Love is the Key

As Ron finished introducing him, something was clearly bothering Dan, but he couldn't put his finger on what that something might be. Ron also noticed and mentioned it.

"You seem a little distracted."

"Yeah. I guess maybe I am," Dan admitted.

"You should ask her out."

"What?" Dan replied with a shake of his head.

"Kara. That's what's buggin' you, right? Come on. I saw the way she was looking at you, so I'd say she's probably a sure thing."

"Kara. Yeah, that must be it," Dan told him, knowing it wasn't.

Dan's first traffic flight was the following morning at 6:30am with Ron as his co-pilot. Traffic followed the weather, and Jill always had the morning show from Monday through Friday. They were listening in and Ron tapped Dan to let him know to get ready.

"Okay, folks. That's your weekend weather forecast, and now it's my pleasure to introduce the newest member of the KAKE team, Dan Summers, our Channel 5 Eye in the Sky!"

The producer had also cued Dan to be ready, so as soon as Jill asked, "How's it looking up there this morning, Dan?" he began his first telecast.

The onboard camera turned green meaning it was looking at him.

He smiled as he flew above the interstate and said, "Hi, Jill. Well, it's looking a lot like rush hour."

He'd worked on his opening line several times, and after she said, "Okay, great. It's all yours," he took over and let the viewers know how things were stacking up in their city.

When he finished, what Dan didn't hear was the female co-anchor say on live TV, "Jill, you didn't tell me Dan was such a hottie," before she continued with the news.

She was also single, and having been there nearly ten years herself, she knew she could easily get away with saying that. Jill, however, had still been more than a little surprised.

But being an 'old hand' herself, she only laughed and without missing a beat said, "We're very lucky to have him as part of the broadcast family!"

It was a little over an hour later when Dan got back inside, and when Jill spotted him she motioned for him to come over.

"Good morning. What's up?" Dan said very cheerfully.

"I just wanted you to know I had no idea Melanie was going to say that on air this morning."

"O...kay?" Dan replied with a shrug of the shoulders.

"Wait. So...you didn't hear?"

Dan laughed then asked, "Hear...what?"

"Oh, my. Don't I feel foolish!" Jill said just as Melanie came walking up.

"Hi, handsome!" she said, causing Dan to turn around.

Melanie Lamoreaux was 35, divorced twice, and had quite a reputation around the station.

"He didn't hear," Jill told her, causing Dan to ask what was going on.

"Oh! He didn't?" Melanie said as she hooked her arm in Dan's. "Well. Why don't we go have a cup of coffee and I can tell say it again only this time to your very handsome face?"

Jill gave him an 'I'm so sorry' kind of look as Melanie led him off to the break room where she not only told him what she'd said but also wrote her number on his hand in pen.

Dan was tempted to ask if he'd been transported back to high school, but decided to play nice and only thanked her.

"And...fyi...I'm available 24/7," she informed him with an evil smile.

"Ah. Good to know," Dan replied before taking a sip of coffee then telling her he had some paperwork to take care of.

"Oh, sure. Work now, play later, right?" she replied with another similar grin.

As Dan got up, Melanie used her thumb and pinky as a phone and mouthed the words, "Call me!"

Dan nodded, picked up the cup of coffee then headed for the safety of his own cubicle where he began logging in his flight hours and the details of his first traffic report.

The next day was Friday, and Dan had forgotten all about the station get-together until the station manager dropped by and handed him a flyer.

"I forgot to mention this, but I'm really hoping to see there tonight," the man in his mid-50s said.

Taking that as a kind of 'order' Dan told him he'd be there.

On his way out, he had the flyer in his hand, and as he was passing the weather area he saw Jill. When he did, he decided to ask her something.

"Hey, there!" she said in her chipper voice.

"Hi. I uh, I was wondering if you were going. Or...coming to the party," he said as he held up the flier.

"Oh. Yes. As a matter of fact I am. My...boyfriend and I are both going to be there."

Dan's smile faded so quickly Jill realized he had no idea she was seeing someone. She never dreamed he was about to ask her to go with him, or anywhere else for that matter, but she could tell he was surprised.

"Cliff and I are, well, I guess we're getting serious," Jill explained.

"I...I'm...I'm really glad to hear that, Jill," he told her as he tried to recover from the shock.

