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Carlos was gesturing at a wheelie office-chair. “All right, this is you. These are your neighbors, Jin and Mduduzi. Both mostly cover the Leopards, though you’ll all pitch in with the Jets and the Giants from time to time. Tanya and I will also occasionally be at games, especially when you’re starting out. ”
The two guys looked up. I made the snap judgment that Jin was the Asian American with muscles I didn’t usually associate with journalists, and Mduduzi was the tall African American in a crisp button-up and fashionable glasses. They were both a couple of years older than me, and both looked more attractive than I’d expected my coworkers to be. I wasn’t sure yet if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
They both nodded and said hello.
Carlos tapped a beautiful, shiny, brand-new laptop on the empty desk across from Jin’s table. “This is yours. You’re lucky—they rolled out the new model right before we ordered it. Supposed to have great battery power. ”
I tried not to salivate. I’d bought my last computer—okay, the only computer I’d ever owned myself—six years ago, right before college. It still worked, but it was a little tired sometimes. Poor baby.
“Come on,” Carlos said. “Let’s find Tanya. ”
He led me to a corner office and my nerves came back in full force. Tanya Jones was the thirty-nine-year-old editor of Sports Today. She graduated from the Columbia J-school and got her start at one of the popular blogging platforms before landing a writer position here six years ago, and she took over the editor-in-chief position last year. I’d met her last month, and until she’d offered me the job, I hadn’t the slightest idea if she liked me or not.
Come to think of it, I still didn’t know if she liked me. Maybe I was the only viable candidate able to start so quickly.
Carlos showed me into her corner office. Tanya had the largest office on the floor. Her ultimate boss, Stuart Kingsley, the CEO of Today Media and its six separate magazines, worked on the twelfth floor, and while I’d seen pictures, I’d never met him.
Tanya stood and came over to shake my hand. She was tall and strong-boned and casually dressed. “Good to see you again. You’re the only new hire this week, so we’re going to do a seat-of-our-pants orientation. You don’t mind, do you?”
“Um. No. ”
“Good. ” She led me out of her office and back onto the open floor. Carlos kept pace. “Let’s start with coffee. Do you have a mug?”
“I don’t. ”
“Then you need a mug. ” We entered a brightly colored kitchenette. Boxes of snacks and candies lined the counters. I saw a bowl filled with dark chocolate squares and wondered if it was too early to snag one.
She pulled out a ceramic mug for me and filled it and her thermos with fresh coffee. She kept moving before I had a chance to doctor mine. I tried to keep pace without letting the liquid burn my hand, while Tanya managed to authoritatively gesture with hers. “You’ll have noticed. We have more than our fair share of testosterone in the office. Don’t let that bother you. If they bother you, report them to HR. I’m not interested in people who don’t treat everyone like humans. ” We passed by the desk of a guy my age. “Right, Billy?”
He looked up with puppy-dog adoration. “Tanya, I love you, I would never betray your trust. ”
She hmphed and we kept going, past the desks and along a wall of conference rooms. “Two things to remember. First, deadline’s not flexible. Second, you’re not Lois Lane. ”
Carlos leaned close to me. “She’s Lois Lane. Doesn’t want you to steal her thunder. ”
“I heard that. ”
He just grinned. “Also, I’d add a third rule—fact-check your stories to death. ”
That made sense, but the gravity he used unnerved me. “What if I miss something?”
Tanya didn’t break stride. “We’ll feed you to the wolves. ” She paused for emphasis. “The wolves are the commentators on our website. ”
“Don’t read the comments,” Carlos said helpfully.
I looked back and forth between them. “Why not?”
“Because internet commentators are the scum of humanity and they will tear you apart. ”
“Our readers,” Tanya said forcefully, “are a wonderful community that we encourage and respect. However. They will tear you apart. ”
People don’t tend to tear you apart when you work at a little weekly newspaper in the town you grew up in.
After she wrapped up the widest scope of my position, Tanya leaned back in her chair and studied me intently. “We’re doing things a little differently this year. ”
“Oh?”
She nodded. “Part of what I liked about you during your interview was that you’d written an article about a topic that’s often considered taboo, and you didn’t back down. That’s what I want to do this year. Do you know the reputation of sports journalism?”
I nodded. There used to be an unspoken law not to rock the boat. Sports journalists were dependent on their contacts—coaches and players—to get scoops, and if they ruined relations, they could be kicked out of the press box and the story.
Sports Today had proved itself ready to rock the boat a little bit, and given my brief impression of Tanya, I could only assume she wouldn’t mind sinking it in a blaze of fire. “I know it. ”
“Good. Well, this is the year people start taking us seriously. We get a good story, we’re keeping it. In the past, if drugs or rape or murder turned up, they were almost uniformly handed off to the news beat. But we are the news, and if anything happens this season, I want you on it like glue. ”
“Um. . . ”
She scowled. “What, you have a question? You can ask a question. ”
This woman terrified me. “Won’t that jeopardize our relationship with the teams?”
“I don’t give a damn about our relationship with the teams. ” I stared at her, and she sighed. “Sorry. Basically, it’s great that we have a relationship and we can talk to them, but that’s not the most important thing. I value truth and accuracy above buttering people up. We’re not in this to churn out cutesy interviews or glowing features. We’re reporters. ”
After an hour, Carlos picked me up and ran me over to HR to get my pic taken and ID badge printed. After that, I got a brief tour of our building before Carlos brought me over to our desks. It turned out he had the one beside me, across from Mduduzi. I sat down with a sigh of relief. “Now what?”
Carlos smiled. “Now I’m going to forward you a bunch of stories, and you’re going to write them. ”
I tried not to gape. “Just like that?”
His smile widened. “Just like that. Don’t mess up. ”
Not two hours later, I picked up a phone and dialed a number Carlos had forwarded. “Hi, this is Tamar Rosenfeld, calling from Sports Now. . . Can I talk to Dennis Gardner?”
And just like that, some fool receptionist put me in touch with an assistant coach of the Leopards.
Chapter Six
A week and a half later, Tanya strode by my desk. “Rosenfeld. You’re with me. ”
I almost tripped as I shoved my phone and recorder into my purse and caught up with her. “Where are we going?”