The Spectator

Chapter 26: Ms. Vasquez

     Dan wasn't in the office on Monday. At about 8:30 am, Ella received a message from him.

     I have the flu. Can you cover the weekly presentation?

     The weekly presentation? Dan, and all the other editors, sat down once a week on Mondays with Nate to go over their plan for this week's paper and get his approval before moving forward. Ella had sat in a few times, but she'd never done the presentation alone before.

     Alone with Nate. Fuck. She typed out a frantic message to Dan:

     Where are all the summaries???

     She needed his list of topics and brief summaries for each potential article. He replied immediately:

     My office should be unlocked. The folder for today is on my desktop, just print it out and take it with you.

     Ella rushed to his office. She sat at his computer and typed in his password and, despite the onslaught of anxiety she was feeling, still managed to laugh:

DERENA4EVER:*

     Dan claimed it had been Serena's idea. The jury was still out on that. In any case, she found the folder on his desktop-- which was totally cluttered with a bunch of outdated shit. She rolled her eyes. One day she'd convince him to let her reorganize his folder system. She printed out the summary and took it back to her desk.

     The lifestyle meeting was always last on Mondays. Not because it wasn't important (cough cough) but because other sections usually needed more time to reach out to sources and draw up evidence. The political editors had the first slot, for example.

     So, at around 3:30, she waited nervously for the Sports editor to exit Nate's office.

     "You okay?" Eddy asked, noticing the way her knee was bouncing under her desk on his way to the vending machine. "Forgot to take your meds or something?"

     She glared at him. "I have to do the weekly presentation."

     "And you're nervous?" He cracked up. "Aw, that's so cute-- I could do it if you're too scared, junior editor."

     She rolled her eyes. "You don't even work in my section! Go bother Kendra, Ed."

     "Geez, you're mean when you're nervous..." He wandered off, tsking.

     She frowned and looked to Adam, following close after his friend.

     "Was that mean of me?" She asked.

     "A smidge," He admitted. "But that's not unusual for you."

     Ella pursed her lips. She guessed she deserved that, considering how dismissive she'd been of them these past weeks.

     "Thanks for the support, bud," She turned back around. She looked at Nate's office door. A few minutes later, it opened and the Sports editor exited.

     "Wish me luck!" She called to the lifestyle writers. They'd been helping her hash out all the summaries over lunch.

     "Good luck!" They called back. They, at least, still liked her.

     She knocked on Nate's door before stepping in. He sat, enthroned behind his desk.

     "Hi... Dan texted you, right?" She bit her lip.

     "Yeah, he gave me a call. Sounded sick as a dog over the phone... Well, let's get started, shall we?"

     Ella shut the door and sat down, neatly spreading all the relevant documents in order of importance.