Chapter 5

 

I caught my eyes, plopped them back into my face and went back to work. The rest of the day was uneventful, and I snuck out before Jamie could corner me and reenact the Spanish Inquisition. I reached my apartment and collapsed on the couch. Mr. Smith took his usual position on my lap and proceeded to share his fur coat with me. "Mr. Smith, you won't believe what happened to me today," I murmured.

The day got longer when I heard my doorbell ring. I groaned and dropped Mr. Smith off my lap so I could answer it. I was surprised to find a flower delivery boy with a large bouquet in his hands. He looked past me at the chaos that was my apartment, and I closed the door a little so he'd focus on me. "Are you Miss George Trammel?" he asked me.

"Um, yeah," I replied.

"These are for you." He held out the bouquet. In a daze I took them, and he tipped his hat and walked off before I could ask who they were from.

I closed the door and looked over the wonderful selection of flowers perfectly arranged beside one another. "Look at this, Mr. Smith," I spoke in awe. I sat down on the couch and spotted a card on the ribbon wrapped around the stems. I plucked it off and read it aloud. "I may not be good at getting a girl's phone number, but I'm better at finding out where they live. Love, Alex." I frowned and glanced at Mr. Smith. "Nothing stalkerish about that, is there?"

Even with the creepy note, I rummaged around and found a mostly-clean vase. I put the flowers inside with a little water and set it on the coffee table. It looked a little sad among such disgusting chaos, but I figured there was no sense cleaning the place up for a few flowers that would die soon, anyway. Besides, it wasn't like anybody was going to visit me anytime soon.

That's when my doorbell rang again. I imagined a boy on the other side holding a huge box of chocolates and rushed for the entrance. When I flung open the door my dreams were dashed and I was thrown into a nightmare. Alex stood in the hall with a smile on his face. "Good evening. Mind if I come in?"

I squeaked, then slammed the door and whirled around to look the place over. It was a disaster, like somebody had taken my apartment, put it in a snow globe, and given it to a five year old to play with. "Is something wrong?" Alex called through the door.

"No, everything's fine, I just have to do some cleaning. Be right with you." I hoped he had a liberal definition of the phrase "be right with you" because this was going to take some time. I ran about like a mad woman armed with only my wits and a broken broom I found in the hall closet. Everything light enough to carry was shoved into said broom closet to the point where I feared for the soundness of the closet walls.

The floor, counter tops, table and even walls were cleared of debris and dumped into the closet. Just as I was about to finish Alex opened the door and peeked his head in. "Can I come in?" he teased.

I ran full speed at the door and slammed it shut, or tried to. His head got jammed between the door and the frame, but I fixed that when I slapped my hand on his forehead and pushed his head out. "Not ready yet!" I scolded him. I gathered up all the junk on the coffee table except the vase and stuffed it into the overflowing closet, then shut the doors. Fortunately it had a hook-and-eye latch which I initiated. Then I straightened my clothes, walked calmly to the door and opened it with a smile. "Good evening," I greeted him.

He stood there rubbing his neck where he'd been pinched by the door and frame. "I'm kind of doubting that now. Is this a good time? You seem kind of busy," he mused.

"No, um, just cleaning night. It happens once every month or two." He sniffed the air.

"I can smell-er, I mean tell," he mused.

I led him to the couch where he sat down on one end and I took the other. "So what brings you here to my humble abode?" Compared to his palace apartment, this place was a shack down by the city dump.

He noticed the flowers in the vase on the table and smiled. "I wanted to formally apologize to you. The flowers were my way of softening my coming."

"Yeah, about that, how did you get my address?" I asked him.

"Your supervisor, Mr. Mullen. He was grateful to give it to me. Hell, if he'd been mayor he would have given me the key to the city," he laughed.

"How kind of him," I grumbled.

He caught my annoyed tone. "Don't blame him too much. I would have begged for it just to apologize for getting you into trouble. Your manager didn't bother you too much, did he?"

"Not much more than usual. We're not exactly on friendly terms."

