chapter 54
Jonny missed Dana.
He moved from the apartment he shared with his wife to Dana’s apartment. Now, Dana was off in paradise and he was by himself. For the first time in six years he was alone.
Jonny tried to revert back to his single behavior. He walked naked through the apartment, ate super rich non-non-fat ice cream straight from the container and played his favorite death metal CD that Jill hated as loud as the stereo would go.
It was now ten a.m. and Jonny was bored.
He didn’t go on the air until two p.m., and while he did have some work to do at the station, he didn’t want to go in. Ever since the whole blow-up between Jill and Heather, Jonny was avoiding the station. He was avoiding Heather.
She had tried calling his cell phone, but he didn’t pick up when he saw her number and he didn’t return her calls either. Heather’s immaturity in handling the situation, coupled with the much too late realization that he really loved Jill, forced Jonny into an anti-Heather zone. Since she destroyed his marriage, he had no desire to be with her, see her or talk to her. She had taken everything from him.
Jonny wasn’t naive enough to put all the blame on her. He knew he had fault in this...he knew he really had all of the fault, but Heather handled the whole thing wrong. Now he was without Jill and he was miserable. He’d forgotten how lonely it was to be single.
Jonny strolled through Dana’s apartment, nosy, by virtue of boredom. The family room had two cream sofas, quite comfortable for sleeping. In front of the sofas was a large glass coffee table with black wrought iron legs. In the corner of the room was her CD collection, alphabetized by artist. He ran his finger down the stack of CDs. She had some inspired choices: Etta James, Stevie Wonder and Simon and Garfunkel, probably not what most people would expect to find in rock deejay Dana Drew’s collection.
On the coffee table was her phone, next to it a pad and paper. He flipped though the pad and found doodles of flowers, Cody’s name and 3-D boxes. He then scrolled through the caller ID on her phone. There were lots of calls from different cities in Florida, presumably from Cody, calls from the radio station, from his phone and one odd call from Larry Carter. Jonny recognized the name from what he had called Dana’s “huge overreaction” to a listener. That was strange though that Larry called her at home...and how did he get her number? Maybe Dana wasn’t so crazy to worry about this guy. He decided he’d talk to her about it when she got back.
Jonny moved into her adjoining dining area. It was simple - a white wood table with white wood chairs and red cushions. Enlarged photographs of red hibiscus hung on the walls. Nicely matched, he thought. Jonny passed through her simple kitchen, then went into her bedroom. He stopped in the doorway. No, this would go too far. He turned and flopped back on the couch, proud of his restraint.
The phone rang. He checked the caller ID, it was the station. They knew he was staying here, but didn’t know why.
“Hello.”
“Jonny, it’s Ted. I need to see you in my office. Now.”