “Hey, wake up. It’s someone named Heather from the station.”
Jonny jumped awake, sleep making him forget she was on the air tonight. “Why is she calling here...?” he said without thinking.
“She says she’s having a problem on the air.”
“Oh, yeah,” he said quickly, grabbing the phone from Jill.
“This is Jonny, what’s up?”
“Jonny, it’s Heather...did you hear my last break? The guy I was talking about was you.”
“So the computer isn’t loading the next song on the log?” he replied. Jonny couldn’t believe this. It was the middle of the night. He was in bed with his wife. Where was her discretion? Then again, what did he expect? She was so young.
“Oh, you can’t talk,” she said, catching on slowly.
“Yeah, just locate the song in the computer and drag it over.”
“Listen to my next break, I’m thinking of you.”
“Keep it professional,” he warned.
“I will baby, thanks.”
Jonny gave the phone back to Jill who he knew heard the whole conversation. Well, just his half he hoped.
“Inexperience, huh?” she said rolling on top of Jonny.
“Yeah,” he answered, distracted. Jill tried to start something, but he didn’t want to. Heather was starting to make him nervous and when he was afraid, he had no desire.
“What’s the matter? Don’t you want me?”
“I’m tired Jill, sorry.” Jonny rolled over.
Jill breathed heavily. Frustrated.
*
Jonny woke up Saturday morning knowing he had to talk to Heather. She wasn’t going to the station today, he wasn’t due there either, but he knew he needed to see her to cool things off.
“Jill, I’m going to take a quick ride to the store to get bagels. I’ll be right back.”
“Okay.”
Jonny got in his car and called Heather immediately. It was nine in the morning, she got off the air just three hours ago so she was still asleep.
“Hello.” She sounded groggy.
“Heather it’s Jonny. We need to talk. Meet me at the station at noon.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Oh, so it’s something good,” she said.
“Uh, yeah, just meet me there. And bring your air check tape.” He hung up the phone abruptly, throwing in the line about the air check tape to give some credence to their meeting in case it was ever questioned. The station was open twenty-four hours a day, seven day a week with people working there all the time - on air personalities and sometimes even salespeople who needed the quiet of the weekend to get things done. While the weekends were significantly less busy than the weekdays, they would still be seen. He thought of meeting her someplace out of Miami, but that, he felt, was even more dangerous. At the station they could be there for a legitimate reason, any place else was suspect.
Jonny got the bagels and returned home.
“Jilly,” he said sweetly using his pet name for her, “I gotta go to the station this afternoon for a few hours.”
“Really?” she said dejectedly.
“Yeah, I won’t be long, I promise.” He kissed her forehead.
Jonny ate breakfast, did a few chores and left. He wanted to get there before Heather to avoid anything weird in the parking lot.
Heather arrived to his office twenty minutes late. She was wearing a light blue halter-top and white shorts. Her red hair was wet and pulled back. She was not happy that she had to come in. Last night’s shift was a pain in the ass. Surely, Jonny could do better by her.
“I got here as fast as I could. I went back to sleep after we got off the phone and kinda overslept.” She breathed heavily and leaned against the wall. “Overnights are rough. I’m still really tired.”
“Yes, they are. It’s the only way to get started in the business though.” He motioned for her to sit. “Where’s your tape?’
“Here.” She handed it to him. “So let me ask you something.”
He turned in his chair to put her tape in his cassette player. “Okay.”
“Are you still sleeping with your wife?”
Jonny spun around. “What kind of question is that?”
“A question I think I have a right to ask since I’m sleeping with you.”
“No, you don’t. My relationship with my wife is my business.”
“Really, is that what Jill would say?”
“How do you know her name?” he said, his blood running cold.
“I know lots of things. Things like overnights suck. Why can’t I work in the daylight?”
“Heather our fling has nothing to do with me putting you on the air.”
“Fling?” she raised her voice. “You mean relationship.”
“No, I mean fling.”
Heather looked at him with hurt and rage in her eyes. Jonny suddenly realized Heather was not so stable, he needed to tread carefully. He changed his approach. Quickly.
“Heather, come here.”
She walked around to his side of the desk and sat on top of it. Jonny put his hand on her bare, tan thigh. She smiled.
“Look you caught me off guard. Of course it’s a relationship. I just don’t want my wife to know about us.”
“Yet, you mean.”
“Yeah, yet,” he agreed, happy to have found the calming words to her heart.
“Good, because I don’t like sharing you.” Heather got down from the desk and straddled Jonny.
“Hey, babe, be careful. There are some people here working. We still have to keep our relationship under wraps.”
“I’d like to put you under wraps.” She leaned into him, pushing her young, firm breasts against his chest and ran her fingers through his hair. She kissed his forehead, nose and chin, finally ending up on his mouth for a hot, wet kiss.
Jonny groaned and let his hands wander up her body, beneath her shirt, discovering she wasn’t wearing a bra.
She moaned with pleasure. “You like that, do you?” he said, pulling her top over her head.
“Oh yes,” she whispered, her hands working quickly to unbutton his pants.
He pushed her slowly onto the desk and gave into temptation.
Nick Coleman stood outside Jonny’s office catching every moment through a thin crack in the door.
He came to the station to catch up on work...instead he got an eyeful.
“My, my,” he said to himself, walking away with a Cheshire grin. “My, my.”