The Miles by Robert Lennon

Author:Robert Lennon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2012-04-19T04:00:00+00:00

MILE 14

Down the hall someone hollered something about the number of pepperoni pizzas that should be ordered. It was Loretta, the summer temp on break from Swarthmore, making her Thursday night rounds and demanding everyone report the status of their articles for the magazine’s close. It was seven o’clock and copy had to be fact-checked and ready for the senior editors by 7:30 or else heads would roll. In just a few short weeks at the magazine, Loretta had canoodled her way into the front pocket of the executive editor and several features editors. Just this afternoon a rumor circulated through the Entertainment Weekly cafeteria that she had convinced an editor to run her article on celebrity pet collagen and Botox treatments.

“So what’s the status, Walker?”

Loretta tapped her pencil officiously against Liam’s desk as she waited for his response. Normally, Loretta would engage in “Little Ivy” banter about whether Amherst or Swarthmore would be at the top of the U.S. News & World Report ranking of liberal arts colleges, but today she was all business. Liam ignored her icy power plays by reminding himself that she had been drinking cheap beer in the quad less than six weeks ago.

“The Ryan Adams piece is finished and I’m tidying up Sinéad right now,” he answered without looking up from his computer monitor.

“Tout de suite it along, buddy. You know who gets lulu when she’s waiting to read copy.”

“I just sent Ryan Adams to print right now.”

“Did you give the new CD an A? I found it completely brill.” Four or five r’s rolled off her tongue as she enunciated her verdict.

“You’ll have to read the review. I can’t chat now, remember? I need to fact-check this Sinéad piece.”

Why the senior staff agreed to do a retrospective on Sinéad O’Connor’s life and music baffled Liam. He thought the artist herself would find it maudlin, and even a tad insulting, when she had decades more to record. The number of remote Irish towns and abstruse Gaelic names in the article had irked Liam. He had triple-sourced everything and was finally ready to print out his annotated copy and do one last read-through when the phone rang. He let it go straight to voice mail. The phone rang again, and he answered it with a curt, “Yes?”

“Don’t ignore me! I need to know our exact coordinates.”

“Look, I’ll meet you outside the Williams-Sonoma in twenty minutes. Things are tight here. See you then.” Liam hung up before Monroe had the opportunity to prolong the conversation.

Liam smiled as he made his way through the 900 words of copy—an encyclopedic length for an EW article—knowing that he had caught a huge number of spelling and factual errors (town populations, the names of cavernous Irish pubs). He always received the toughest assignments because he had a killer instinct for accuracy. And with this Thursday night magazine close out of the way, Liam could now allow his evening to begin.

He decided against taking a cab and jogged up the West Fifties to the Time Warner Center.

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