Her First (18 page)

“I heard you were at church yesterday with Madison,” Joyce said to Ethan the following morning while they sat in the company conference room.

“Did your sources also tell you that we had dinner with my parents?”
Ethan asked.

Joyce sat down in a chair next to him in the conference room. “No. How did Aunt Belle like her?”

“If you must know, they got along great.”

“Good. I like her too. I think she needs to stop playing games though.”

Ethan was about to comment, but some of his other co-workers began to pile into the conference room.

After the two hour meeting,
Ethan avoided Joyce by rushing to his office and closing the door.

He checked his messages and returned a few phone calls.

“Hi Madison, sorry I missed your call,” he said through the phone receiver as he left Madison a voice message.  “I’ve been tied up in meetings all morning. I’ll be working in the field this evening, so if you need me, call me on the cell.”

After leaving a message for
Madison, he unplugged his laptop, placed it in the carrying case, made sure he had his cell phone and left the office.

He was barely in the car, when Joyce rang his phone.

“Yes, Joyce,” he said sounding exasperated.

“Now this could be business, while you’re answering your phone with an attitude.”

“I know you.”

“Ha. Ha.”

Ethan tried to sound annoyed, but couldn’t. “I’m sorry. You can’t help being a busybody.”

“I’m offended,” Joyce chuckled.

“Bye, Joyce.”

“Bye.”

Ethan drove through the drive thru at Mickey D’s and ordered a super-sized number three. He ate in the car as he drove to a potential client’s site.

His cell phone rang as he pulled up into the parking lot.
Ethan recognized the number as Sarah’s. After the call went to voice mail, he turned the ringer off.

He took the last sip of his drink before popping in a breath mint. He blew his breath into his hands, and after being reassured his breath smelt fresh, he turned the engine off, grabbed his briefcase and walked to the office building with confidence.

***

Madison
suppressed a yawn as she and eight co-workers sat in the conference room listening to her manager go over the past quarter’s budget in their weekly Monday meeting. She threw a piece of paper at Owen to wake him up.  She laughed when Owen almost jumped out of his chair.

“That concludes today’s meeting. I’ll be sending out an email with this information,” her manager stated.

Everyone was filling up the room. Madison lagged behind. When she walked out the room, Sarah was walking by.

“I was wondering where you were. I’ve been sending you emails and I decided to walk over and see you in person,”
Sarah said to Madison.

Madison
continued to walk towards her desk. “We just got out of a forecast meeting. I haven’t had time to check my email today,” she said.

Sarah
lagged beside her. “There’s something I really need to talk to you about.”

“Can it wait? Because I have a conference call I’m late for,”
Madison stated as she placed her notebook on her desk and sat down.

Sarah
looked annoyed. “Sure. Let’s do lunch tomorrow.”

Madison
pulled out the keyboards and typed in the screensaver’s password.  She logged on to her email and opened up her calendar.

Sarah
stood, tapped her foot and waited for Madison’s reply.

“Tomorrow’s not good. How about Wednesday?”

“It’ll have to do.”

Madison
pretended to be oblivious to Sarah’s mood. “Anything else? I need to log on to this call.” She picked up the receiver and dialed nine.

“No. I’ll talk to you later.”

“That’s what I thought,” Madison said as Sarah walked away out of earshot.

She placed the receiver down. She picked up a piece of paper out of her inbox and began skimming through it. She dialed the number on the paper after placing the headphones on.

The phone beeped to indicate to the others someone was entering the call. Owen walked by and attempted to get her attention. She placed the phone on mute.

“What’s up?” she asked.

“Sarah is on the war path. Word has it, she’s about to fire Smitty.  You know he’s been here for twenty years!”

“Dang it. Hold on,
Owen.” She signaled him with her hand.  “Yes. We’ll be sending out reports on the ninth of each month going forward,” she added to the call.

Owen
mouthed the words, “Call me” before walking away.

She nodded her head to indicate that she would.

After getting off the call, she scrolled through her email. She deleted the messages from Sarah. From what she could tell, they were not business related, so she didn’t feel obligated to respond. In fact, they looked like chain emails. 

Owen
sent her an email asking her to call him.

She dialed his extension. “
Owen, tell me what’s going on?” she replied after he answered.

“Smitty was told he could either resign or he’ll be asked to leave,”
Owen informed her.

“But he’s close to retirement.”  She opened and closed emails as she spoke.

“Yea, I think you’re right.  He said he’s spoken with his attorney and they’ll have to fire him before he ever quits. Apparently your girl was brought in to do some housecleaning.”

“Interesting.”

“He’s not the only one getting the ax. Somebody from our department is too, but nobody knows who yet?”

Madison
stopped checking her email and gave Owen her undivided attention.

“Are you sure? You know how rumors get started.”

“Yes, and apparently Sarah made a recommendation to our manager from her own observations.”

“I bet she has,”
Madison half-heartedly said.

“You’re not worried are you?”
Owen asked.

“Of course not,” she lied.

She looked over her shoulder to confirm that no one was coming up to her desk. She logged onto Monster dot com and performed a job search.

