Chapter 4
Safely back in her dressing room with the door firmly shut, Meredith stood in front of the full length mirror again, pulling at her clothes and trying to straighten out her long black hair. She removed her heavy-rimmed, black glasses, even though she knew it was pointless. Her eyesight was poor and her contact lens trial had been a disaster. She’d felt as though she had golf balls in her eyes all day, every day. The optician had said she would get used to them but after a month of blood shot, streaming eyes that any self-respecting zombie would have been proud of, she’d given up. Looking at herself in the mirror without her glasses on was useless. All she could see was a blurred shape with no features, although she did look thinner. Putting her glasses back on, she checked the time on her wristwatch. Shit, two minutes to go, she thought and ran out the door, heading along the corridor at a half run. She should have been in place by now. As she slipped into her spot, she realised she’d forgotten to change her shoes and was still wearing her old, comfortable pumps. Oh well, too late now. Hopefully the camera woman won’t do any full length shots, she silently prayed.
“Thanks again Joanna. Sorry, but no better news for you. I wish I could brighten it up but I don’t control the weather. I just tell it like it is,” Meredith joked with the breakfast show presenter before turning to the camera.
“Sorry to be the badder of bear news, I mean the bearer of bad news, excuse me.” Meredith felt heat rising in her cheeks and was grateful for the extra layer of powder the stylist had applied. “The rain is with us all day, light across the countly – I mean right – across – the – country. Sorry folks, think I’ve got my mum’s teeth in today.” Meredith tried to make light of her mistakes but only become even more flustered. What am I on about? she thought. My mum’s teeth!!! Good grief, what will the viewer’s think? Taking a deep breath, she started again, smiling directly at the camera. “The rain will be with us all day and most of tomorrow. By this evening there will be high winds and even some stormy sonditions in the North, or conditions even.” Meredith couldn’t believe this was happening. She’d made the odd mistake in the past but not fluffing every sentence. Her tongue felt as though it was double the size it should be and she was having difficulty forming words. She took another deep breath, held it for a moment and started over. “There are a few weather warnings in place for this evening, particularly in the North of England and Southern Scotland so check your local news for the areas affected. Tomorrow the winds will have died down a bit but it will still be very blustery and, along with the rain, driving conditions will be hazardous, so don’t drive unless you have to and if you do have to, take care. And that’s all from me for now. Back to you Joanna.”
Meredith flew off set as soon as the camera light turned red, feeling very embarrassed and relieved at the same time. That was a dreadful experience; she was thinking as she wondered for the hundredth time what on earth was wrong with her today. Reaching her dressing room, she stepped inside, slamming the door shut behind her before sitting down, putting her head in her hands and staying like that for the next five minutes. She wondered what the comments on face book and twitter would be tonight, not to mention the ribbing she would probably get from her colleagues. That was the worst about being well known. Every mistake became public knowledge. Even her mum would probably phone tonight to ask if she was okay.
Once she’d calmed down a bit she lifted her head just as someone knocked on the door. She rose to answer it, trying to compose herself when the person on the other side of the door called her name.
“Are you in there, Meredith?”
“Oh lord, it’s Amanda. Just what I don’t need right now.” Meredith muttered quietly. Amanda was Meredith’s supervisor and a hard task master, although always fair. Meredith opened the door, knowing she was about to be quizzed about her performance.
“Hi, Amanda. Come in.”
“Thanks Meredith. I suppose you’ve an idea why I’m here.”
“My bungling through that last forecast, I presume,” Meredith said, putting her head down and staring at the floor. All I need now is a bollocking from the boss. Great, she thought.
“Just wanted to know you were okay. It’s not like you. You’re usually so professional.” Amanda looked at Meredith quizzically, clearly expecting some sort of explanation.
“I’m sorry. It’s just been a difficult couple of weeks getting back in to the swing of things after such a long time away. I’ll be fine.”
“I hope so, but I’ve asked Deborah to do the seven o’clock slot and to remain on standby until nine. It’ll give her a little experience and you a little break. Go get yourself a coffee or something and chill out for the next hour. I’ll try to drop by again just before the seven thirty slot to see how you’re doing.” With that Amanda walked out the door, leaving Meredith panicking as well as furious.
Deborah was fairly new and learning the ropes, but Meredith disliked her intensely. At the last Christmas party, Meredith had been forced to tell Deborah to back off when she’d taken a shine to Sam and didn’t seem the slightest bit bothered that he was married. Sam had been clueless as to what Deborah was up to, or so he’d said. He’d thought she was just being friendly, but hanging round his neck every time Meredith’s back was turned wasn’t being friendly in Meredith’s book. It was flirting and very disrespectful. She’d reprimanded Sam for allowing it to happen. He was all blonde, floppy curls, bright blue eyes and gorgeous and Meredith wondered why he wouldn’t have understood what was going on when the same thing must have happened to him loads of times over the years. She suspected he’d been enjoying the attention and was just as annoyed at him as she’d been at Deborah. Since then she’d avoided Deborah as much as possible and intended to continue doing so.
Meredith flopped down into the chair and let her head fall backwards, letting out a sigh through pursed lips. This day was going from bad to worse and she doubted that another coffee would help. The double shot latte had been a mistake. Her nerves were jangling, although she suspected that was as much from embarrassment at making such a mess of things and anger at Deborah stealing her job out from under her as it was the coffee. Okay, so Deborah wasn’t exactly stealing her job, but she would certainly gloat on this for a while, making a point of mentioning it every time she spoke to Meredith for the next few months. Meredith groaned and went back to studying herself in the mirror. Deborah’s hair wasn’t untameable; it was long, red and curly, and she had that young woman’s voluptuous type of figure where everything looked ripe. Her curves were curves, not lumps and bumps that had to be hidden underneath carefully chosen clothes. Meredith couldn’t hope to compete, but until this moment she hadn’t thought she would have to.
Sitting back down whilst still pulling at the ends of her hair, she decided that instead of feeling sorry for herself a little action was required. She pulled her mobile from her jacket pocket and phoned Chloe. Chloe answered after the second ring.
“Hi Meredith, she’s fine. She’s sleeping just now. She seemed a little tired this morning,” Chloe said, assuming that Meredith was just phoning to check on Jenny as usual.
“That’s great Chloe but I also wanted to ask if you could possibly do a couple of hour’s overtime today? I need to go to the hairdressers and get a bit of shopping. Would that be okay?”
“Sure, no problem. I hadn’t any other plans so I might as well earn a little extra. What time can I expect you?”
“Around three okay?”
“No probs.”
“Thanks Chloe, you’re a star. See you around three but any problems just call.”
“Okay, see you then.”
Meredith ended the call and then phoned Mairi, the hairdresser, hoping she would be able to fit her in at short notice. Mairi said they’d had a cancellation at quarter to one if that was any good. Meredith said that would be fine, even though she knew she would have to rush a bit to make it on time.
She didn’t finish work until twelve-thirty and taking the car would take even longer as she would have to find a parking space in town. She’d decided to wear her heels if she was going to be trying on clothes because they tended to smooth out her lumps and bumps a little, but didn’t relish the thought of hurrying into town in them. In the end she decided to take the heels in her handbag and wear the pumps to walk into town.