"That bad?"

"Well, if World War III broke out we'd choose opposite sides just to duke it out."

"That sounds serious. Have you ever thought about changing jobs?"

I gave him a disbelieving look. "You make it sound like jumping from one frying pan to another instead of into the fire, like most unemployment does nowadays."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound so insensitive."

I waved off his apology. "It's fine, I guess I'm just a little cranky." Mr. Smith took that moment to jump onto the couch and purr both of us. Traitor.

"Who do we have here?" Alex laughed.

"This is the pushy king of the household, Mr. Smith," I announced. At the sound of his name Mr. Smith yowled.

"Is this a one-guy household, or am I safe to stay?" he joked.

"It's a one-cat household, but I wouldn't try to mark your territory in his litter box," I laughed.

"What about on you?" he countered.

"Mr. Smith doesn't like dogs. He's been known to ride them."

"I guess I'll stick to being a human."

"And a civilized one. You came here to apologize, remember?"

"Yes, and I thought I'd present myself as a willing sacrifice to any desires you might have."

"How very noble and modest of you, but the flowers are enough." I stood and he hesitantly followed my example. "It was really nice and creepy of you to search me out like this, but you've repaid your stupidity." I held out my hand to him for a shake, but he gallantly grabbed it and kissed the top of my hand. I blushed when he raised his smoldering eyes to my face. "H-hasn't anyone told you chivalry is dead?" I stuttered.

"I must have missed the memo, when did it happen?"

"Oh, about fifty years ago."

"I never have kept up with fashions. Maybe it'll come full circle again."

"Unlike disco, I think this one's going to stay dead," I argued.

"Then I will be the last survivor, doomed to walk the earth in search of others like me," he dramatically bemoaned. He clasped my hand in both of his, and wagged his eyebrows with a mischievous grin on his lips. "That is, unless you care to be the mother of my children so I can pass on my chivalry genes."

I rolled my eyes and yanked my hand out of his. "Now I know you're lying. No self-respecting playboy would ever want children," I pointed out.

"Would I lie?"

"I haven't figured that out yet, but you're pretty good at omitting the truth."

"How so?"

"You didn't tell me your full name at the bar."

"And you didn't tell me your full name and occupation," he countered.

"Point taken, but we may as well cut to the chase. For the question you've been trying to ask me all evening, the answer is no."

He blinked in bewilderment. "What's the question?"

"I'm not going out with you."

"But why not?" he wondered. "Am I ugly? Abusive? Too rich?"

"No, no, and there's no such thing."

"Then why the rejection?" He grabbed hold of Mr. Smith off the couch and held the poor thing by the armpits. "Even your cat likes me, so what's not there to like?" Mr. Smith hissed and clawed the man's hand. Alex yelped and dropped the cat, who scurried away. "Or maybe I was wrong about him. . ." Alex mumbled as he held his injured hand.

I sighed and took his hand in mine to look at the wound. "You rub somebody the wrong way you're bound to get scratched."

He chuckled, but it didn't sound happy. "So how'd I rub you the wrong way?"

"By what you said earlier about the merger. That's going to need some peroxide."

"The merger?" he guessed.

"No, the scratch. The merger needs to stop or a lot of good people are going to lose their jobs."

He shook his head. "If the merger doesn't happen then a lot of good people are going to lose their jobs." I raised an eyebrow, and he was puzzled. "Don't you know?"

I hated guessing games. "I don't know a lot of things, and one of them is what the hell you're talking about," I snapped back.

"The department store is almost bankrupt. If the merger doesn't go through then you're all out of a job." I paled and swayed back.

Alex caught me before I fell and lowered me to the couch. "Now you look like you could use a doctor, or a hard drink. Do you have anything stiff here?" he asked me.

I waved my hand toward the kitchen. "Some whiskey in the lazy-susan." Alex hurried over to the kitchen and found the glasses and alcohol. He put together two drinks and handed me one. I took a sip and choked. "Any water in this?" I squeaked out.

