Charlie All Night Read Online Free PDF Page B

here
in a bad time slot. And radio is not exactly a
secure career, as you well know. I can—"

Charlie pointed his fork at her. "No, you can't. Bill should have told
you. I'm temporary. I'm going
to be here five or six weeks, tops, probably not that long. I've got
places I have to be by
November.
And this guy whose show I'm covering, Waldo, right?" Allie
nodded. "Well, Waldo's coming back."

Allie frowned at him and even Joe blinked. "Waldo's not coming back,"
he told Charlie. "He's in San Diego with his sister. Resting
comfortably at last report."

Charlie shrugged. "Must be for a visit. Bill knows I'm just temporary."

"Now what's Bill up to?" Joe asked Allie, and she shrugged.

Charlie's eyes went from one to the other. "He's not coming back?"

"Waldo shot the console his last night on the air," Allie told him. "He
said it was talking to him and wouldn't shut up."

"Maybe he just needs a nice vacation," Charlie suggested.

"Maybe he needs to be away from stereo equipment," Joe said. "He's not
coming back."

"So that means," Allie began, ready to make her pitch.

"So that means you're going to be breaking in another guy in about six
weeks," Charlie told her.
"Do not bother making me a hit. I'm
temporary."

He returned to his dinner and began to quiz Joe on Tuttle, and Allie
sat back and regrouped. The
problem wasn't that he refused to help her
make him famous. She could do that without him. She'd
made Mark a
success without any appreciable input from him.

The problem was that he wasn't going to be around long enough for her
to rebuild her career.

Unless she hit the ground running a lot faster than she'd intended.

Allie gave it a minute's thought. All right, she could do that.

And in the meantime, the news made the penicillin project a lot more
possible. If he was only going
to be around a few weeks, she could have
a one-night fling with him without any consequences. She wasn't used to
having flings actually, but she was
thirty-six. Her flinging years weren't going to last forever. She had
every intention of getting married and having children some day, and
men flings
would be out of the question. This might be it.

She looked at the situation from all sides. There didn't seem to be any
serious obstacles, aside from Charlie himself.

"All right," she said and began to eat her dinner.

Charlie stopped eating and looked at Joe. "Why do I have a bad feeling
about her giving in so easily?"

"Because you're a student of human nature," Joe told him.

Allie ignored them both to put her plan into action as soon as they
were finished eating. "Let's take
Charlie on a tour of the city on our
way home. He should see Tuttle a little before he goes on the
air
tomorrow night. It'll give him something to talk about." And I can find
out what he's interested
in and plan a program on it.

"The tour sounds great." Charlie picked up his check. "But you don't
need to put me up. I've got
a room at a motel. Thanks for the offer,
though."

Not good. She needed to get to know him fast if she was going to get
the show moving right away.
And then there was the Fling Plan. It was
going to be hard enough for her to seduce him in her own apartment. A
motel room would be impossible. Allie smiled at him. "I think you
should stay with us.
You told Mark you were."

Charlie shrugged. "Who cares?"

"Mark won't be mad if you're not staying with us." Allie batted her
eyes at him again. It wasn't one
of her better skills, but she was
desperate.

Charlie leaned close until they were almost nose to nose. "You know, I
haven't known you very long, Alice McGuffey, but I can tell you're up
to something."

"As I said, a student of human nature." Joe leaned back in his chair to
watch.

"Joe will make waffles for breakfast if we ask him nicely." Allie
grabbed Charlie's hand again so he couldn't escape. His hand was broad
and warm, and she was beginning to feel absolutely cheerful
about
seducing him. "We can talk about the station tonight. Where's your
suitcase? At