Standing up from my messy desk I crossed my office to look out at the city. It was raining. Round orbs of all different colors hustles along the street like a weird video game but they were just the umbrellas of the pedestrians hurrying along.
“Coffee, Mr. Reid?” Denise called from the door.
“Yeah, please, Denise. Thanks.”
I thought about Carson and Bonnie and the Board meeting. So much to follow-up on. Still I needed to get a hold of Morton Susberg and see what his schedule looked like. I rubbed the center of my back and was glad I’d be seeing the chiropractor later today.
After a few minutes Denise returned with a hot steaming cup of black coffee.
“Also, Ray Peppers called. He said he’ll have your tuxedo in the limo for the fundraiser tonight.”
“SHIT! I forgot all about that.”
“I don’t have any fundraiser on your schedule for tonight.” Denise said looking at me as if I had to be wrong if she didn’t have it on her schedule.”
“No, you wouldn’t. I offered to do it for a friend of my mother’s. She’s a nice old lady who runs an animal shelter that is more luxurious than some day spas I’ve been to. I promised to make an appearance.” I shook my head. “Tuxedoes are so uncomfortable.”
“Well, maybe you’ll meet a nice girl there.”
“Doubt it. No one will be under the age of sixty five.”
Denise laughed as she turned to leave my office.
“Denise, one more thing. Who is Bonnie’s replacement?”
Her name is Natasha Morgan. She comes highly recommended.”
I nodded my head and looked back out the window while sipping my coffee.
NATASHA
"I'm not trying to sound like a snob." I said to my best friend, Diamond. "I'm really not."
"No, of course not. I know that. I'm just really jealous and want to live my life vicariously through yours. Details, girl. I want the details." Diamond said before taking another sip of her martini. For the past couple of years that we had worked downtown together we met for drinks at least once a week. For the past eight weeks I have had to cancel because my work life and social life had...well...exploded.
In just that short amount of time I was fired from my job, tried to drown my sorrows in a three dollar bottle of beer only to be rescued by a drop dead gorgeous man who gave me a business card that resulted in my new job. And like the icing on the cake, I started dating the drop dead gorgeous man.
"So, he sends his limousine to pick me up two times a week. He said he'd send it every day if I wanted him to but I would feel funny about that. Wouldn't you feel funny about that?" I asked Diamond whose eyes were rolling in her head.
"No. I would not feel funny about that. Not at all." She took another sip and then began flapping her hands wildly. I knew that meant she had forgotten to ask something important before she took her last gulp of vodka.
"Have you driven past your old worksite, you know, just in case any of those old cluckers are out there? Don't tell me you haven't at least thought about doing that."
"Right?" I had to laugh. Diamond knew me so well. Granted, I was a little more discreet than she was, but we were always finishing each other's sentences, reading each other's minds and considering each other's feelings. It wasn't uncommon for us to feel an urge to just pick up the phone or stop by unannounced only to find the other once had some good news to share or bad news to work through. Like a set of twins from totally different parents we just had a connection. "I have. I'm such a snob but I have!"
We laughed so hard I was sure the people around us thought that at five-fifteen on a Tuesday afternoon the two women in the booth in the back were already drunker than skunks.
"Did anyone see you?" Diamond asked.
"Nope. But I can't say I didn't have fun anyways." I said gushing like a school girl whose boyfriend drives a red corvette and picks her up at the front of the school.
"And you're not giving up, right? You're going to keep going until someone sees you getting into or out of that stretch. I want to know the look on their faces. My gosh, you know whoever it is will leave skid marks they take off so fast to report what they've seen. You'll be like an urban Sasquatch sighting."
By this time my stomach was hurting from laughing so hard.
After ordering another round and calming ourselves down I shook my head and looked at Diamond. She was beautiful with black hair, thick black eyelashes and a perfectly placed beauty mark high on her right cheek.
"And then there is the boss." I said. "Di, I can't believe I'm talking like this. This is what plays on an endless loop on the Lifetime network. Weird, unrealistic love stories that always end in..."