Free Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs Page B

Put you on the spot. See a hair out of place. Add some novelty.”
    “Novelty? I don’t like where this conversation is heading.”
    “People get bored with the same-old. It happens with work, it happens with entertainment—think of the classic second-season sitcom drop-off— and, at the risk of seeming to mention your youngest, cruelest daughter, it happens with relationships. With boyfriends.”
    “So . . .”
    “So go back to your producer and tell him you want a show that airs live.”
    “But I don’t want a live show!”
    “And no more of these chef guests creating froufrou dishes. Not unless they’re on their own reality shows and have Q-ratings.”
    “I beg your pardon?”
    “You want hot guests and cool food,” mused Troy. “Or maybe it’s cool guests, hot food. Yes ... that could be your tagline! Cooking with Gusto! : Hot food. Cool guests.” He began writing on his yellow pad, had trouble getting the ballpoint to run.
    “This doesn’t sound like my show at all,” insisted Gus.
    “Exactly.” Troy opened and closed desk drawers quickly, searching for a pen before his slogan fell out of his head. Without thinking he blindly reached into his bottom left-hand drawer and pulled out an orange nerf ball.
    “Hey,” he said. “What do you think about basketball?”

6
    Gus grabbed the remote control and settled herself in front of the TV in her large family room, joined by her cats Salt and Pepper. She had never watched a basketball game—nor heard of March Madness—before that afternoon in Troy’s office several weeks ago. Well, maybe she was aware of the college basketball championships, in the way she also knew the name of Kelly Clarkson even though she’d never watched American Idol . (She was much more of a Beatles fan, maybe with a little late disco thrown in.) The details—of sports, of pop music—floated about in the air somehow, headlineson her Web browser when she went to check her email or magazine covers at the newsstand that she glanced at.
    The funny thing was, she’d been fully prepared for Porter to nix Troy’s idea when she brought it to him, imagined his response: “You? And NBA stars making party food on live TV as you get ready to watch college ball together? That’s insane!”
    Instead, Porter formed a tent with his hands and began tapping his fingertipstogether.
    “Would you wear a cheerleader costume?” he asked, raising one eyebrow.
    “Good God, no!” Gus was horrified.
    “Just trying.” Porter winked.
    “I’ll tell Ellie you asked me that,” Gus said in a fake threatening way. Porter had been happily married for thirty years and had nothing more than a healthy, mostly professional, appreciation of Gus’s figure. “Seriously, though ...”
    Porter spoke slowly, turning his thoughts in his mind. “What I like is that your approach is fairly off-the-wall. A complete departure for Gus Simpson, which should get us some media buzz. We might alienate a few longtime viewers, but we’re definitely going to attract a younger crowd, maybe even some men in the eighteen-to-twenty-four range.” Porter began nodding vigorously.
    “And what appeals to advertisers will appeal to Alan Holt,” finished Gus. “Thank you, Mr. Watson.”
    “Thank you, Mrs. Simpson.”
    They were hopeful but aware of the urgency. Both of them needed this episode to succeed; there were no plans in the works to tape any more episodesof Cooking with Gusto! until this program aired live and the ratings were in.
    And the show was going to air on her birthday, no less. Gus couldn’t have come up with a more perfect excuse not to throw a party—she simply didn’t have room in her schedule to plan, did she? Because all she had time for now was the upcoming live show. Troy had proved invaluable, fielding her calls about free throws and three-pointers. The private surprise of it all was that getting ready for the shoot felt much more like fun than work.
    It was energizing to have a new challenge.