Chapter 4

“Mick, I think you need the shot now,” Gwen insisted.

“Yeah,” I said slowly before I picked up the Jameson and threw it into my mouth and swallowed. I remembered to breath out of my mouth and not through my nose so the fumes didn’t burn like horseradish.

“What do you want me to do now, Boss?”

“I hate it when you call me Boss,” I fake frowned. “I wish I knew.”

“Mick, I know you. You usually make plans within plans. You know what you are going to do.”

“No, Gwen, I don’t. I know what I could do, what I might do, but not what I am going to do.”

“Mick, let’s walk through it,” she paused for a bit, then continued. “Either you stay together or you don’t.”

“I don’t,” I answered.

“Then you can just leave or you stay.”

“Leave.”

“If you leave will you divorce her or not?”

“Great question. That is one of the sticking points,” I said.

“OK. If she chooses to have kids will you stay?”

“I don’t know. If what she says is true, I don’t know that I can make her do something that is so horrendous to her.”

“Having kids is still a life goal though, right?”

“Now more than ever.”

“So what do you do next?” Gwen asked.

“I go see Donny Flynn. Face to face. He needs to face the music.”

“Don’t do anything that will get you in trouble.”

“It’s only trouble if you get caught, Gwen.”

“Are you going to eat that quesadilla?”

“Are you going to eat that salad?” I answered and looked into Gwen’s eyes.

I was just empty.

“Look at us. It’s a good thing that we aren’t trying to take over the world. We’d never even get to square one.”

She smiled and for the first time in our association, she reached out and touched my hand in something other than a handshake, then she took the other Jameson and shot it down.

“I’m not coming back from lunch today. Is there anything that needs to get done today?” I said.

“Shouldn’t you ask that question before you tell me you’re not coming back from lunch?”

“Yes, but you’re my assistant and you know what I meant.”

Gwen smiled that smile again.

“I know, Boss.”

“I hate that. Thank you, Gwen. Let Diane know, please. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Wait. Am I paying for lunch?”

“Yeah, on the company card. That’s why I pay you the big bucks! Did you forget to tell me to say that to you?” I smiled, stood and walked out the doors to find a hotel for the night.

Donny Flynn was walking to his apartment after watching Monday Night Football, even though it was Thursday. He was being followed, but didn’t know it, because, really, who would want to follow him? He was a nothing, except that he was fucking a beautiful woman he worked with. Well, actually, she was fucking him, after all he did whatever she wanted.

As he crossed the dark deserted street, he was thinking that he should call Deb again and see when she wanted him again. Her husband had to be well and back to work by now. He was thinking of how she had made him lick her asshole and how he wasn’t sure if he liked the taste, but would do it again if she demanded he do it.

He had just stepped off another curb into the street when the car sped up and hit him. The last thing that went through his mind before the impact, pain and blackout was, “shouldn’t a car try to stop when it seems it will hit a pedestrian?”.

Deb walked into work and immediately went looking for Donny. She needed to tell him that it was over so she could focus on fixing her marriage. It shouldn’t be too difficult because Mick only suspected things and had no proof. Her biggest challenge was how to get Mick past her not having kids. Admitting her motives for not having kids could have been a real deal breaker.

There was no way in the world that she was going to have a baby. None. Ever! The idea of it gave her chills. Deb walked into Donny’s department and saw his desk was unoccupied. She looked around and saw no sign of him in the area. She went to the department secretary.

“Excuse me. Have you seen Mr. Flynn?”

“They called him in sick, Mrs. O’Dell.”

“Called him in? Sick? Who called?”

“The hospital. They said that he was hit by a car last night and was badly injured. They found the car that hit him and it had been reported as being stolen. They didn’t find Donny until early this morning when a street sweeper almost hit him. They said that it looked like he was lying in the gutter for a few hours before they found him.”

“Oh no. That’s terrible. What hospital is he in? Is anyone going to see him? Has anyone sent a card or flowers from the department?”

“I don’t know, Mrs. O’Dell, we just got the phone call.”

Deb left the department and went back to her desk. She picked up her phone and called Mick’s office. The office receptionist answered and she asked for her husband. She was transferred to his secretary.

“Mr. O’Dell’s office.”

“Hi, this is Mick’s wife. I need to talk to him.”

“One moment please.”

