“Well, I can tell you this. At least my career is not taking a tragic slide down into irrelevance.”
“You know what. You can get off of my show right now,” Lenna Thomson says as she points to the exit.
I think of what my publicist said to me. “Do not walk out on the interview. Do not walk out on the interview.”
I look at the female anchor. “I’m not leaving. If you don’t like the interview, then you can leave.”
At that moment, Lenna Thomson takes off her microphone and walks away from the interview. I am just sitting there holding my bottle of water wondering what the hell is going on.
“We’re in commercial!” the director yells as producers and production as**sistants frantically chase after the news anchor.
“I’m not talking to that little bitch! Fuck this!” Lenna yells as she storms off of the set. My publicists grabs me and hustles me out of the studio.
We rush out into the atrium of the Time Warner Center. “What happened?” I ask my publicist.
“I have never had that happen before in my life,” Emily says.
“What do I do?”
Emily smiles. “You do nothing. The entire media is going to be focused on Lenna Thomas. She was the one who walked off on her own show.” The publicist puts her arm around me and says, “Congratulations. After that, no one is going to remember what happened to the director at Mr. Peak’s townhouse.”
I feel so proud of myself. At this point, nothing can stop me. “Come on. Let’s tell Mr. Peak. He is going to be so proud of me!” I exclaim as we take the elevators to the forty-second floor.
Emily gets on the phone and receives an update from her office.
“The blogs are already putting up the video of the interview. We’re on the front page of Gawker, TMZ and PerezHilton.com. This is going to make you even bigger than before,” Emily tells me as the elevators open up at Mr. Peak’s office.
Wow. I feel like I the most unstoppable person in New York. I skip down the hall to Mr. Peak’s lair. I swing open the door to my boss’s office. Mr. Peak is sitting behind his desk, reading the Wall Street Journal when I bounce inside.
“Mission accomplished, Sir!” I proclaim as Mr. Peak looks up from his paper. He seems surprised and annoyed that I would just pop in like this. But hell, I have good reason to intrude on Mr. Peak’s day.
Emily is not as bold. She stands right outside the door and asks politely, “Mr. Peak, are you available?”
My boss stands up and motions the publicity exec into his lair. “You see Sarah, at least Emily has some manners,” my boss says.
I stand next to my boss and beam while Emily gives him an update on what went down. “I have to tell you, Mr Peak. Sarah is a little spitfire. I have never seen anyone deal with a hostile interview like that before.”
“What happened?” Mr. Peak asks.
“The interviewer walked off the set,” I proudly exclaim. “She couldn’t take it anymore!” I add as Mr. Peak looks down at me rather annoyed.
“Sarah not only deflected any questions about you and your business, she made the interviewer embarrass herself on TV. In short, the media will be focused on the news anchor and not you,” Emily explains to my boss.
“I can go do more interviews!” I tell Mr. Peak. “I’ll make them all uncomfortable. I have this down to a science.” Before I can finish, Mr. Peak puts his hand over my mouth.
“Thank you, Emily. I need to have a word with Sarah. She needs to be, um, corrected on her behavior.”
Emily takes two steps backwards and quickly leaves Mr. Peak’s office.
“Oh, Emily?” my boss calls out.
“Yes, Mr. Peak?”
“Please close the door behind you.”
“Sure thing,” Emily says as she closes the double doors to my boss’s office.
After the doors shut, my boss takes his hand away from my mouth. He lifts me up until we are looking at each other eye-to-eye. “You know better than to barge into my office like that.”
“I’m sorry, Sir. I was just so excited to tell you the good news.”
My boss carries me to his large L-shaped leather sofa set. He places me on his lap. “So you like to run your mouth, huh?”
“I’m sorry, Sir.”
Mr. Peak removes his tie. He wraps the tie around my mouth until I can’t say a word. My boss takes his fingers and begins to slowly unbutton my blouse. “For your punishment, I am denying you the privilege to moan and scream out my name while I play with your tight little body.”