Charlie All Night Read Online Free PDF

firmer as she grew surer. "This is Mark.
Mark
wanted me out and her in.
And he got it. I just don't know why."

Joe shook his head at her. "It's obvious. Mark's jealous of you."

"That makes no sense." Allie waved her fork at him to end he discussion.

"Yeah, it does." Joe pointed his own fork at her. "Everybody at the
station knows that Mark's
success is because of you. He likes to think
it's because of him."

Charlie stabbed another chunk of lettuce. "So, if he shoves Allie out
and puts Lisa the newbie in, everyone will know that his success is—"

"His success," Joe finished. "Except that's not going to happen."

"Why not?" Charlie shoved his empty salad bowl aside and eached for
another bread stick.

"You eat like you're starving," Allie told him, amazed at the speed
with which he'd destroyed his
salad. "Don't they feed you back
home?"   

"You should talk." He pointed to her own half-empty bowl. " I've seen
locusts move through
vegetation slower." He turned back to Joe. "Why
not?"

Joe scooped up a forkful of his salad. "Because the only reason Mark is
a success is because Allie
plans out every second of his show. She even
has his ad-libs on cue cards. You have to see it to
believe it."

Charlie raised an eyebrow at Allie. "How do you manage that?"

Allie shrugged. "There are only a dozen or so expressions that are
really useful, anyway. I just pick
the card that worked best. And he
isn't that bad. In almost two years, he's never misread a cue card.
Could we talk about something else?"

"Oh, that's talent, reading cue cards," Charlie agreed. "You were with
him for two years?"

"Professionally." Allie squirmed a little in her chair. "The other
thing only lasted about six
months."   

"Six terrible months," Joe added. "Thank God for Lisa, or I'd have had
to kill him just to set you free. And you're right, Al, I do feel
sorry for her. She's going to pay."

Charlie looked around the table for something else to eat. "Why? What
did she do now?"

"Nothing." Joe grinned at him over his salad bowl. "Do you remember the
flack Deborah Norville
got when she replaced Jane Pauley?"

"Yeah." Charlie fished a pepper strip out of Allie's bowl, narrowly
avoiding her fork.

"Well, that's going to be nothing compared to what happens when the
station finds out Allie got
screwed. Lisa is not going to have an easy
time of it."

Allie was afraid for a moment that Joe might have a point. She didn't
mind Lisa failing to keep Mark's ratings op, but she didn't want her to
fail because everyone turned on her. She stared at her plate, not
seeing the food. She didn't need this. She needed all her energy to
revive her career.

Which now depended on Charlie.

She stole another look at him over her glasses and began to really
think about Charlie and the new
show for the first time. Things weren't
nearly as bad as they'd seemed earlier. Charlie had potential.
After
all, he was intelligent. Verbal. Even occasionally funny. She could
make him a star. All she had
to do was study him, design a format that
fit him and plug him into it. He and his mouth could take it from
there, while she goosed the publicity along.

She could have him a household word by Christmas. Three months easy,
and she'd be back on top.

She waited until the waitress had brought their dinners, and then she
began her pitch. "You're really verbal," she told him, batting her
eyelashes at him. "I like that in a man. Especially in a man whose
show
I'm producing."

Charlie stopped, his fork in midair, and eyed her cautiously. "What's
that supposed to mean?"

Allie smiled at him, hearty and encouraging. "I'm going to make you a
star, Charlie."

"The hell you are." Charlie went back to his dinner.

Allie pulled back a little and exchanged glances with Joe, who
shrugged. Okay, so he'd have to be convinced. No problem. She returned
to Charlie and her career. "Look, I know your show was a
sort of cult
hit in Lawrenceville and you like to do things your way, but you're
starting all over