12
NEW YORK CITY, 2019
The long grey limousine was stuck in traffic on 9th Avenue. Clara had gone shopping, and now it looked as if she might be late for the taping of the Steve Stimmerman Show. She thought Steve was a prick, so she didn’t care if her tardiness made his life harder.
In the seat in front of Clara, Donna was sucking down her second glass of bourbon, talking into her cell. She was arranging the next day’s spot on the Patsy Jo & Renaldo Show. Clara didn’t think it was a good idea, but Donna insisted that the women who watched Patsy Jo would also watch Desert Drift. They were the women who kept the paperback romance industry afloat. They were a huge market, so Clara was going to get up at 6:00 a.m. the next morning to court them.
Donna hung up with the people at ABC and gri