"Not a drop. I figured you'd need it straight."

"Straight to the grave," I quipped as I set down the strong tonic on the coffee table. I sat up and gathered my wits. "But you were saying something about imminent doom for everyone at the store?"

"The store's going bankrupt, that's why the merger's happening," he repeated.

My shoulders slumped. "That's what I was afraid you'd said."

"Only a quick influx of cash will save it, and my family's company can give it that," he explained to me. "It'll also need new management, and my family can handle that, too."

"You've got a large family," I replied.

He smirked. "My parents wanted to make sure they had enough spare heirs to ensure the family continued, so I have five other siblings."

"All girls?" I teased.

"Worse. Four boys and a girl."

I shuddered. "My condolences to your poor mother."

He laughed. "I wouldn't feel sorry for her if I was you. She's a tough woman, and didn't have any trouble raising us hellions."

"I'm sure you raised hell yourselves," I joked, and then sighed. "But jokes aside, this is really bad. We all knew the store didn't have as much business as a few years ago, but it wasn't that bad."

"It's the bad management," he told me. "They wasted a lot of money on pet projects, so with the merger we're demanding a lot of control. If we kept them in charge the merger would have been signed-"

"-and the whole thing would have happened all over again with them making the place go bankrupt anyway," I finished for him.

"Exactly. We're hoping by putting it in with some of our other department stores in the city we can make it more efficient and bring down costs."

"But it sounds like it isn't the costs, it's the management," I argued. "If you just got rid of them then things would turn around."

"My family treats it as a business, and in business the bottom line is top priority," he insisted.

I frowned and stood up. "This isn't just business, these are my friends. A lot of them have worked for a long time at the store and deserve a better send-off than a pink slip."

"You think my family's cold and heartless for doing this merger, but we're at least saving a few of you," he countered. "Without us there wouldn't even be that many."

"So what do you want? A gold star? How are you going to choose who stays and who goes, huh? Have them draw lots and step up to the block?"

"Seniority, of course. It's the easiest way," he told me.

"But does that tell you anything about the person? We've had a lot of young people hired in the last year or so who deserve spots better than others," I pointed out.

Alex stood and towered over me with a scowl on his face. "Listen, I don't pretend to know all the people in the store. I tried to meet with most of them, or at least the ones who worked today. I know there's a lot of nice people working there, but we just can't save them all. My family's thought about this long and hard, and there's just no other way other than the merger."

"Then think longer and harder because I can't go out with a guy who's going to lay off my friends." Mr. Smith jumped back onto the couch and I grabbed him by the armpits as Alex had done earlier. I held the cat out in front of me, and he hissed and spat, both at Alex and at my treatment of him. "Now get out or I'll use my cat on you." I rattled Mr. Smith at Alex, and the man hurriedly backed up.

"Can't we just agree to disagree?" he pleaded.

"Out. Now. Don't think I don't know how to use this cat." I shook Mr. Smith again, and the tortured animal wiggled and hissed.

Alex stumbled backwards to the door and fumbled for the handle before he got it open. "How about I call you tomorrow and we can talk?"

"OUT!"

Alex jumped out into the hall, I dropped Mr. Smith who skittered away, and then I slammed the door shut. All was quiet for a moment and the full force of what I'd just done fell on my shoulders like a sack of soggy flour. It oozed all over my conscience and left me feeling like I needed a bath. "What have I done?" I quietly asked myself. I sighed and glanced back at Mr. Smith who sulked on the arm of the couch. "And I even brought you into this. I'm sorry I had to do that to you, Mr. Smith, but I was kind of desperate." He flicked his tail toward the kitchen.. "Fine, I'll give you a little can of cat food, but don't expect this kind of treatment every night. Besides, I don't think he's going to be coming back, so you won't need to do that again."

I felt a little twinge in my chest when I spoke that last comment out loud. Probably because it was true, and a little part of me didn't quite want it to be. Then the closet door burst open and all the junk spilled out into the living room. What a day.