Owen
whispered, “I’m about to update my resume just in case. I don’t trust any of these people up in this place.”

“Neither do I,”
Madison said before hanging up the phone.

***

Ethan greeted Madison with a kiss as he unlocked the door and let her in. “How was your day?”

“You don’t want to know.” She paused before walking upstairs.

“I ordered pizza, so it should be here any minute.”

“Okay,” she yelled from the top of the stairs.

A few minutes later, the doorbell rang and it was the pizza delivery guy. Ethan took the pizza and tipped him.

He grabbed two plates and some napkins and placed them on the coffee table in the den.

“Ethan,” Madison yelled from the dining room.

“I’m in here,” he said.

He noticed the form fitting pair of red shorts she was wearing. They accented all of her curves. The t-shirt was a little snug and he could see the imprint of her breasts.

Ethan
immediately felt uncomfortable. “Madison, please dress more appropriately,” he begged.

“There’s nothing wrong with what I have on.” She sat down near him.

“From my point of view there is.”

“Get over it.”

“What’s with the attitude?”

“I don’t have an attitude. You’re the one who made a comment on what I was wearing.”

“Look, Madison. I didn’t mean to offend you. Take what I said as a compliment.”

“It didn’t come out like that.”

“The problem is my libido is strained and when you walk in wearing something like that.” He glared at her top and said, “It puts me in a very uncomfortable position.”

She took a slice of pizza out of the box and placed it on her plate. She picked up a piece of pepperoni and ate it. “Oh I see. Sorry.”

“No apology needed.”

Ethan
opened up a package of parmesan cheese and sprinkled it on top of his three slices of pizza. “I hope you like pepperoni and Italian sausage.”

“I do.” She took another bite.

After they ate in silence, Ethan asked, “What happened at work to have you come home in such an uproar?”

“It’s a four letter word.”

He had a puzzled look on his face. “You got me.” He held his hand up.

“T-A-R-A.”

“Dang, what did she do now?”

“I found out today she was actually hired to come in and do an assessment on the employees and make recommendations on who to keep and who to fire.”

“And?”

“And, that mean’s my boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend is in control of whether I have a job or not.”

“She wouldn’t do anything like that.”

Madison
seemed agitated. “So you’re taking up for her now. I thought you despised her.”

“Grant it. She’s not one of my favorite people in the world, but I can’t see her jeopardizing her job by firing you.”

“I wouldn’t put anything past her. To think I did her a favor by babysitting her little bastard,” Madison said with a feeling as if she had been used.

“Woe. Calm down,
Madison.”

“I’ll calm down when I’m good and ready. I’m going to bed now.” She stood up.

“It’s only eight o’clock.”

“And it’s midnight in some parts of the world.” She angrily left the room.

Ethan didn’t know what to do, so he sat and watched her storm out of the room. A few seconds later, he heard the bedroom door slam.

I guess I’ll call it a night myself,
he said, shrugging his shoulders.

He took the empty pizza box and threw it in the kitchen trash. He placed the dirty dishes into the dishwasher, poured some lemon-fresh dishwasher liquid into the sprout and turned it on. He then grabbed a beer out of the refrigerator, turned off the downstairs lights and headed to his bedroom.

***

Madison
knew she owed Ethan an apology for acting the way she did the night before. After waking up early after tossing and turning all night, she got dressed and went downstairs to cook a big breakfast. She made note to stop at a grocery store because the food supply was getting low.

She mixed up several items, including cheese, and poured it into a bowl. She cracked a few eggs and made two omelets. She drank her fourth cup of coffee before putting on a fresh pot.

The coffee was brewing when she heard Ethan walk into the kitchen. He barely got the words, “Good morning” out when she went over and hugged him.

“Sorry about last night,” she apologized.

He seemed unsure of what to say. “Okay.”

“Sit. I hope you like omelets. I made you one with everything in it. Don’t ask what, just enjoy it,” she rambled on.

“Thanks.” He sat down.

Madison
handed him a cup of coffee. “Here’s your coffee just the way you like it.”

He placed it on the mat in front of him. “Slow down.”

“Do you want some juice before I sit down?”

“If I do, I’ll get up and pour some myself. Sit and eat your breakfast.”

“I can get it for you.”

“
Madison, what’s wrong with you?”

She sat
and fidgeted with her food. “I must have drank too many cups of coffee. I get this way when I get too much caffeine.”

“Remind me to get decaffeinated next time,” he commented.

Madison watched Ethan eat. “You want some more. I’m not really hungry.”

“You need to eat something,” he said out of concern.

“I know, but my nerves are bad right now.”

“Anything I can do to help?”
Ethan asked.

“Yes. Pray for me,” she said with sincerity.  “Pray for me.” 

***

Ethan
walked Madison out to her car. “Meet me for lunch,” he told her.

“I wish I could,”
Madison said while fumbling for her keys.

“Make it happen.”

“I’ll try.”

Before
Madison could open the car door, Ethan’s lips were over hers. Ethan was the first to pull away. He opened her car door and said, “That should jumpstart your day.”

“In more ways than one.” She reached up and wiped the lipstick from his lips before entering her car.