Magnolia Wednesdays Read Online Free PDF Page A

you.” It was impossible not to notice that the lovely Regina was right about the same age Vivien had been when she’d started at CIN a lifetime ago. Vivi realized she wanted to throw up, but then she always wanted to do that lately. She swallowed down the nausea, reached for the plaster buttocks, and handed them to her new colleague. “Consider these a ‘welcome to the network’ gift.” She enjoyed the grimace that twisted the blonde’s Angelina Jolie lips. “We’ll have to do lunch one day. But right now you’ll have to excuse me. I was out yesterday and I really need to get to work.”
    She held her smile until the other woman left the office, holding the buttocks out in front of her like Vivien had once held her nephew, Trip, who at the time was wearing only a sagging, poop-filled diaper.
    As she watched the younger reporter leave, shards of ragged emotion jabbed at Vivien from all sides, ambushing her with their intensity. At first Vivi resisted them. She had always prided herself on her calm and logic. She did not run off half-cocked like others did; she thought and planned and then she acted. She could and had spent up to six months nailing down the details on an important story, making sure she had covered every angle, that no possibility had been left unexplored. Even when pressure had been applied from higher up, she’d never agreed to run anything until everything was in place and the story was unimpeachable and complete. This was how she’d built her reputation.
    But lately these overpowering surges of emotion had become more frequent. And they’d begun to cloud her judgment, to muddy her thinking. Like two days ago when she’d decided not to tell her FBI contact that she and Marty would be in the parking garage.
    Like right now when they ricocheted inside her like pinballs. When she could feel the rage and indignation simmering in her veins like a pot of water coming to a boil.
    Could it be perimenopause? Vivien wondered as she tried to rein herself in. Her period had been irregular, her whole sense of herself strangely out of whack. Should she go in for a checkup? Try to figure it out?
    She managed to stay seated until she was certain Regina and the buttocks were gone. But she couldn’t think clearly enough to answer any of the questions she’d posed. Nor could she plot out her next move.
    Instead, she got up from her desk and walked to Dan’s office at the opposite end of the hall. She didn’t knock as she normally would have, nor did she plan out what she wanted to say or the way in which she wanted to say it. She was a Vivien on emotional steroids, an utter basket case of conflicting urges and shocking impulses.
    Dan looked up when she entered the room; a warm smile lit his face. “Are you sure you should be back so soon? I figured you’d take the rest of the week off.” If he was angry at her screwup, he didn’t mention it. He’d been a good boss, firm but evenhanded; generally willing to let her work in her own way as long as she delivered. But all she could see right now was the traitor who had hired a blonde behind her back.
    “Where did that Regina business come from and why wasn’t I told?”
    Dan’s expression changed from one of concern to outright shock. The transition might have been comical if Vivien had had even a shred of a sense of humor left.
    “What did you say?” he asked.
    She strode forward until she reached his desk. There she placed her hands on the polished wood and pressed closer. “What’s going on, Dan? How could you hire someone to do what I do without even mentioning it to me?”
    There was a tiny voice in her brain that murmured, “Be quiet. This is not the way to discuss this.” But she shoved the voice aside even as she purposely leaned closer so that she could loom over him. “You’re invading his space,” the munchkin-sized voice said. “This is not the way to get what you want.”
    But she didn’t actually know what she wanted. Or even, at