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Chapter Twenty-Four
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2021-08-22 05:43:08Jenny saw Gayle sitting at the bar talking to Bob when she entered Charlotte’s, a few minutes past their arranged time. Gayle looked upset when Jenny sat next to her.
“I was afraid you’d changed your mind,” Gayle said.
“No, the meeting ran a bit late.” Jenny ordered coffee and a hamburger, and then lit her cigarette. “OK, so I admit I was angry at you for leaving with Johnny, but I think our friendship is more important than to let some jerk destroy it. I was just surprised that he’d come on to you, and more surprised that you fell for it.”
“I know, you’re right, but nothing happened. All we did was talk, well all Johnny did was talk, and he did reveal something you might be interested in, so maybe it wasn’t an entire waste.”
“I called Laurie to get some dirt on him and we were at it all weekend. She did find something, but we haven’t gotten all the details yet.&rdqu
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Red Wine for Breakfast Chapter Twenty-Five
When Jenny returned to her office there was a stack of mail and several phone messages waiting for her. And so was Brian.“Where were you?”He tried not to sound too anxious.“Excuse me?”“I’ve been calling all morning.” He wasn’t succeeding.“I didn’t know I had to check in with you.”“Bad day, huh?”“Not really, actually things are getting better. But as you can see, I have a ton of work here, so what did you want?” It was obvious by her tone, Jenny did not want to engage in a conversation with Brian, but her persisted.“I was worried about you. Denise is angry at her brother and asked me to check in on you.”“Oh? Well, you can tell your wife I’m fine. Johnny is fine. We’re all just fine. Now you can leave.”“Ok, so I’m concerned about you also.”“That’s big o
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As the deadline for Johnny’s challenge drew closer, Jenny was surprisingly calm. The phone calls and letters kept coming in, but Jenny didn’t appear to be paying that much attention to them. What concerned her more was what was happening to the music side of her show. Before Johnny’s arrival, she and Wes had gone over the song list extensively before air time, but since Tony’s decision to have each shift play something different, Wes had taken total control of what songs were being aired. Many of the artists were unknowns, and for the first time since she joined KKTM, she was hearing the same tunes more than once an hour.Jenny made a mental note to talk to him about it, but for the moment she was busy with other events. Particularly her plans for Thursday, and the answer she was going to give Johnny that would get him off her back once and for all.After a quiet weekend, spent mostly on the beach and on the phone, Jenny was feeling pretty good
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Much to Jenny’s surprise and she-hated-to-admit-it pleasure, “Red Wine For Breakfast “became an instant ratings hit. All week long, bottles of domestic and imported red wines were being sent to her and Johnny by the caseload along with phone calls and faxes from all over their listening area. Unfortunately for Jenny, her former supporters were now encouraging her to agree to Johnny’s proposal. They were all going to be in for a shock tomorrow morning, and none would be more surprised than Mr. King himself if Jenny’s plan was a success.If only Wes would stop playing the same songs several times an hour and not entering them on the program log, Jenny would be able to relax for the first time in weeks. She tried to talk to him, but he was uncharacteristically abrupt. Johnny was too busy gloating over his success and anticipation of Thursday’s show to notice, so Jenny decided to let it go. For the time being.She went down her list, che
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Jenny was surprisingly energetic at five a.m. She usually wasn’t fully awake until after her third cup of coffee, but this morning was a totally different day. She showered, then found the dress Kathy had delivered, finished applying her make-up, and about to leave to work when she noticed the light on her answering machine was blinking. She had turned off the phone the night before, so she wouldn’t be interrupted as she put the final details of her plan, and had forgotten to turn it back on. She pressed the button and heard Gayle’s excited voice.“Jenny, where are you? I have to talk to you. It’s very important, please call me as soon as you get this message.”Jenny looked at the clock and figured it was too early to return Gayle’s call. Besides, she’d see her at the station in a few hours and she wasn’t in the mood to hear about her and Tony’s date. The details could wait until after her show, an
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“This is a joke, right?” Even as she said it, Jenny knew it was for real.“I’m sorry, Jen. The police are on their way over to talk to the staff.”“What happened? Was she in a car accident?”“All they would say was that they’d found her body on the sidewalk by her apartment building.”“Tony, I just talked to her yesterday. She left a message on my machine, she can’t be dead!” “I’m afraid it’s true, Jenny. We received confirmation during your show. Do you know her family? Maybe you should call them and let them know.”“No, I don’t know her family, Tony. Look, I can’t deal with this right now. Let me get out of this stupid dress, and I’ll check back with you later.”“I’ll let you know when the police get here. They’ll be able to answer your questions better than I can. I’m sorry
