He looked at me sternly. “If I see you walk through those doors, I’m going to throw coffee on whatever you’re wearing, and you’ll have to come home and change. I’ll drive here behind you and guard the door, so you can’t leave.”
I giggled. The giggle turned into gut-wrenching laughter, and I felt my eyes tearing.
He joined in once he realized I wasn’t being mean.
“Okay, stop. I hurt all over,” I said.
“You started it,” he reminded me. “You should go to bed.”
I glanced at him. “I’m not going to bed. I’m going to watch another movie.”
“You’re a stubborn one. If you go to bed now, I’ll tuck you in.
Tempting, but so very wrong. “I don’t think so, but thanks for the offer.”
“I’m only a phone call away,” Chris said as he was leaving.
“Don’t worry, I won’t need to call you,” I yelled after him.
“See you in the morning,” he yelled back.
He would not because I would be at work before he even got up!
EIGHT
CHRIS
I was so happy to see Marilyn back in the office since I had basically been doing her job for three days. It had been rough without her, and I didn’t know which way was up most of the time. I didn’t know how she did it five days a week without going crazy. I’d managed to keep all her paperwork up-to-date and had taken care of any immediate issues, sometimes with a little help from Cheryl. She seemed to be really interested in helping me. I wasn’t sure if I’d imagined it or not, but I swear she was hitting on me sometimes. I don’t know her personal situation, but she doesn’t wear a wedding ring, so I’m assuming she’s not married. Cheryl was a nice-looking lady with a sexy body, but she seemed a little too clingy for my taste. She was the complete opposite of Marilyn.
I went through a stack of depositions in a particularly sensitive lawsuit involving a bus driver who had been drinking and rammed the vehicle into a transport truck, injuring several children onboard. There were many witnesses testifying that the driver of the bus was an alcoholic, yet there had been no alcohol in the bus driver’s system on the day of the accident. I was waiting for a call from the coroner before I could file everything and get the ball rolling.
My phone rang, and I picked it up, hoping it was the coroner, but it was Laura. “Hi Chris, Marilyn is requesting you in her office. She said it’s not urgent, but sometime in the next hour would be good for her.”
“Tell her I’ll be there as soon as I receive the phone call I’m waiting for,” I told her.
I was able to get a lot more paperwork done in the next hour but was getting antsy that I hadn’t received my call yet. I knew what would happen. As soon as I left for Marilyn’s office, that’s when he would call. I made my way over to her office, stopping at Laura’s desk on my way. “I’m expecting a really important call, so I forward my phone to you. I hope you don’t mind. If the name comes up, Dr. Randal, please answer it and forward it to me. Otherwise, there’s no need to answer any of the calls.”
“Will do, Chris,” Laura said, smiling. She was a tall lady in her late fifties, and it was unanimously agreed that she was one of the nicest people you’d ever meet. She’d wanted to be a lawyer but realized after law school that she wasn’t cut out for the cutthroat aspects of the job, so she opted to be the law office's receptionist instead. She handled other matters for the owners as well, so her pay was much higher than most secretaries. And it was well-deserved.
I went into Marilyn’s office, but she was on a call. I was about to leave when she waved me over and pointed to the chair in front of her. I was never prepared for how beautiful she was. It didn’t matter where I saw her; here at work, all dressed up, or at home in her sweatpants, with her hair in a ponytail, wearing no make-up. She had a natural beauty that took my breath away. I also loved her voice; sexy and sultry when she talked low but strong and powerful when she was in the courtroom. I was in a constant state of awe whenever she was around. I wished she would let her guard down more because when she did, she was actually nice. Somewhere deep in her center was a warm, loving person who cared about others; it was just buried under all the rubble of her past I think.
“That was another case to add to our schedule,” Marilyn said once her call was over. She grinned.
I loved seeing her so happy. It meant that my day was going to be good. Her bad moods meant she would be cranky and sometimes a little mean. Those were the days I was glad for a lot of paperwork so that I could barricade myself in my office, far out of her reach.
“That’s wonderful. We should be really busy then,” I said.
She pulled out a clipboard, and I saw a lot of her writing on it. She looked it over, then raised her eyes to meet mine.
“It seems I need to talk to you about your performance lately,” she started.
My heart caught in my chest at her serious tone. I started going over the past few weeks, thinking if there was anything I had done wrong. Marilyn was very particular about everything, and if you didn’t triple-check everything, there was a chance for an error that would send her into a rant.Have I done something wrong?
“Okay, what do you need to talk to me about?” I asked, trying not to let her hear in my voice how nervous I was about what she was going to say.
“Let me go down my list here.” She put a checkmark beside the first point. “Apparently, all my paperwork has been filed on time.” She looked up at me, then back down at her paper. “On several occasions, it has been noticed that you were staying past quitting time in order to get your work done.” She looked at me again. “Several colleagues have said that you’re extremely helpful, even when no one has asked you for assistance. In other instances, your fellow co-workers have seen you interacting with some of my customers in a respectable and professional manner.” Marilyn tilted her head to the side and gave me a lazy smile.
“That all sounds like me,” I agreed.What else am I going to say? I’m not sure what the issue is, then.I hoped this wasn’t the case where all the things you are doing right are listed, then all the things you’ve done wrong come after. I took a deep breath and waited for the ‘bad’ list, though I couldn’t think of anything I’d done wrong.