Chapter 7: The Lunch Date

The following Thursday I was expecting a shipment of large screen televisions and entertainment centers at the store. Around ten o'clock that morning I got a call from the distributor telling me that the shipment had been delayed and would not arrive at my store until around seven o'clock that evening.

It has always been my practice to be at the store when a shipment of expensive merchandise arrived so that I can make sure that the merchandise wasn't damaged in transit and that everything on the bill of lading was accounted for. When I realized that I was going to have to stay late at the store that night I decided to surprise Marsha and take her out to lunch. I left the store around 11:30 so that I could get to Marsha's office before noon. It took me twenty minutes to drive across town to her office and I was sitting, waiting for the traffic light to change so I could make a left turn into the parking lot at Marsha's office building, when I noticed a black BMW sitting right in front of the door to her building.

As soon as I saw the car I thought 'that looks like Leon's BMW, and at the very moment I saw Marsha come out of her building and get into the car. I could not believe what was happening. I was still stuck at the light as I watched the car exit the parking lot onto a side street and disappear from my view.

By the time the light changed and traffic cleared so that I could make my left turn, the car was gone and I had no idea where it was going. I tried calling Marsha on her cell phone but got no answer, so I just left a message for her to call me.

I drove home to see if that is where they might be going but she wasn't, so I waited at the house for a while then drove back to the store. I went into my office and closed the door so that I could have some privacy. My employees know that when my door is closed they are not to disturb me. Within the quiet confines of my office I was able to step back from the emotion of the moment and think things through in a calm, rational manner.

At first I was angry and hurt, but then I began to think that maybe I was over reacting. Maybe it wasn't Leon. Maybe the car I saw belonged to someone she worked with. Then I began to try and convince myself that it might not even have been Marsha that I saw getting into the car. Maybe I just thought it was Marsha because of the state of mind I'd been in. After all I was over 200 yards away from the building, how could I be sure from that distance. Somehow I managed to talk myself out of believing what I had seen.

A little after two o'clock Marsha called and said, "I got your message, what's up?"

I said, "I came over to your office at lunch time to see if you wanted to go to lunch with me but you weren't there." I didn't bother to tell her what I thought I had seen.

Marsha said, "Oh, you should have called earlier. A sales rep from one of the companies we buy from took me to lunch. I am sorry you missed me."