"I would have thought Ron would have told you," she said almost apologetically.

"No. He only mentioned that you, that your husband..."

Dan stopped talking and Jill knew why.

"It's true. My husband did pass away four years ago. Cliff is the first man I've ever been serious about, so..."

"Yeah. No. I'm...I really am happy for you. Both."

"But yes, I will be there, and I'll introduce you," Jill told him, the smile back on her very pretty face.

"I'll look forward to it," Dan told her as he tried slinking away from yet another woman in the same day.

"Smooth," he said to himself as he walked away shaking his head.

"Dan?" he heard a different female voice say.

He turned and saw the other weather girl, Kara, right behind him.

"Hi, there," he said, unable to recall her name.

"Hi," she said back with a very sweet smile. She saw the handout he was holding and told him again she hoped to see him there.

"Yes. I'll definitely be there."

"Okay. Well...see you there then?"

"Right. See you there," he said before almost laughing as he tried to avoid his third woman in one day, a new all-time record.

Dan hadn't been at the party for two minutes before Melanie spotted him.

"Well, hello Mister Pilot Man! I'm glad you showed up," she told him.

"I thought it might be bad form to blow off the first function," Dan told her as he smiled politely.

"I uh, I like to blow. Things off," Melanie said before asking him where his drink was.

Without waiting for a reply, she went to get him one, and that's when he began sliding away. To his great relief, the station manager grabbed him and asked to come meet some local political officials, and as little interest as he had in doing that, it meant he had an excuse to get away from Melanie so he took advantage of the situation.

After meeting a couple of members of the city council, Dan excused himself and before he got five steps away, Kara walked up and said 'hi'.

"I didn't get the first-class treatment," Kara told him, nodding toward the elected officials.

Dan laughed and told her he thought it was first-class...torture.

Kara covered her mouth and laughed much too loudly indicating she liked him, something he'd already deduced. The feelings weren't mutual, but given a choice he'd take Kara over Melanie any time. But there was another woman who'd captivated his interest; a woman who was evidently in a committed relationship.

"So I guess Jill is expecting a big announcement," Kara said, giving no thought to how private that information was or her promise to keep it that way.

"Oh? As in a promotion?" Dan asked, suddenly very interested.

Kara leaned toward his ear then said, "No. Her boyfriend is getting ready to propose."

Dan shook his head and looked at Kara.

"Wow. I had no idea."

"That's not for public consumption. But I had a glass of champagne already, so I kind of spilled the beans," she bubbled as she smiled at her newest crush.

Dan didn't hear what she said because Jill had just walked in. She was holding hands with a decent-looking older man, and Dan was surprised at how that made him feel. He was obviously the guy Kara was talking about, and if she was right, Jill would be off the market very soon.

"The champagne was to get my courage up to come over and talk to you," he heard Kara saying.

Realizing Jill was now little more than a brief fantasy of sorts, he turned to Kara, smiled, then said, "You don't need champagne to talk to me."

"Well, I...I'm glad to you hear you say that, Dan."

Kara paused for a moment then asked, "Are you seeing anyone by chance?"

"Um, no. I'm not actually," he told her.

"Oh, okay. I was just wondering," she replied with a sweet-but-nervous kind of smile.

He was about to ask her if she was seeing anyone when he heard Ron's voice boom out, "Hey, New Guy!"

"He can be such a pain!" Dan heard Kara say as Ron walked over and said hello.

Kara was polite but not overly so as Ron was now interfering with her plans for the evening.

"Hey. I want to introduce you to my spousal unit," Ron told Dan, a comment that made Kara shake her head.

Dan actually laughed and asked where she was.

"Parking the car, I hope," Ron said with a laugh.

He leaned toward the younger people then said, "I'm a huge fan of equality for women."

Kara rolled her eyes while Ron laughed loudly, and both of them caught the unmistakable smell of alcohol on his breath.

"Oh, there she is!" Ron said before calling out, "over here, hon!"

Dan was mildly surprised to see a fairly attractive, older woman walk over and put her arm in Ron's.

Ron introduced her as Donna and not his 'spousal unit', and Dan liked her immediately. She was warm, friendly, and charming but not as upbeat as Jill. They talked briefly before she pulled her husband away assuming Dan and Kara wanted to be alone.

"She was nice," Kara remarked once they were gone.

"Yeah. I agree."

