Private Scandals

“I’m taking this evening to feel very smug about going with my instincts and signing you.”
    “I’m feeling pretty smug about that myself.”
    “As long as you don’t let it show. That wide-eyed enthusiasm is what sells, Dee. That’s what the audience relates to.”
    She grimaced. “I am wide-eyed and enthusiastic, Loren. It’s not an act.”
    “I know.” He couldn’t have been happier. “That’s why it’s so perfect. What did I read about you recently—” Hetapped a finger against his temple as if to shake the memory loose. “ ‘Midwest sensibilities, an Ivy-League brain, a face that makes a man yearn for his high school sweetheart, all coated with a quiet sheen of class.’ ”
    “You left out my quick, sexy laugh,” she said dryly.
    “Complaining, Deanna?”
    “No.” She leaned comfortably against the railing to face him. The scent of hibiscus from the bold red blooms in the patio pots mixed exotically with the fragrance of champagne and lake water. “Not for a minute. I love every bit of it. The spread in Premiere, the cover on McCall’s, the People’s Choice nomination—”
    “You should have won that,” he muttered.
    “I’ll beat Angela next time.” She smiled at him, her bangs fluttering in the light breeze, the diamonds at her wrist glinting in the starlight. “I wanted that Chicago Emmy, and I’ve got it. I intend to win a national one, when the time comes. I’m not in a hurry, Loren, because I’m enjoying the ride. A lot.”
    “You make it look easy, Dee, and fun.” He winked. “That’s the way I sell computer games. And that’s the way you slip right through the television screen into the viewer’s living room. That’s the way you up the ratings.” His smile hardened, glinted in the shadowy light. “And that’s the way you’re going to knock Angela out of first place.”
    Because the gleam in Loren’s eye made her uneasy, Deanna chose her response carefully. “That’s not my primary goal. As naive as it may sound, Loren, all I want is to do a good job and provide a good show.”
    “You keep doing that, and I’ll handle the rest.” It was odd, he thought, that he hadn’t realized just how much revenge against Angela burned in him. Until Deanna. “I’m not going to claim that I made Angela number one, because it’s more complex than that. But I speeded the process along. My mistake was to be deluded enough by the screen image and marry someone who didn’t exist off camera.”
    “Loren, you don’t have to tell me this.”
    “No, no one has to tell you anything, but they do. That’s part of your charm, Deanna. I can tell you that Angela shed me as carelessly as a snake sheds its skin when she’d decided she’d outgrown me. It’s going to give me a lot of satisfaction to help you gun her down, Deanna.” He drank again, with relish. “A great deal of deep satisfaction.”
    “Loren, I don’t want to go to war with Angela.”
    “That’s all right.” He touched his glass to hers again. “I do.”
     
    Lew McNeil was as obsessed with Angela’s success as Loren Bach was with her failure. His future depended on it. He had hopes to retire in another decade, with his nest egg securely in place. He had no hopes of remaining with Angela’s for that long. His best chance was to work out his contract while the show remained a number-one hit, then slide gently into another producing slot.
    He had some reason to worry. While Angela’s was still in command of the top rung, and the show had added another Emmy to its collection, its star was fraying at the edges. In Chicago she had managed to command her staff using her iron will and her penchant for perfection, and leavening them with doses of considerable charm.
    Since the move to New York, a great deal of the charm had been shaken by stress, and the stress was doused with French champagne.
    He knew—had made it his business to know—that she had poured a great deal of her own money into the fledgling A.P. Productions. The veteran show kept the company out of the red, but Angela’s dabbling in television movies had been disastrous thus far. Her last special had received lukewarm reviews, but the ratings had put the show into the top ten of the week.
    That was fortunate, but her daily ratings had plummeted in August, when she had insisted on running repeats while she took an extended vacation in the Caribbean.
    No one could deny that she deserved the break. Just as no one could deny that the