Walk the Line

17 - The Time She Gets a Date

17 - The Time She Gets Asked Out

I was slowly settling in at work. The nerves were starting to die down as I fell into a routine. As much as I hated to admit it, working at the Franklin News Agency wasn't really as bad as I'd expected. They had me working as the traveling anchor, going to film at the scene of whatever might make the news in a town like Franklin.
It wasn't ideal, but it was what I'd wanted to do my entire life, so I was dealing with it. I just had to get some experience under my belt before I could apply somewhere better than here. I'd decided to make the best of what I could while I was here. It wasn't Franklin County News Agency's fault, so I shouldn't take it out on them for being the one place willing to take a chance on me.

"You ready to load up? I think I got enough B roll," Tyler said. I nodded, thanking the fire chief for all he had to say.

Tyler was one of the travelling cameramen and we often travelled together for assignments. He drove the van and carried the equipment while I interviewed and worked on voiceovers. Today we were at the scene of Sudsy Sal's Car Wash, which has burned down overnight and the firefighters were suspecting arson.

"That was wild," Tyler said.

"I know! Who would burn down a car wash? Gotta be some kind of weird personal vendetta," I replied.

"Hey you want to stop for lunch?" he asked, "My treat?"

"Sure, sounds good to me!" I said. We ended up pulling into a local diner and getting burgers and I actually had a really good time, surprisingly enough. Tyler was from Waynesville, which was about a thirty minute drive from Franklin. It explained why I didn't know him from high school and that I'd never seen him much before.

"Hey, I don't want this to be weird, but could I get your number, by chance?" he asked.

"Of course!" I said before really thinking about what he was asking me. I figured he just meant for work reasons, but the grin that appeared on his boyishly handsome face after the fact proved to me that he might not have meant for work reasons.

I wasn't too sure how to feel about that. He was cute. I did get along with him well enough, and it had been a long time since I'd dated anyone seriously. It might be a good move for me. I mean, Ford and Tiffany were pretty serious, so what was holding me back at this point?

We drove back to the station and worked on editing together the B footage with the voiceover, trying to get it the way we wanted it. He was a good cameraman, and I was grateful that he was willing to work with me on the project patiently while I tried to get it just right.

We eventually sent it up the chain to get approved for the five o'clock broadcast, and it was approved instantly. It didn't take too much effort to get things approved here, just as long as you did your job; it was a pretty simple task. Once the broadcast was submitted, we worked on the condensed version to appear on the eleven o'clock edition.

Once we were done for the day, I headed home, texting Ford on the way, offering to pick up pizza and beer.

"Sounds great," he said, "Make it a large though, I think Tiffany is coming over."

I got the large, but my heart sunk just a tiny bit knowing she was going to be there. I liked her enough, and I was glad Ford had someone in his life, but I also kind of just wanted to relax after work and spend a little time relaxing with Ford. He was kind of my best friend here in Franklin; everyone else I knew from high school my age was either married, pregnant, or both. Not that there was anything wrong with that, I just had a difficult time connecting with them. I didn't know much about babies and they didn't know much about college or journalism.

I walked in the door, trying to carry the pizza and the case of beer. I'd left my work bag in my car, planning on going back to go get it.

"Oh! Let me help!" Tiffany said, grabbing the pizza. Ford got up, and silently went outside to my car and grabbed my bag, carrying it in for me.

"Thank you," I said.

"Of course," He said. Tiffany opened the pizza box and froze.

"Hawaiian?" she asked.

"Aw yes, I forgot you liked Hawaiian too, Ellie," Ford's face lit up like a kid at Christmas. It was his favorite but he never ordered it because no one else ever liked Hawaiian pizza but me.

"Sorry, if you don't like it," I said to Tiffany, "I wasn't thinking, I just knew it was Ford's favorite."

"It's okay, I can just pick them off," she said, sounding disappointed. We ate in the living room, watching an episode of Parks and Rec before I took a beer to go and went up to my room for the night. I knew I should give them privacy. It was Ford's house and he deserved to be able to have the place as much to himself as possible.

I took a quick shower, feeling like I'd smelled of smoke after being at the scene of the carwash fire. I pulled on my fluffy bathrobe and pulled my hair up in a towel to go back to my room, running into Ford in the hall.

"Hey, I'm sorry I didn't warn you she was coming over," he said.

"It's okay, Ford, it's your house," I smiled, "I'm just happy to have a roof over my head that isn't my parents."

"Still," he sighed. Just then, Tiffany came up the stairs, wrapping her arms around Ford.

"Hey, baby, let's go to bed, I'm a little tired," she said, biting his earlobe, and I tried to hide the shock on my face. Ford looked like he was embarrassed and fuming. I shrugged at him and went back to my room, pulling on some comfortable PJs and pulling up my laptop, working on the assignment for tomorrow, and the questions I was planning on asking.

I had some soft music playing, and I was honestly really getting relaxed after the long day. I needed this time to sit and sort my thoughts, but doing this kind of stuff was my favorite. Franklin County News may not be my favorite place or ideally what I wanted to do, but there was no doubt about it; I was born to be a journalist. I loved this.

My phone buzzed, and I looked to see a text from Tyler.

"Hey, I was wondering if you'd like to get dinner sometime" it read. I was debating how to respond, but froze when I heard the rhythmic thumping of a headboard against the wall and the loud moans of Tiffany next door. My stomach dropped to my feet. Oh my god. Were they really fucking...right now? I felt so uneasy. Part of me was appalled, embarrassed—both for myself and for them, and part of me...was a little horny? I hadn't had sex in months, and at that, I'd never been made to moan and scream quite like that.

I looked down at my phone.

"I'd love to, it's a date?" I texted back. Here goes nothing.