Young Mr Chrichton

Renée reached for her phone and sent a text message to Kevin: 'Brilliant.'

The reply came back: Thanks. We've nervous, uncertain. All the chat.'

She responded emphatically: Leave him be. He's making it HIS program.

The executive producer Paul West waited impatiently along with the show's producer and Lilia Raymond, director of productions for Kevin to finish fiddling with his phone for Kevin and say something reassuring. All had expressed dismay at the 'looseness' of the production and the absence so far of any cooking. They knew there was now only thirty seconds to go before the show was on air again.

Kevin showed Paul the text message about 'leave him be'. And when Paul had read it and grumbled, "That's one opinion, a contrary opinion I would think" Kevin lifted his finger and Paul read the sender's name, Renée.

"Jesus."

Paul went through the came routine with Lilia and when she saw the sender's name she said firmly, "Make the right decision Paul. We all know that woman is brilliant."

"Let him be," Paul said and Kevin raced off to his seat.

At the 'first night party' immediately after the show wrapped up Lilia noticed Dominique had gone already and enquired and was told he'd gone out for dinner.

"With whom?"

"I'm afraid I don't know Mrs Raymond."

Lilia asked Kevin, "Where's your assistant?"

"She's eating Italian tonight," he grinned.

Lilia grinned and said she really like being around young people. "When they move things happen and I include you in that young man."

Kevin went home early and was surprised to find Renée's car gone. She arrived ten minutes' later and danced him around singing the same line several times, "Fucking fantastic."

When she stopped and they sat she said, "I was called to an emergency meeting at work. Everyone is in a panic and I listened and finally the executive chairman Sid Washington said it was not a time to panic. He asked me to speak. I said not only was it not time to panic the reality was there was no reason to panic. I said the formats of the shows were so distinctly different they weren't competitive, rather they were complementary. He agreed with me and that effectively shut down the stupid things people were saying. I said the only real effect on us that I could see was a possible flight of some advertisers and Sid said he'd called the advertising and promotions people to a conference in the morning.

In bed Kevin tuned into a talkback radio station and sat bolt upright.

"What is it?"

He said, "The caller is talking about "Cooking at 7:00."

They listened for forty-five minutes and he broke out of the cuddle to turn off the radio.

"God some of the ridiculous statement callers make," Renée giggled.

"Yeah some are as useless as bottled farts and are as ignorant as crap. But did you notice something about the discussion as we listened?"

"People that commented on the quality of the show said it was good entertainment. That was repeated often. In fact the plaudits were very generous."

"Yes all of that. But there was no dissenting discussion. No one said the show was a waste of viewer's time. One would have thought..."

"Just be happy that the people you heard say they liked it. Don't go looking for people prepared to bad-mouth it."

Kevin rushed in next morning with the newspaper.

"Apart from saying oh, yawn, yet another cooking show, the TV critic then says that being said, this new one is shaping up to be one of the best because it's so different."

"Oh my good boy. Give mommy a big hug and kiss."

* * *

Two weeks later Sharon Cushla Crichton was born and both mother and daughter arrived home in great shape. Kevin had continued to lie he was comfortable about the name Cushla but looking at her baby Renée suffered a drop in confidence and told herself the baby looked more like a Sharon than a Cushla. Her mom Milly agreed and said, "You often make splendid decisions darling."

Three months later Sharon was in day care with Milly, allowing Renée to return to resume ownership of her show and to win back the flagging confidence of its cornerstone advertisers. Meanwhile Kevin had received a big salary increase and fifteen regional TV stations were taking 'Cooking at 7:00' live and that number appeared likely to increase, judging by enquiries.

WWW-TV was confident enough to replace its contracts with Kevin and The Arrogant Chef with new three-year contracts.

THE END