"I'd never have thought he'd have a wife that nice," Kara told him, not caring that Ron was Dan's boss.

"He's not so bad," Dan said in Ron's defense.

"If you say so. But...I prefer your company."

They chatted for a few minutes before one of the producers came over to talk shop with Kara. She apologized and told Dan she'd be right back, but he wasn't feeling very social and began kind of wandering around saying hello here and there and making more small talk with people whose names he needed to commit to memory.

His strategy worked well for a good while as he managed to duck Melanie several times while also avoiding Kara. Ron became his 'go-to' guy whenever he needed cover, and again, he found himself very impressed with Donna each time they spoke.

At one point Ron excused himself to make a 'head call', Marine-speak for using the bathroom, or latrine to Army soldiers, and that gave Dan a chance to get to know her a little better.

One of the first questions she asked was whether or not he was seeing someone, and he told her he wasn't.

"No one's even caught your eye?" she asked, a smile on her still-attractive face.

"Well, yes. But as I recently learned, she's spoken for."

Donna was extremely observant, and she'd seen him looking Jill's way fairly often and put two and two together.

"She's very pretty, isn't she?"

"What's that?" Dan asked.

Donna smiled and told him what she'd seen.

"Oh, right. Wow, I thought I was more subtle than that."

She laughed and told him he was good—just not that good.

"But as you can see, she's kind of spoken for, so I don't think that's a possibility."

Donna hesitated then said, "And as beautiful as she is, she's still quite a bit older than you."

Dan had no idea Melanie had snuck up on him just as he said to Donna, "That's okay. I think I might just like older women."

He was looking at Jill when he spoke then turned to smile at Donna when Melanie said, "I knew it!"

Donna saw the look on Dan's face and understood immediately. Melanie had hit on Ron more than once, and Donna considered her to be nothing short of a skank.

"Hello...Melanie," Donna said rather icily.

"Donna," she replied without even looking at her.

"You uh, you wanna get out of here?" Melanie asked Dan as she slid her arm in his then whispered, "with an older woman?"

As Dan gently extricated his arm he started to tell her 'no thank you' when he saw Cliff produce a small box and set it in front of him. Jill was sitting just across from him, and Dan watched in horror as she gasped and put a hand over her chest. Donna saw it, too, and also gasped.

"He's going to ask her to marry him!" she said to no one in particular.

"It's about damn time!" Melanie said as she tried to put her arm back inside of Dan's.

He closed the gap, causing Melanie to let out a loud huff as the room got quiet.

Jill was very much aware that every eye was now on her, and that, more than the little box sitting across from her, was what causing her heart to race.

Cliff looked around, smiled at everyone, then said, "Looks like we've drawn a crowd, babe!"

Jill hated that word, but it was the only endearment Cliff ever used, and after mentioning several times a few months ago, gave up on trying to get him to stop.

Cliff cleared his throat then looked at Jill.

"It's pretty obvious things have been going really well between us, and well, I've been thinking it's time to, you know, take things to the next level."

There were a few gasps from some other women as they hoped to see a huge diamond ring befitting a senior partner's standing when Cliff opened the box. No one else could see inside of it, but it was obvious there was something shiny in there.

But when Cliff didn't get down on one knee, people began looking at one another. And when he slid the box across the table, eyes got even wider. When Jill looked down and stopped smiling, the proverbial pin dropping could have been heard.

"A key?" she asked, her voice nearly hollow.

"Go ahead, babe. It's for you."

"A key?" Jill asked again as she sat there staring at the cheap, silver copy of Cliff's house key.

"Well...yeah. You know, so you can move in and not have to ring the doorbell," Cliff explained as though Jill were an idiot.

The women who were watching were stunned. They were also hurting for Jill, one of the nicest people any of them had ever met. Even the men were shaking their heads which were tilted in disbelief.

Dan couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so bad for anyone until he remembered his friend's wife and young daughter who would never see their husband or father again. He wanted to walk over and knock Cliff on his sanctimonious ass, but he, too, just stood there staring in disbelief.

And then he saw the tears forming in Jill's eyes and had to force himself not to do something he knew he'd regret. He was sure he wouldn't hit the guy, but he might well lay into him verbally, and that, too, would be a huge mistake and prove nothing other than that he could be a loud asshole.

