Monday
The sun was reaching its peak as employees’ cars pulled into T and C incorporated, one by one. Marla, being early as usual, sat in her car finishing her coffee and muffin. Every so often, she watched as vehicles passed by. Angie walked along the passenger side of Marla’s vehicle and knocked on the window. Marla, not paying attention was startled. She noticed Angie and unlocked her doors.
“Hey. Sorry, girl”, said Angie as she got in.
“You’re okay. What’s going on?”
“Girl, I had a long night. I seriously need one or two of those.”
“Yes. It’s a daily routine for me. My night was rough too.”
“Was anything said?”
“No. I was just out of it, thinking about the situation.”
“Yeah. I got a little carried away, so I’m just trying to recover.”
“I hope everything is okay.”
“No other choice. I told Stephanie I could help with gathering information on Jimmy, so I’ll be making some rounds, during lunch.”
“Yes. I know Stanley’s routine for the most part, so we’ll see.”
Marla and Angie got out of the vehicle. At the same time, Tina was walking into the building. When Marla and Angie entered the building, they saw Tina standing against the wall. Tina had on more makeup than usual and a new two piece, red business dress. As they got closer and closer toward Tina, she just stared at them.
“Good morning, Tracey”, said Marla as she held out her hand.
“Tina.”
“Please, forgive me. No good morning shake?”
“How rude of me?”
Tina shook Marla’s hand and turned toward Angie, putting all of her attention on her.
“You needed a ride this morning?”
“Tina, what are you talking about?”
“I see you rode in with her.”
“Tina, don’t start this today.”
“I’ll leave you two be. I need to start my day anyway. Maybe we can catch up later, Tina?”
Tina ignored Marla, waiting to hear what Angie had to say.
“I don’t have a problem with it. I’m just saying, you’ve known me longer. I could’ve given you a ride.”
“Tina, I drove myself. We were talking. Go to your job.”
Angie watched as Tina walked away, not knowing that Betty had walked into the building. Betty is a 65-year old, ailing mail assistant. With a pale, white complexion and streaks of grey and white hair, she could easily pass for anyone’s grandmother. With her slow and quiet pace, she approached Angie. “Good morning.” Angie was startled. She turned around and looked down to see Betty.
“Mrs. Betty?”
“Yes. The doctor let me come back a little early.”
“That’s great. So, you feeling better?”
“I don’t have a choice. Plus, I can’t be a help to anyone sitting at home.”
“Well as long as you’re okay. That’s my concern.”
They smiled and hugged each other and proceeded to go to their floor. Angie took Betty over to Marla’s office. Marla was busy organizing her area as they both approached her desk.
“Marla?”
“Yes?”
“I want you to meet Mrs. Betty.”
“Oh, hi. I’ve heard so much about you”, says Marla as she came around her desk to greet Betty.
“You’ve heard how old I am?”
“Only good things.”
“Well, I look forward to our time together.”
Betty and Marla shook each other’s hand and Betty slowly walked away to her area.
“Angie, I was looking around and couldn’t find Tony anywhere.”
“Well, Tony won’t be in today.”
“Is everything alright?”
“Let’s just say we all have different ways of dealing with our problems.”
###
Tony lied across Angie’s bed, on his stomach in pain from the beating he received last night. Unable to sit down, he was forced to lay down on his stomach as he watched TV in the bedroom. “I can’t believe that broad. Who do she think she is? Now, I can’t even sit down.” Tony scanned the bedroom, trying to see what other crazy things Angie might have in her possession. Every so often, he struggled to get out of bed and use the bathroom. Angie decided to call and check on Tony. Very upset, Tony didn’t have much to say. Angie tried to make a joke of last night’s situation, but Tony hung up on her. “Wow. It seems like someone is mad.”
At lunch time, the four ladies spent their break spying on each other’s mate. Stephanie was the only one that didn’t have to spy on anyone, since Angie offered to help her for today. For Stephanie, Angie had to visit a huge business complex, where Jimmy worked as a security guard. Angie entered, acting as if she was there on business. As Angie walked toward Jimmy’s security desk, he couldn’t take his eyes off her. “I know I know her from somewhere”, he said to himself. “She looks very familiar.” Angie flashed a fake smile, once she reached his desk.
“Can I help you, ma’am?”
“Yes. I’m supposed to be meeting a colleague, shortly. Would it be okay if I sat here and waited?”
“Yes. What is the person’s name?”
“Well, they know I’m here. So, there’s no need to worry with contacting anyone. I’ll just sit patiently over here.”
“Okay.”
“Thank you.”
Angie had a seat and observed everyone that walked into the building; especially the women. She observed women of all sorts as they walked in and out the building. Jimmy was extra polite and courteous to the women. Some of the women, he walked with over to the nearby elevator and pressed the button for them. Other women, he had long conversations with. A female deliverer for UPS walked in with the trademark brown, khaki shorts and shirt with the yellow logo in perfect view. The young, perky deliverer filled with joy, when she entered the building. Seeing Jimmy’s face caused her to light up.
“Hi Jimmy, baby.”
“Crystal! What’s up, Love?”
“Well, you know. Work as usual.”
“Yeah, don’t I know? What happen over the weekend?”
“Well, it was just me and my girls. We had a few drinks, but nothing exciting. You?”
“Just with family and friends for the most part. Had to deal with some issues at home, last night.”
“Wow. Sorry to hear that.”
“Yeah, me too. You know you get tired of the ups and downs. Sometimes, you just need a break.”
