Tony Partly Cloudy (34 page)

“And you know it’s not—”

“It’s not personal,” Tony said, finishing Jimmy’s sentence for him. “I know – it’s just business.”

“Exactly. As long as you understand that.”

“Oh, I understand, all right,” Tony said, trying to keep the bitterness from his voice.

Jimmy shifted uncomfortably at the table where they sat, while Tony gazed around the restaurant, which was decorated in Early Twentieth Century Italian Cliché, down to the checkered tablecloths.

Finally Jimmy spoke. “Listen, kid – with this, uh, change in the dynamic of our relationship, we probably won’t be seeing too much of each other anymore. It’s probably best on both our ends that people don’t associate you with me – you see what I’m saying?”

Tony nodded. “So I guess we won’t be playing any more poker, will we?”

“Probably not,” Jimmy said, smiling ruefully. “But those were some good times, weren’t they, kid?”

“Yeah,” said Tony, smiling himself now. “No matter what happens, we’ll always have the Partly Cloudy Poker Club.”

The meeting was over – both men knew it. Without another word, the two men stood, embraced each other stiffly, and went their separate ways, each with their own business to tend to.

SARAH CAME HOME FROM WORK ON WEDNESDAY to find Tony stationed in front of her door.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

Tony shrugged. “I only called you about a hundred times. So if you weren’t going to answer your phone, I figured this was the only way to get you to talk to me.” Tony smiled, and pointed toward the door. “So, you gonna invite me in, or what?”

Sarah hesitated, her face trying to hide how happy she was to see him. “I don’t know,” she said. “I’m still mad at you, you know?”

“I know, I know. And you have every right. I’m real sorry about... about
everything
. But I really need to talk to you.”

Tony stuck his lower lip out, a face Sarah called his puppy dog pout. “So whaddaya say? Can I come in, at least for a few minutes? Please?”

The puppy dog pout proved victorious, and soon Tony and Sarah were sitting in her living room, facing each other in awkward silence.

Finally Sarah said, “It’s Wednesday. Aren’t you supposed to be on the air, like, right now?”

“I got the night off. I needed to see you.” Tony smiled. “I gotta say, you look terrific.”

Sarah waved the compliment away. “I look like shit. I’ve hardly slept since Friday, and all the crying I’ve been doing is making me look like a raccoon with pinkeye.”

Tony chuckled at this, but then repeated, “To me, you look terrific. Like you always do.”

This got Sarah to crack a slight smile, which Tony took as a sign of progress.

“Listen, Sarah – obviously I can’t apologize enough about what I did. About not being honest about my background and all. And if you never forgave me, or never trusted me again, I guess I’d understand.”

Tony rubbed his face with both hands, gathering his thoughts. “But it’s important to me that you should know how totally sorry I am for everything, really. Whether or not that cuts any ice with you, well, that’s up to you. But I got some stuff I need to talk to you about. You know, if you’ll let me.”

Sarah got up and poured herself a glass of wine. “You want some?” she asked.

“What is it – that Austrian stuff?”

“Australian.”

“Whatever. Sure, I’ll have some – thanks.”

Sarah brought two glasses of the dark red wine and sat back down, facing Tony.

“Go on,” she said.

Tony had been rehearsing in his mind what he wanted to say to Sarah, but suddenly his mind went blank, his carefully crafted words nowhere to be found. So, he had to wing it.

“Okay, let’s see. There’s a lot I want to say. The firstmost of which is—”

“Firstmost?”

“Sarah, if you’re going to go into English teacher mode on me, this could be a long freakin’ night. I really do got a lot to tell you.”

Sarah smiled, and took another sip of wine, giving Tony the opportunity to continue.

“Anyways, as I was saying, the first thing I gotta tell you is that these last few days without you have been the worst of my entire freaking life.”

It was the right thing to lead off with, he could see it in her face. But it was also utterly true.

“I mean it, Sarah. It was awful. I know when you’re upset, you can’t eat. But for me it’s the opposite – you can’t believe how much I’ve spent on pizza and beer the last few days. I swear, the kid who delivers my pizza is going to show up driving a freaking Mercedes, the way I been going.”

Tony had hoped for a laugh, but was pleased to at least get a faint smile out of her.

