AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her phone rang, and she picked it up.
“Mary Samuel,” she said.
“Did you get it?” a voice barked.
Her boss, Pete Santini, whose bite was as bad as his bark.
“Uhh.” Stalling for time might help her figure out how to confess yet another failure.
“What good’s that MBA of yours if you can’t get a simple interview? And you think I should give you a job covering news instead of gossip,” he scoffed.
Mary winced.
Guinevere whimpered.
Marycoveredthemouthendofherphone.“Shush, Guinevere,” Mary hissed.
“Did you at least find out something solid on that top-secret new project at Van Deventer Ventures?”
“Uh, no. I’ve got hints, but my sources won’t go on the record anyway.”
“So, you’ve failed. Again. Plenty more reporters where you come from who doget the story. And they don’t get uppity.”
His fingers drummed on his desk. It didn’t sound good.
“You’re fired,” he finally growled.
“But — ”
The click in her ear of the phone call ending was deafening.
Mary slumped back, too sick to take it in. She’d known this was possible. She hadn’t really believed it, though. Who ever believed …
“Guess I’ll have to write a book a lot sooner than I thought. If I can sell one. About what? Best chance of that is this same interview.”
Guinevere moaned in sympathy beside the office chair. Mary stared at the dog with glazed eyes. Guinevere nudged the leash.
“Come on, you don’t have to go that bad.”
Guinevere gave a short, deep bark. Mary threw up her hands.
“Give me a minute to get changed. Not to mention a minute to figure out what I do now to pay for the food in your dog dish.”
Guinevere danced in front of Mary, if any locomotion by a lumbering Saint Bernard could be called dancing. The whoosh she stirred up dislodged a flurry of paper from Mary’s desk. Guinevere nudged one of the scraps with her nose.
Mary glanced down, then looked again, more closely. “The vet bill. Oh no, the vet bill.”
Guinevere whimpered. Mary almost did, too, and not just because she didn’t know how she’d pay that bill now.
“Your bladder infection. The vet said to take you out the minute you have to go.”
Guinevere woofed her yes.
“Okay, okay. But you’re in charge of using that sniffer of yours to make sure we don’t meet up with anyone we know. I will not get caught out there in this outfit, so there.”
Mary belted herself into her vintage raincoat. She snapped on Guinevere’s leash and hurried out with her best friend.
For once, impeccably behaved Guinevere strained on her leash. Not much, or Mary would have left skid marks from her back porch, through her yard and into the park.