There was a click and it took a while before Deb realized that her call had been disconnected. She cursed quietly and redialed.

“Mr. O’Dell’s office.”

“This is Deb O’Dell. I was cut off while I was waiting to speak to my husband.”

“I’m so sorry. Please hold.”

Deb sat there with the phone to her ear, listening to the smooth jazz that Mick had on his system. She hated that music, it still sounded like it belonged in a porn movie. It played and played for the longest time and then there was a click and the music stopped. She had been hung up on again.

Now she was pissed. First Mick doesn’t come home the night before, now he has his staff killing her calls. She dialed again. Got the receptionist and complained about being cut off twice. The woman apologized and transferred the call to Mick’s secretary.

“Mr. O’Dell’s office.”

“This is Deb O’Dell and I have been cut off twice now. I demand to speak to my husband!”

“One moment please.”

There was another click and more of that fucking music. Then after the longest time, there was another click. Deb O’Dell was about to scream when she heard a voice.

“This is Mick, how can I help you?”

“Mick, this is Deb. We need to talk! Where were you last night? Why didn’t you come home?”

“Who was on the phone?”

“What?” She asked almost incredulously.

Click.

“SHIT!” She screamed out.

“Mrs. O’Dell! That is not the sort of language I want to hear from my employees,” the voice was that of the big boss. He was doing a walk through the office just in time to hear her scream.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Rogers. I have been trying to call my husband, but keep getting disconnected. I really need to speak with him.”

“Is it a medical emergency?” He sounded concerned.

“No. It is more of a personal emergency.”

“On company time?” He was not concerned anymore.

“Yes sir. I’m sorry sir, but it’s important.”

“Couldn’t you have spoken to him before work?”

“No sir. He wasn’t at home this morning.”

“If you need to take the day off, you should do that. Otherwise, I do not expect my employees to do personal business on company time. Now please back to work or take the day.”

“Yes Mr. Rogers. I’m sorry.”

Deb booted her computer after having been admonished by Mr. Rogers. She worked and tried to keep her head on her job, but with her husband avoiding her and not coming home last night and Donny getting hit by a car last night ... then a small light bulb went on in her mind.

“No. He couldn’t know,” Deb whispered to herself.

She tried to get back to work, but the vision of a smiling Mick running over Donny with a stolen car was running amok through her imagination. If he did that, it meant that he found out about her affair. If he had done that to Donny, what was he going to do to her? When lunch rolled around she called HR and told them that she was going to take a half a sick day and she raced home.

I got home the next morning after Deb left for work and showered and changed into clean clothes, before going to work. I can’t stand to wear dirty clothes. When I got to the office, Diane smiled brightly when I walked into my office.

“Mick, your wife hasn’t tried to call back today,” Diane informed him.

“Thank you Diane. I want to say that you handled it well yesterday.”

“Gwen told me not to let her through unless she was really angry.”

“And she was! And is probably even more so now, since I didn’t go home last night. Hey do you want to join Gwen and me for lunch?”

“Sure, let me set the voice mail and I’ll be there in a second. Where did Gwen tell you that you are taking us today?”

“That’s not funny!” I said, knowing that it was.

“Yes it is, Boss.”

“I hate that title!”

Gwen walked in to the sound of a giggling secretary and a fake frowning superior.

“She called you Boss, didn’t she?” Gwen said with that smile.

“Yeah Gwen! I wonder where she got THAT bad habit from?”

“No telling. Maybe from a TV show,” Gwen said as she patted Diane on the back.

“Right. Where are you having me take you two for lunch?” I asked.

“Well, I’m really hungry! How about Yoi Tomo?” Gwen said.

“All you can eat sushi? Sounds like a plan. But I need to come back and get some work done for my slave driver PA, so no Sake,” I nodded towards Gwen as I spoke.

“How about Sapporo Yebisu?” Diane offered.

“Bless you!”

“I didn’t sneeze!” Diane said.

“Sorry, it sounded like a sneeze to me.” I said.

We walked to the sushi buffet a few blocks from our office and stayed for a long time. It was past 2PM when we got back and the voice mail had three messages from Deb. Each one sounded more and more rambling. She had to be drunk, that means that she was home and THAT means that something upset her at work. It could have been her Boss. It could have been me not coming home. It could have been her lover getting hit by a car. Perhaps she’s starting to suspect that I know something.