“But as if that wasn’t bad enough, you can’t believe the other stuff that’s been going on. I mean, it’s been totally crazy.”

“What kind of stuff?”

“Well, for one, this tornado thing. I’ve been getting calls, you know, like before? Back when I was on WEFQ, and all those other stations started calling me?”

Tony leaned forward. “Only now, those calls are from the networks. The freakin’
networks
.”

Sarah was too much of a pro not to be fazed by this. “The networks? Which ones?”

“NBC and CBS.”

“Holy shit.”

“Holy shit is right. But wait, it gets better. Then I get a call from Ryan, my old boss from Key West.”

“The guy on the Weather Channel?”

“That’s him. And check this out – he wants to know if I want to do the morning show on the Weather Channel. The freakin’
Weather Channel
.”

“Oh my God,” Sarah said.

“Tell me about it. But there’s
still
more. Somehow, Trask – that’s the GM at WGX – anyways, somehow he figures out that the networks are sniffing my butt—”

“How colorful,” Sarah interjected.

Tony laughed. “Yeah, I know. But that’s kinda how it is. Anyways, somehow Trask either knows about it, or at least he suspects. So he’s got this whole proposal ready for me, with this huge raise and everything.”

“How huge?” The reporter in Sarah never let the big questions go unanswered.

Tony named his newly proposed salary.

Sarah whistled. “Again let me say, holy shit.”

“You got that right,” Tony said. “But he kept going. Said he’d throw in more perks – that his goal was to make it
significantly more attractive
for me to stay at WGX. He even offered to have a limo take me to and from work every day. A freakin’
limo
.”

“I think I’ve run out of holy shits already.”

“You and me both. So anyways, this means I got the networks, the Weather Channel, and WGX, all trying to win me over.”

Shaking her head, Sarah stammered as she replied. “I... I don’t know what to say. I mean, I’ve always believed in you, but even I never thought things would get to this point. This is huge.”

“I know. But even that’s not all. On top of that, I’m also getting pressure from... well, from the family business. From Jimmy. Now he wants me to start playing ball with them, but on a more, uh, subtle basis than what Vegas wanted.”

“Hold on. By
play ball
, you mean—”

“I mean they want me to throw forecasts. A lot of forecasts, over a long time. Enough to make them – and
me
– millions of dollars. I’m talking
millions
. So needless to say, this has left me with a lot to think about.”

Sarah was silent, still processing the latest development Tony had described, and somewhat taken aback by how candidly he was discussing a potentially major criminal operation. But she could tell he was simply being honest and open with her. Like she had asked him to be.

Finally she said, “So, have you thought it through? Have you decided what you’re going to do?”

Tony simply nodded.

Dreading the answer, Sarah asked, “So, which did you choose?”

With a slight smile, Tony said, “None of the above.”

Sarah put down her wine glass and stared at him. “What does that mean?”

“It means exactly that. I said no to all the offers, I’m not going to play ball, and I quit my job.”

“You quit your job?”

“Yeah. I was going to have to anyway, if I didn’t play ball. That was one of Jimmy’s stipulations, that if I didn’t go in with his crew on fixing the forecasts, that I couldn’t be on TV anywhere. Ever. And that if I didn’t quit voluntarily, they’d make me.”

“How would they do that? Did he threaten to hurt you? Your own uncle?”

“Actually he’s like a great-step-uncle, or some shit – it’s complicated. But no, he wouldn’t hurt me. But they would hurt my career. You know, like a smear campaign, ruining my reputation so that I couldn’t work anywhere.”

“He’d do that to you?”

“Well,
they
would do that to me, and he’d have to allow it. It’s not personal. It’s just – Jesus, I can’t believe they’ve even got
me
saying this shit.”

Sarah looked puzzled.

Tony elaborated. “It’s like their mantra or something – it’s how they rationalize every freakin’ thing they do. By saying
it’s not personal, it’s business
. Like that justifies everything.”

Tony saw that Sarah was simultaneously smiling and crying.

“What is it, baby?” he asked. “What’s wrong.”

Sarah shook her head, still smiling. “Nothing’s wrong. It’s just what you’re saying. The way you’re saying it. Now when you talk about those people, you’re saying
they
and
them
. Not
we
.”

