chapter twenty three
774 Words
I pressed the intercom button on my phone."what's up?" Angela asked sounding frazzled.
"I'm sorry to do this to you "
"But?"
"I've got a two-foot high stack of paperwork and a date in two hours.
Please can you stay up and handle some of this for me."
There was a long pause in between where I imagined her putting the phone on mute and throwing things around.
"I have nothing better to do" she finally said.
"You need me to sweep and mop the lobby to give the janitors the day off?"
"Angela, you must know that without you , my life would simply not function. You are just not an administrative assistant, you are a bad ass b***h who worked her ass off to get a position with one of the richest men in town and deserved it "
"Thank you Archer, that means alot to me"
"You are welcome very much and when you get off take the company card and buy yourself something nice and have dinner "
She thanked me graciously and allowed me to transfer the brunt of office work to her . she was competent. one of the reasons why I preferred being with her and I never fired her.
Traffic had mostly thinned out by that time , and I was getting anxious .I had less han an hour and a half to get ready to go to dinner and pick up Maya , and I wasn't about to be late.
When I wallked inside the house ,Mona was sitting in he living room , reading wit the TV on so she should watch what the boys were doing .She looked up at me.
''What are you doing? You're going to be late .Come on.''She pulled to be late .Come on''She pul;led me by the sleeve up to my room and started shuffling through my clothes .''So you're going to tell her about the boys tonight , I assume?"
''I- what? No.Why would so a thing like that?''
''Because sooner or later , she's going to wonder why you waited so long to tell her you had kids .I'd be wondering at his point .Tha's something she should've known the first date.''
''You're right.'' I sat down on her, don't I ?''
''Yes , of course .You shouldn't have kept it a secret in the first place .Now you're going to have a reason why you ommitted one of the most iimportant facts about your life until now.''
''Oh ,no'' I laid bavk .''I'm so stupid Mona .I had the perfect chace She asked me straight up why I keep going back and fort with her, ans I told her that it was because my life is complicated ,Now she's going to wanna know why I didn't tell her then.''
''Secrets and lies from the very start.''Mona pulled out a tight baby blue button upwitha pair of jeans.
''She probably though you were married .''
''She did.''
''You might not get away with this.'' She handed me my clthes .
''What should I do?''
''Tell her everything , not just that you have boys .That won't be enough .Open up to her and make sure it really comes from dep down.If you do that , and she really likes you, she'll listen.''
''Jesus ,this could end before it gets started .''
''Remember , what I' telling you, and don't you forget .You're not going to get anywhere if you don't take a risk.''
''Yeah , Yeah ...''i grabbed my clothes and hopped up to get into the showere.''I'll tellyou how things go tomorow when I see you.''
''Good , and give it a bit this time before you decide to break her heart.''
''Yeah, yeah''...I jumped into the shower.
I left house half an hour before I was supposed to pick up Maya .It wasn't enough time. She lived on the other side of town , off one of the busiest streets in the city.I called her once I hit the freeway.
''Hello?''she answered
''Hi. I'm soryy ,May .I'm on the freeway now. I might be a couple of minutes late.''
''That's all right .I was actually thinking of calling you for the same reason.''
''Good .We'llboth be late , and neither of us will be offended by it .''
''Thank God.''She sighed .''I thought you might think I was skipping out on you,''
''That's not going to happen .You are mine for the evening.I worked for that priviledge remember?''
''How could I forget?''The kitchen hasn't been that clean since I opened the place.''
''Would you like to go to that lobster place you talke about?''
- Writer
