Description: Glenn Sabine recounts to himself the various levels of stress that have built up around his creation of the Miss Teenager contest. Now more than ever, he is convinced that Juliet Jones is a terrible threat to the whole project.
Eve Goes to New York. PART 24.
Glenn Sabine was fidgeting. The last thing he needed were more headaches. As if he didn’t have enough to do around here! Let’s just go through the checklist, shall we? Go to every single town and city in the United States for a year recruiting the prettiest teenage girls for the contest. Check. Max out credit cards in twenty-one banks and loans along the way. Check. Arrange lodging for all the girls in high-class hotels in Manhattan, while he stays in the roach-infested dump of all dumps enduring Pike Setter’s incessant snoring and body odor. Check. Jack the price on a photo shoot at Hector of Hollywood’s while he walks away with a handsome cut. Check.
Oh, if he ever just sat down to consider what this dream he had in mind for the contest was costing him, physically and mentally, he’d go bonkers.
And there was still so much more to do! For instance, smacking Pike Setter upside the head for being an imbecile and forgetting to put the coffee on in the morning, forcing Glenn to be late and make lame excuses to the girls, like the hair dryer was busted so he had to wait for his hair to dry, which most of them understood, being girls with hair. Then there were the logistics of the pageant, like firing the incompetent event caterers for providing the girls with only muffins for breakfast and a very limited supply of pretzels and carrot sticks instead of actual meals.
But the biggest headache of all… was from the one person who had the courage enough to stand up to him and use her brain for something other than what most women her age did: Juliet Jones. Mayor Juliet Jones, no less. Just the sound of her name was enough to frighten him to the core. The lecture she had given him and Pike Setter back at the roach motel in Queens contained enough lessons to confer on him an honorary Doctoral degree in Guilt and Stupidity.
One thing was for sure, he was going to have to subdue her, silence her, in any way, shape, or form. The fact of the matter was: Juliet Jones was dangerous.
He turned from jabbering with the Pike to see Eve Jones arrive for rehearsal, acting all chipper as usual, like a lightning rod that needed no lightning to set it ablaze.
“Good morning, Eve,” he greeted her. “Your – ah – sister with you?”
Eve giggled. “You mean ol’ watch-and-worry? Nope. Know what, Mr. Sabine?”
Glenn had to think for a minute. He did know what, but he was often wrong in his assumption. At least, he knew that much. This time he would ask. “What?” he replied in what seemed like almost a full minute later.
Eve swung her blonde curls about, shaking her head in amazement, as she explained with a laugh. “Julie’s actually concerned about whether the prizes – you know, the movie contract and stuff… are actually real. Imagine that!”
Glenn swallowed hard but kept his poker face, staring at Eve. “Imagine that.”
Behind him, Pike had to get in his snide remark. “Tsk! Tsk!” he scolded quietly.