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“Murdered? What makes you think she was murdered?” Jenny asked.“Well, for one thing, there wasn’t any note. For another, most suicides don’t put in a diaphragm just before jumping out of a window. You don’t need birth control in heaven.” Gary tried to lighten the seriousness of the mood.“That’s why they call it heaven.” Jenny caught the intent. “But seriously, Gary, do you think she walked in on a robbery? Although I can’t imagine what she would have that anyone would want.”“There wasn’t any sign of forced entry and nothing was taken that we could see. At least not the usual things like the TV, stereo or jewelry. Her purse wasn’t even touched. That’s all I can tell you for now, which is much more than I was supposed to. But you and I go way back. What’s a few rules between friends? Besides, since you and Gayle were so close, I thought you might ha
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Immediately when Jenny entered the bar, she knew that Bob had already heard the news. The usual loud din of laughter and music she had become accustomed to was replaced by an eerie sound of quiet whispers and muted conversation. She sat at the bar and noticed that Bob’s face was damp.“You know,” she said.“I saw the police cars and called a friend of mine downtown. They’re calling it a suicide. I don’t buy that for a minute. That girl had too much life in her to give it up like that.” He put a glass of Jack Daniels in front of her. “On the house.”“I’d ask you to leave the bottle, but I’m meeting the detective at my place later to check out Gayle’s apartment. Remember I told you about Gary White, the guy I went to high school with?”“Yeah, the nice one!”“Turns out he’s the detective on the case. We just had an interesting conversat
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When Jenny woke up, she could hear the television in the other room. For a second she thought that Gayle was visiting, but then she remembered. She went into the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face, but it didn’t help remove the redness on her cheeks or the emptiness in her heart. She moved as if she were in a fog and grabbed a few things from her closet and drawer to wear. When she came into the living room Johnny turned down the volume on the television.“Did I wake you?” he asked.“No, I didn’t get much sleep anyway. Want me to make coffee?”“I already did. Do you want me to get some for you?”“If you don’t stop being so nice to me, I’m going to throw you out of here.” Jenny smiled at him.“You might want to rethink that outfit.”“What do you mean?”Jenny looked at her clothes. She had put on a green sweater with a bright red pair of jo
Last Updated : 2021-08-22
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Red Wine for Breakfast Author's Notes
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, except as noted below, and actual events is entirely coincidental. Some real people, such as radio personalities appear as actual persons in the book by their oral or written permission. Others appear as characters and events in the book to give a sense of historical accuracy; however specific incidents are entirely fictitious and should not be considered real or factual. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.
Red Wine for Breakfast Chapter Forty-Eight
The station was quiet when Jenny arrived at five-thirty. Johnny was still asleep when she left and she didn’t see any reason to wake him since their shift didn’t begin for another three hours.The studio felt a bit strange to Jenny after being away for an entire week. With all that transpired, and her decision to leave, KKTM didn’t feel like home to her anymore.She went into her office and mentally figured out how many boxes she would need to pack the few things that belonged to her. She went through her desk and started throwing away papers she had collected over the years. She was reading though some of them and didn’t see Brian standing in the doorway.“Spring cleaning?” He asked. “Must be that time of the month or maybe something else. You’re not pregnant, are you?”“Dammit, Brian. Why is it that whenever a woman does something a little out of character men all assume she’s either got
Red Wine for Breakfast Chapter Forty-Seven
Temple Adat Elohim was located in a small section of Sherman Oaks, not far from Jenny’s apartment. Johnny met her at the front of her building and they arrived about fifteen minutes before the ceremony started.“Isn’t this beautiful.” Jenny said. “Here, you need to wear one of these.”“A yamaka?.”“You know what it is?” Jenny was surprised.“All the guys I worked with in Canada were Jewish. Didn’t I tell you? I was invited to weddings and even attended a bris. I went to so many Bar Mitzvahs and Bat Mitzvahs, everyone thought I was Jewish because I knew the words to the prayers and the songs. I was actually thinking about converting, but when I moved back to the States, I never found the right Temple.“I never knew that.”“My engineer’s birthday was in December, so every year we’d combine all the holidays and celebrate Chanubirthdaymas. I nev
Red Wine for Breakfast Chapter Forty-Six