“Yeah, well, I guess I realized that even though they’re family, they’re not who I am. I think I knew that all along, really.”

“You don’t know how happy it makes me to hear you talk this way, Tony.”

Then Sarah’s face grew serious. “But what will you do? I mean, I can’t believe how you had to just quit your job like that, with no warning. Do you have some money saved?”

Tony nodded. “Yeah, I’ve got a fair amount saved up. And I actually took a short-term job that starts right away. I’m going down to Key West, to help out during this hurricane. I don’t know if you’ve been following it, but Hurricane Garrett is headed straight for the Keys. Sue Kirkland – she was my boss at the NWS after Ryan went to the Weather Channel – she said she’d love to have some extra help during this storm. She even said I could stay there fulltime if I wanted. Or just pinch-hit during Garrett – either way, she said she’d be glad to have me.”

Now Sarah’s voice grew quiet. “So, you’d consider moving down there permanently.”

“Only on one condition,” Tony said.

“And what’s that?”

“If you went with me.”

There was a long silence.

Then Tony spoke, gathering momentum as he went. “Here’s my thinking. You could come down with me for a week, maybe a couple of weeks. You know, like on a vacation. No commitments. But we could spend some time alone together, you know, and work on this thing of ours.”

Tony chuckled, prompting a quizzical look from Sarah.

“What’s so funny?”

Tony said, “Oh, nothing. It’s what I just said.
This thing of ours.
That’s another thing they sometimes call the family business.” Looking intently at Sarah, he said, “But that was in another life.”

“Was it?”

“That’s what I’m trying to prove to you. I’m walking away from that life. Hell, I’m walking away from this one, too. Jimmy made it clear that if I don’t play ball, I’m through on television – I can’t be on the air anywhere.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

“Yeah, I think I am. ‘Cause when you get right down to it, an awful lot of what I did on TV was just...
entertainment
. And while I guess it’s nice that people find me entertaining, I just can’t believe that’s all I was put here on earth to do. Down at the NWS, I can just concentrate on the thing I was put here for: the weather.”

Tony paused to gulp down some wine. All this talking was making his mouth go dry. He set his glass down and continued.

“So yeah, I’m okay with giving it up – giving both of these things up. Because both of these things were standing between me and you. With the TV gig, it was easy for the fame to go to my head. And with the family business, well, it just draws me – and anybody close to me – into stuff that I’m really not cut out to do.” Tony shook his head, thinking about the war he had unintentionally set off.

“I’m okay with giving up all that,” Tony said. “But the thing I’m
not
okay giving up is you. So that’s what I’m trying to prove to you. You said you needed me to make you believe in me again. So I’m walking away from everything I know of that stands between you and me. It’s the only way I know to show you how I feel.”

Sarah drained the last of her wine, then stood up and walked over to Tony. He started to get up, but she pushed him back down with one hand, then straddled him where he sat. She began kissing his face, his hair, his mouth. First gently, then urgently, pausing only to pull her top over her head so that she could feel Tony’s hands on her skin.

They never made it to the bedroom, instead ending up in an exhausted heap on her living room carpet.

“So, welcome to Rockford,” Sarah purred, smiling at the man who lay panting next to her.

“Why thank you,” Tony said, smiling back at her as he tried to catch his breath. “I gotta say, I feel very freakin’ welcome.”

“Well, we have last weekend to make up for.”

“This is true.”

The two lay contentedly in each other’s arms for a long while. Then Tony propped himself up on one arm, so he could look at Sarah while he asked, “So, what do you think about Key West? You know how you’ve been saying you could really use a vacation...”

“A vacation
would
be nice,” Sarah allowed. “And man, the guy they promoted to replace Fletcher is a total jerk. If anything he’s an even bigger asshole – always calling me things like
little lady
or
sweet cheeks
.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Gimme a break.”

“My sentiments exactly. They seem bound and determined to keep a jerk in the GM position there. And of course it will be a cold day in hell before they’d ever give the job to a mere
woman
.”

“Yeah, they’re definitely pretty old-school there. It kinda doesn’t seem like there’s a lot farther you could go at that station.”

Tony tried another puppy dog pout. “So how ‘bout it? Will you come down there with me? At least for a little while?”