* * *

Three weeks into the bet, Allie was trying to look on the bright side and failing. It should have been easy to look on the bright side. Charlie All Night was a huge hit. The paper ran stories about Charlie and the city building, Charlie and the FoodStop indictment, Charlie and Sam. Pictures of Charlie and Sam were particularly popular, and people had donated so much dog formula and food and puppy toys to the station that they were supplying the local animal-rescue groups daily. Even the sabotage was helping; when the ad tapes disappeared from the booth one night, Charlie had been forced to fake it. His ad-libs about how great McCarthy’s cashew chicken was at two o’clock in the morning, how much Sam loved the formula he’d gotten from Paula’s Pet Emporium, and how Harry swore by Gleason’s Auto Parts, had started a trend. Now all the advertisers wanted Charlie ad-libbing ads. He was a radio natural.

And she was going crazy. For the first time in her adult life, her first thoughts on waking weren’t about the radio station. They were about Charlie. She’d gotten what she wanted: they talked all the time now. About radio, about food, about politics, about books, about sports… they talked until she was ready to scream, “Shut up and kiss me!” And even if she did, he’d probably think it was a request and play Mary Chapin Carpenter. She was delighted her career was back in high gear, but she wanted Charlie back more.

She finally hit bottom one night after staring hopelessly at Charlie through the booth window for the entire show. She was a mess and she needed comfort, so she went home and knocked on Joe’s door.

“Come in,” he said, half-asleep, and she went in and sat on the side of his bed while he tried to focus on her.

“I know it’s the middle of the night,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

“No problem.” He yawned and moved over and she crawled in bed next to him, sinking down on his shoulder when he put his arm around her. “So what’s up?”

“You were right,” she said into his shoulder.

“I’m always right.” He patted her. “Let me guess. This is about Charlie.”

Allie nodded. “I’m in love with him. I really screwed up this time.”

“Well, not necessarily.” Joe shifted in the bed to make more room for her. “This could be a good thing. At least you’ve given up thinking a career is a life. And everybody should fall in love at least once in her life, so that’s good, too.”

“I was in love with Mark,” Allie said miserably. “I served my time.”

Joe scowled at her. “You were not in love with Mark. Mark was your career and you thought it would be efficient to have a relationship with him, too. That was your tidy streak talking.” He stared off into space for a moment. “Now, Charlie is the worst possible match for you, so this must be love. Good for you, kid.”

“Very funny.” Allie wanted to stick out her chin and move away to show she wasn’t kidding, but Joe’s arm was too much of a comfort to lose. “What am I going to do?”

Joe shrugged. “Love him. What else can you do?”

Allie blinked, trying not to cry. “He’s going to leave in November. Do you know how much that’s going to hurt?”

“Do you have a choice? And anyway, it’s not November yet. You’ve got some time. Things could change. As usual, you’re focusing on the problem and not looking at the big picture.”

“What big picture?” Allie slumped deeper into the bed. “There is no big picture. I love him and he’s leaving in a week.”

“You could leave with him, you know,” Joe said, and Allie looked at him sharply. “Well, I’d miss you, but you’d write and come back to visit. It might not be a bad life, following Charlie around the country. You’d have a good time.”

“And no career,” Allie said stubbornly.

“Well, it would be a choice,” Joe said. “But at least it’s a choice. And I think you’re forgetting Charlie here, too.”

Allie groaned. “Fat chance. He’s all I think about anymore. I’m becoming obsessed with Charlie.”

“Well, he’s not exactly ignoring you.” Allie blinked at him, and Joe went on. “I know he moved out, but that was the only sane thing he could do. He never takes his eyes off you when he’s with you. He always knows exactly where you are. And…” Joe paused, and Allie waited hopefully for some killer point that would convince her falling in love with Charlie wasn’t the dumbest thing she’d ever done in her life. “He’s jealous as hell of Mark.”

Allie slumped again. “Big deal. I want him to love me.”

Joe rolled his eyes. “Well, Al, I’m pretty sure he does.”

Allie sat up, “Then why doesn’t he say so. Why doesn’t he say, ‘Allie, I love you and I’m not leaving you in November.’ I’m not looking for a marriage proposal here. I’m just trying to get my option extended for another year.”

