A Perfect Day Read Online Free PDF Page B

making me the sales manager.”
    “Of course he does. You’re his best salesman and you’ve been at the station longer than anyone else. Who else would they choose?”
    “They could always hire from outside.”
    “Why would they do that?”
    “Last week Stu brought in some out-of-state consultants to check out the operation and make recommendations. They’ve been nosing through everything. Who knows what they’ll have to say?” I downed the coffee. “I better go. I’ll see you tonight.” I kissed Carson on the forehead. “See you, sister.”
    “Bye, Daddy.”
    I kissed Allyson at the door. “What’s your day like?”
    “Vacuuming. Lunch with Nancy.” She kissed me again. “Good luck. Call after your meeting so I can plan our celebration.”

Chapter 5
    I arrived early at work. With the exception of Stuart Parks, the general manager, and the morning on-air talent, the rest of the staff had yet to arrive, leaving the main suite quiet except for the banter of the KBOX Breakfast Bunch that played over the office sound system.
    Occasionally, during a long stretch of music, one of the DJ’s would emerge from the studio for coffee, food or a bathroom break. When I arrived, Mick, the top morning DJ, was rooting through the refrigerator in the employee lounge. On the way back to the studio, he passed my cubicle. He was wearing an Aerosmith cap and Ray-Ban sunglasses and belting out a song by the Cars as if he really could sing. When he saw me, he stopped and held up a square Tupperware container. He lifted its lid to expose a grotesque mass of green and white fuzz. “Hey, man, check this out.”
    I grimaced. “What’s that, your breakfast?”
    “This is our new morning feature: I call it What’s in the Tupperware? A. A tuna sandwich cloning experiment gone bad. B. The national penicillin reserve. C. A poor man’s Chia Pet or D. Life in a jar.
    “Save it for your listeners.”
    “Haven’t you seen our latest numbers? You are my listeners, man,” Mick said as he walked back to the studio. “You and my mom.”
     
    The day I heard Doug was retiring I had begun compiling a notebook of ideas to increase our sales. At five minutes to nine I picked up my notebook then knocked on Stuart’s door.
    I remembered the first time I came to this door—the day Stuart hired me. I was actually his second choice for the job. He had originally approached my brother Marshall, a friend of his from college, about coming to work for the station. Marshall had already committed himself to his computer training and turned him down, but knowing that I was about to graduate from college and was still wrestling with a career choice, he recommended me. Back then I was the new kid at KBOX. Now, at the age of thirty-two, I was one of the veterans.
    The last three years had been particularly difficult ones for the station. Deregulation had come into the radio industry and massive media conglomerates were forcing the independents to compete or sell out. Stations who for decades had posed no serious threat to KBOX were now reformatted and infused with promotional capital. As an independently owned station, we had dropped from first to seventh in the market and were losing money almost as fast as Stuart was losing his hair.
    After a half minute I knocked again and Stuart answered gruffly, “It’s not locked.”
    I opened the door. To my surprise, Stuart wasn’t alone. Stacey, one of the newer sales reps—a tall, svelte bottle blonde with cropped hair—was standing to the side of his desk. They simultaneously looked up at me. There was something peculiar about the scene. Stuart had that deer-in-the-headlights look about him while Stacey looked at me with a pert, confident smile. There had been a lot of office gossip about the two of them, and though, out of loyalty to Stuart, I kept myself from it, their appearance this morning did nothing to dissuade me from believing it.
    “Good morning, Rob.”
    “Morning, Stacey.”
    She gently