Perhaps no one was as surprised as Cliff, though, as he sat there in his own disbelief trying to understand what he'd done wrong.

"Babe? What's going on here? I thought you'd be thrilled," he said as he reached for Jill's hand.

She'd placed both of them on the table next to the little box as she tried to reconcile reality with her previous expectations, but pulled them away when Cliff tried to take them.

"She thought you were going to propose, you dumb ass!" Melanie called out, causing every eye to turn her way.

"What? It's the truth!" the co-anchor said as though it was common knowledge making her statement no big deal.

Without a word, Jill got up and made a beeline for the door. She never looked so much as looked up, but several woman tried touching her arm or telling her she'd be okay. But Jill never even slowed down as tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Melanie asked when Dan pulled away and headed toward Jill.

When he didn't reply, she said a little too loudly, "I'm a sure thing!"

Donna was so furious she blurted out, "You're a...thing...all right. You're a piece of sh..."

Ron took his wife's arm and spun her around and suggested they go get another drink. Donna'd barely touched her glass of champagne, but it wasn't about drinking. It was about getting some separation between her and 'the skank' before things got ugly.

Jill was outside before Dan caught up to her. She saw him out of the corner of her eye but didn't speak. She couldn't because she was crying.

"Jill?" he finally said as politely as he could.

"Just...leave me alone, okay?" she sobbed.

"Okay. Sure. I...I just wanted you to know I...I'm here if you, if you need someone to talk to."

"I...don't want to talk," she said, one word at a time as she stopped and stood there as tears continued to fall.

"All right. I'll uh, I'll just go back..."

But before he could finish speaking, Jill turned toward him, her face screwed up in anguish, and just as quickly she took a step his way and put her hands on his shoulders then rested her head in the crook of his neck and just cried.

Not sure what to do, Dan raised his arms, lowered them, then slowly raised them again and kind of loosely put them around her waist.

"It's okay. Let it out," he told her as she stood there heaving sobs like he'd never seen.

"It's...over..." Jill choked out.

"Hey. There are plenty of other guys out there, Jill. You're a very beautiful woman, and any guy would..."

She shook her head while her body shook and trembled,

"No. Not...that," she managed to get out.

Unsure what to say, Dan just held her.

After another half minute or so, Jill began to take deep breaths and the shaking subsided.

"Look at me. I'm...a disaster!" she said as she slowly moved away.

His car was just a few spaces away, so he asked her to give him a few seconds. He returned with a pack of tissue and pulled a couple out before handing the rest to him.

Were he not hurting for her so badly, he might have laughed. She really was a spectacle of tears, mascara stains, and even a fair amount of snot on her upper lip. Jill took care of the worst of it, apologized then tried to speak. But Dan was reaching up to dab her eyes so she didn't say anything.

"There we go," he told her once he cleaned up the worst of both eyes.

"Thank you," she said, her eyes still red and swollen from the crying jag. "And I'm so sorry to drag you into..."

Just then they heard, "Babe! There you are!"

"No, no, no!" Jill said when she saw Cliff walking their way.

"Come on," Dan said as he grabbed her hand and pulled her toward his car.

He never failed to open a woman's door, but this time he just hollered, "Get in!" as Jill went around to the passenger side.

He hit the start button and dropped it into reverse nearly hitting Cliff as they backed out. Dan dropped it into gear, and when he stepped on the accelerator, the car pushed Jill back in her seat so hard it scared her. Even more confusing, there wasn't a sound except for the screeching tires.

"It's a Tesla," he told her when she finally looked over at him, her face white as a ghost.

The electric car didn't need to 'wind up' like a gas-powered vehicle. When the driver needed power, power was there instantly. The torque was phenomenal, and when the 'pedal was pressed to the metal' it felt like being catapulted off of an aircraft carrier. Well...almost.

"Oh. The electric car," Jill finally said.

"Yes," Dan told her as he let off the 'gas'.

"It's so...quiet!" she told him as she looked around inside. "And...fancy."

"This is my baby," Dan told her.

"Oh, please do say baby!" Jill told him.

When he glanced over at Jill, he was trying to smile. But as he spoke her face again began distorting, and within a second or two, she was crying as hard as before .

Dan found an empty parking lot and pulled in and went all the way to the back in case Cliff tried to follow them.

"Hey. What's going on? What did I say?" he asked once the car was parked.