Joe moved his arm away. “You know, if I didn’t like you and Charlie so much, I’d enjoy watching the two of you be dumb about this. Allie, he’s not going to tell you he loves you until he figures it out for himself.”

Allie threw her hands up in exasperation. “Well, when’s that going to be?”

“Hard telling,” Joe said. “I like Charlie a lot, but he’s not deep, and he really hates commitment. It may take him a while.”

Allie flopped back onto the pillows. “Well, great. With my luck, he’ll figure it out next spring when he’s in Dubuque or Broken Arrow or someplace else I’m not.”

“Then you make the first move. Tell him you love him. Tell him he loves you.” Joe punched his pillow and slid back down into the bed. “Produce yourself a love affair.”

“He would run like a rabbit,” Allie sighed. “I’m sorry. You’ve got to get up and work in the morning. I shouldn’t have bothered you.” She started to climb out of bed.

“Don’t be wimpy,” Joe said from his pillow. “Of course you should have bothered me. You’ll be okay. Charlie will get around to figuring out what he wants as soon as he finishes doing whatever it is he came to do.”

Allie turned back to him. “What do you mean?”

Joe’s voice was sleepy. “Well, he came here for something. What was it?”

Allie blinked at him. “To fill in for Waldo as a favor for Bill.”

Joe yawned. “Then why is he asking so many questions?”

“Because…” Allie let her voice trail off. He was asking a lot of questions. She’d assumed it was for the show, but he didn’t care about the show. Or did he? Maybe he was getting interested in radio. He was making sure nobody was sabotaging the show again. And he had her researching great topics for the show, like this drug legalization thing they were doing next week.

“Maybe he’s starting to care about the show,” she told Joe with hope in her voice.

Joe snored, and she gave up and went to bed, still miserably in love but vaguely comforted.

After all, November was still a week away.


* * *

“Mark tried to do a talk show with Lisa today,” Harry told Charlie. “You’ve really got to start getting up earlier. You’re missing some good stuff.”

Charlie sat on the console. “Such as?”

“He decided they were going to discuss working relationships.”

“Well, it’s an okay topic,” Charlie said.

“Yeah.” Harry leaned back. “But Mark spent the whole time talking about Allie. Never let Lisa get a word in edgewise. She finally burst into tears and left the booth.”

“We need to kick him,” Charlie said. “I don’t care how dumb he is, that was mean.”

“Nah,” Harry said. “He still doesn’t know why she’s upset. And she’s staying with him. They deserve each other.”

He tilted the chair back to look up at Charlie. “I think he’s planning on making his move on Allie again.”

Charlie ignored the spurt of alarm he felt and shrugged. “She can take care of herself.”

Harry shook his head. “Yeah, but you’re not around to stick up for your interests much. You don’t even see her outside of work.”

“Come on,” Charlie protested. “I see her five or six hours a day.”

“At work,” Harry said. “It sort of looks like, if you’re not sleeping with her, why spend time with her?”

“Hey,” Charlie said. “That’s not-”

“That’s what it looks like. And Mark has noticed. Probably mentioned it to Allie by now, too.”

Allie came into the booth. “Here’s the stuff you wanted,” she told Charlie, handing him a stack of notes. “I got the-”

“You busy tomorrow night?” Charlie asked her.

“Uh, no.” She blinked up at him.

“Let’s get a video and some Chinese,” he said. “Tell Joe.”

“Joe’s got a date. It’d be just us.”

“Oh.” Charlie shrugged. “Okay. Fine.”

“Okay.” Allie looked at him strangely again and left the booth.

“Good move,” Harry told him.

“Right,” Charlie said, but he thought, Allie and me and Chinese food at her apartment. Oh, hell.


* * *

Harry came out of the booth, and Allie looked at him with suspicion. “What are you up to?”

“Me? Nothing.” Harry grinned at her. “Have a good time tomorrow night.”

“Did you put him up to that?”

“Nope. Thought of it on his own. ’Bout time, too, don’t you think?”

Allie narrowed her eyes at him. “Harry, you wouldn’t lie to me, would you?”

“Nope.” Harry went off down the hall whistling.

Well, he was up to something. But she was going to see Charlie, outside the radio station, for an entire evening, so it really didn’t matter.

For the first time in a long while, she began to look forward to the next day.


* * *

“You know, Mark’s up to something,” Allie told Charlie during the news break.