“Huh?” I look down at my dress, pretending to not know what the problem is. “Oh God. Did I really just wear this?”
“Come to my office,” he says. “We need to talk.”
As I follow him to his office, we pass Anne in the hallway. She shoots me a wide-eyed, questioning look. I shrug without a word. Patrick closes the door behind me when we reach his office.
“What was the first rule you agreed to when you signed on to take Emmanuel’s place?”
I bite my lip. The rule he’s referring to is one that’s always been laughed about, and uttered more as a joke than anything else, because none of us could believe that someone would be stupid enough to dress like a piece of broccoli in front of a green screen. And yet here I am, looking like a giant green vegetable.
“Don’t wear green.” I say the words so quietly that Patrick can’t hear me. He cups a hand around his ear and leans in – a gesture that makes me want to roll my eyes. “Don’t wear green,” I repeat louder.
“And yet you are…” He gestures to my outfit.
“Wearing green.”
“Oh, no. You’re not just wearing something green, Naomi. Your whole body is draped in green. Do you know what you looked like out there? You looked like a floating head bouncing around a weather map with a couple of hands flapping around below. If there’s an opposite of the headless horseman, that’s what you were. What the hell is the matter with you?”
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I had a long weekend. I was up late and I got dressed in the dark this morning. I didn’t realize what I was wearing. Please don’t fire me.”
He sighs heavily as if he has to think hard about whether to keep me on. So much for him being in a good mood like Anne said. “You’re on thin ice, Naomi. You’re lucky that ratings have been up since you came on fulltime. Now go change your clothes before you go on again. Find something in the lost and found or something.”
“Thank you, Mr. Facey.”
He makes a noise that sounds similar to a growl. I get out of his office as fast as I can. Anne is waiting for me in the hallway. She walks back to my desk with me.
“Are you going to tell me what you were thinking?” she asks.
“Only if you switch outfits with me.”
“Funny. I was going to suggest that next.”
We head to the ladies’ room and lock the door. As soon as we’re alone, we both burst out laughing. Once we’ve calmed down, we undress and put on each other’s clothes. I’m lucky that Anne is about the same size as me. I had counted on her being willing to switch outfits with me this morning. If I had brought a change of clothes, this stunt might have looked premeditated.
“He told you to do this, didn’t he?” Anne says when we’re finished dressing.
“Huh?”
“Don’t play dumb. You were going to say bologna until I talked you out of it. When did you get another letter from him?”
I sigh, realizing it’s not worth it to lie to her. “I got a letter from him over the weekend.”
“And he told you to wear green? I can’t believe you did this, Naomi. It’s one thing to wear a green skirt or a green pair of pants, but this was your whole body.” She gestures to the shape of the tacky old bridesmaid dress that she’s wearing now. “The only part of you that was showing was your head and your hands.”
“He didn’t tell me to do it.”
“You can’t possibly expect me to believe that you didn’t do it for him. Did he promise to give you his return address again?”
“He didn’t promise me anything. And he didn’t tell me to do it. Not exactly.”
“What do you mean?”
I take a deep breath, trying to decide how much of the letter I can tell her about. “He knows where I live, Anne.”
“I would assume so since the letter didn’t come here.”
“We’ve been running around the whole country looking for him, spending all kinds of money on flights and hotels and airport food, meanwhile he knows where I work and where I live, and I can’t even write back to him. I know it’s all an adventure to you, but do you know how frustrating it is for me? I had to communicate with him somehow.”
“By making a fool of yourself on air? If you were going to do something stupid, you should have just said it was hot as bologna outside.”
