One Small Island

Chapter 3 The Aftermath Part II

An hour later Edina Francis, known to viewers the Modern Bon Vivant and the Culinary Channel's biggest star confidently strode past the three secretaries stationed outside the Chairman's office without even glancing in their direction or breaking her stride.

Then, a mere three minutes after that she retraced her steps in the opposite direction. She strode confidently onto the elevator, descended to the lobby and walked straight out the doors without looking back. She made her way through the mid-morning crowds of shoppers at the Chelsea Market then out to Ninth Avenue. All the while keeping her jaw clenched so tightly she was probably in danger of cracking a molar. Once she was clear of the network's building she turned her face up to the bleak February sky and let out a scream so loud that it was probably heard all the way up to Midtown.

Needless to say, the meeting hadn't gone well. David was at least as pissed off as she had been but given that Sam and Bryn were nowhere to be found, he decided to vent his anger on Edina. Never being one to back down from a confrontation, the scrappy trailer park girl from Detroit that she'd been suppressing for so long came roaring up and things had gotten ugly. Fast. But the ultimate blow was David's declaration that Edina's Award winning and highest rated show on the network, The Modern Bon Vivant was being place on hiatus indefinitely. Basically she had been fired. 'I guess I was wrong after all' she thought. Things had gotten worse.

But even still, Edina didn't regret her reaction. She was quite sure that any reasonable person in that situation would also have stood up, picked up the chair they'd just vacated and bashed the living hell out of every photograph, award and piece of memorabilia hanging on that prick's office walls. Obviously.

Edina was a little foggy on what happened next. She seemed to have a vague recollection of pushing some man in a suit out of the way and hopping into the cab he had just hailed. And obviously she must have gone back to her building because an hour later she found herself flying north up I-95 through Connecticut. Edina didn't recall coming up with any particular plan but it appeared as though she was headed to her beach house on Cape Cod.

When she'd purchased the place years ago it had seemed like a reasonable idea. And of course Edina truly enjoyed the look on people's faces when she casually mentioned that she was a member of the ultra exclusive Scallop Bays Country Club. But after a while her visits became shorter and less frequent which led her to wonder if all the expense was really worthwhile. A small part of her felt it might be unreasonable to employ a full-time housekeeper plus the small army needed to maintain a place so close to the ocean. It's not that she didn't love it there- she truly did. At least for the first few hours. But Edina knew she was, and always would be, a city girl. She could arrive on the island and be blissfully happy but it wouldn't be long before she'd find herself counting the minutes until she'd return to her beloved New York.

But not this time. There would be no quick return for her after fleeing the city engulfed in a stinking cloud of shame. What kind of woman loses her husband to her best friend? And worse, allows a moronic Network Executive to place the blame on her? She could already see the story on Page Six. That damn Cindy Adams would have a field day. What Culinary Channel star served her husband up to her best friend on a platter? And of course any paparazzi worth his Nikon would be dying to get a shot of her looking all sad and depressed for TMZ. Yes, she thought the Cape would be a good idea. She'd just lay low up there until the story got cold.