Johnny looked around his apartment. It seemed to him as if someone else had been living there. He was confused and more than a bit concerned about Jenny and how he was going to tell her that he was leaving KKTM.After Jenny had left the party, he tried to talk to Brian about the station and what Johnny planned to do when they returned to Los Angeles. Brian had laughed at him, calling him Denise’s albatross and telling Johnny that if it weren’t for his sister, Jenny would have sole ownership of Red Wine. Johnny nearly hit him, but he realized that Brian was drunk. He also realized that there was no way he could continue at KKTM.Johnny hadn’t spent all his time at the slot machines while he was in Vegas. He began formulating the first part of his plan early in the week. He made the right contacts, made the right moves, and finally hit the jackpot during the awards presentation.He put together the second part of his plan at the party wh
Red Wine for Breakfast Chapter Forty-Five
Johnny parked the car in front of Jenny’s apartment and opened the trunk to get her luggage. She hadn’t spoken more than a few words on the flight or during the drive from the airport. Johnny thought she might be angry at him for keeping the party going till three a.m., but she’d told him she was just tired, so he let it go.Jenny was tired, but it wasn’t only fatigue that was causing her silence. Her decision to leave KKTM and the repercussions that she knew would follow, were draining all her energy.“Want me to come up?” He asked as he helped her take her things into the building.“No. You have to get home and unpack and I still have to get a gift for Ann and Don. Why don’t you pick me up tomorrow and we’ll go to the wedding together.”“Tomorrow?” He sounded disappointed. “What about later tonight?”“Johnny, we just spent a wonderful and exhausting
Red Wine for Breakfast Chapter Forty-Four
There was a brief, deafening silence followed by subdued clapping as Melody bounded onto the stage to accept her award. She held the acrylic pillar over her head in victory and shot a triumphant glare towards Jenny who was having difficulty joining in the congratulatory applause.“Sorry, Jen,” Johnny said. “I really thought you were going to win.”“To tell you the truth, so did I.” She tried to hide the disappointment in her voice. “Ya know, up until they announced Melody as the winner, I didn’t know how much I wanted that stupid award. Oh well, there’s always next year. But it would have been nice.”She smiled weakly and tried to listen to Melody’s acceptance speech, but there was a loud commotion in the back of the room that was making it difficult to hear. Everyone turned to the back of the room to see Melody’s husband, Ned, obviously drunk, trying to make his way to the stage with two se
Red Wine for Breakfast Chapter Forty-Three
The reception for the nominees was more for sizing up the competition then actually congratulating other’s success in the industry, unless they were nominated under a different category. Jenny heard the other nominees sprout the I don’t care if I win, it’s just an honor to be nominated, line even though it was total insincere bullshit, it was the classy, professional response to being honored by their piers in the broadcasting industry. Unfortunately, one radio personally who was in direct competition with Jenny, was neither classy nor professional. Melody Miller, from rival station KLZY-FM the entire evening was telling everyone she was going to take the coveted award and dishing Jenny Reed at every opportunity. Jenny and Johnny intentionally managed to avoid a direct confrontation with her, and spent the evening in more polite conversations.“Interesting group of vultures on line over there.” Johnny said when he returned from the bar.&l
Red Wine for Breakfast Chapter Forty-Two
The flight attendant recognized them as soon as they were in their seats. Minutes later, she brought each of them a small bottle of Beaujolais.“I listen to you two every morning. I just love your show.”“Thank you, Michelle,” Johnny said, using his now-famous voice to read her nametag. The flight attendant’s face turned bright red.“I’ll be back with the rest of your breakfast when we’re in the air, Mr. King.”“Look what you started.” Jenny said, picking up her bottle. “Now everyone thinks I drink this stuff for breakfast.”“We wouldn’t want to disappoint your fans now would we? We have a reputation to uphold.” Johnny poured his wine into the glass.“Yeah, reputations as a couple of drunks.”“One little glass of wine won’t turn us into candidates for AA, now relax.”The plane took off into a cr
Red Wine for Breakfast Chapter Forty-One
Jenny stood in the shower and let the hot water cascade down her back, but it did nothing to wash away the memory of Johnny’s touch on her bare skin, or the confusion that raced through her mind. How did this happen? How did I let him get to me like that? Gayle, damn you for dying. I wish like hell you were here to talk to. But in spite of her protests, Jenny had to admit that being with Johnny had been an incredible experience. It both excited and frightened her to death. Doris Levine had been a shy little push-over, and it wasn’t only her name that had changed that day she’d sat in front of the microphone. Jenny Reed was born a new, confident, stronger person then Doris ever could have been, and Jenny Reed was always in control. She dated in high school, but never went steady with any one boy. They all seemed to want her to be something other what she was; bigger bust, smaller waist, less outspoken, less intelligent, less independent, les