“I totally understand.” She leaned forward and stared Jimmy in the eyes. “That’s why I chose to stay free and single.”
“I do miss those days. You make sure you stay that way.”
They stared at each other’s eyes for a moment. Changing the subject, Jimmy reminded her that he had to sign off on the shipment. The whole time, Angie took notes of their interaction. She wrote within her notes, “he called her love”. Angie looked at her smartphone and realized the time. She hopped to her feet and prepared to leave. As she walked away, Jimmy looked pass Crystal.
“Excuse me, ma’am?”
Angie turned around, “Yes?”
“Is everything okay?”
“Quite alright. You have a good day.”
“Thank you. You too.”
Angie flashed a fake smile at Jimmy, then made eye contact with Crystal and frowned up. As Angie left out of the building, Crystal turned back towards Jimmy.
“What’s up with her?”
“I have no idea. She claimed she was waiting on someone. I guess she changed her mind.”
“Oh well, let me get back to work. Enjoy the rest of your day.”
“I sure will.”
Crystal turned to leave as Jimmy watched her “switch” out the building.
Marla was parked in front of a party store, facing a small strip mall across the street. Within the strip mall was a local restaurant, called China Express that served Chinese cuisine. Diane mentioned how Stanley loved Chinese food and that she would meet him at China Express for lunch, when they first started dating. It was “lunch hour”, so China Express was getting a lot of traffic. Marla didn’t pick up anything for lunch, so she decided to go into the party store and purchase some snacks to hold her over.
She returned to her car with chips, peppermints, soda, chocolate, and beef jerky. She continued to observe the strip mall as she tore into her snacks. “There’s no guarantee he would come here. There are a million places to eat, so this is a waste of time.” As Marla got comfortable in the driver seat, Stanley came walking out of the restaurant. He left with nothing in his hands, but his car keys. A gust of wind flowed through, causing a receipt to blow out of Stanley’s suit jacket. He quickly turned around to grab the receipt off the floor and headed for his vehicle. He sat in his vehicle for a while, pulled out of his parking spot and drove up to the door. A beautiful brunette, standing about six feet tall and wearing a long, white dress approached the car and got in. Stanley quickly looked around and sped off. “If this ain’t about something. All this time, I’m thinking he’s ‘mister goodie two shoes’ and turns out he’s ‘mister good for nothing’.” Marla put her snack food to the side, made note of what she saw, and headed back to work.
Diane decided to park in the parking lot of Michael’s construction company. She parked three parking sections back, from the door. She put the car in park and sunk very low into the driver’s seat, so that she couldn’t be seen. Michael walked out of the office, laughing and talking to the company’s secretary, Olivia, who was following behind him. As Michael stood and held the door open with his back towards the secretary, she lightly pinched his butt as she passed by with a devilish smirk on her face. “Hey, hey now”, said Michael, as they both laughed. Diane peeked over the dashboard and watched as they got into Michael’s vehicle to go to lunch. As Michael was backing out of the parking spot, he looked in his rearview mirror and saw Diane’s vehicle. He stopped and hesitated to put the vehicle in drive.
“What’s wrong”, asked Olivia.
“That vehicle looks just like my sister’s.”
“Really? Where”, asked Olivia as she looked behind her.
“I’ll just detour around. I’m not sure.”
Michael backed up a little further and did a U-turn towards Diane’s vehicle. Diane sunk all the way down. Michael tried to get a good look as he drove by. “That’s got to be her car”, he said to Olivia. Michael read the license plate and tried to remember what Diane’s license plate number was. Michael continued to drive off as Olivia looked at him.
“Is it her?”
“It has to be. I can’t remember the license plate number. I’ll have to ask my wife.”
Unsure if Michael was still in the parking lot, Diane continued to sit on the floor of the vehicle. She gave herself five minutes, then slowly crept up to see if Michael was around. “Thank GOD.” She quickly turned the car on and sped out of the parking lot. As Diane made it down the street, she went into shock as she thought about almost being caught and began to cry. “What am I doing?! I can’t do this!” Tears continued to stream down her face as she fought to stay under control.
# # #
Rhonda finally found time to take a break from her job. Being a registered nurse, Rhonda’s schedule depended on the severity of the patients and the efficiency of the staff. Rhonda had agreed to try and gather some information on Reggie. Reggie is a barber and like most barbers, he didn’t cut hair on Sundays and Mondays. So, Stephanie gave Rhonda her home address to try and gather some information. Before Rhonda made the trip to Stephanie’s place, she stopped to grab some tacos for her lunch.
When she pulled up to Stephanie’s address, she began to observe the area. “34-20.” Rhonda parked in front of the house, next door to Stephanie’s house. “This is a nice area.” She kept an eye on the house, while eating her lunch. Time went by and it was time for Rhonda to return to her job. Rhonda was unable to find anything, but she did notice one unusual thing. Stephanie told her the type of vehicle Reggie drove and that it should be in the driveway, but there was never a vehicle sitting in the driveway the entire time Rhonda was there. Rhonda made note of her observation and headed back to work.
[Marla: I’ll be a little late getting home.]
[Michael: Everything alright?]
[Marla: Yes. Have to make a few stops]
[Michael: Ok]
Marla pulled into the parking lot of a Starbucks, nearby. Diane was already sitting inside, waiting for Marla. Marla quickly dropped her smartphone into her purse and headed into the Starbucks. Inside were mainly high school and college kids, talking, surfing the internet, and having coffee. Marla scanned the area and finally saw Diane. Diane was off in her own world and had not noticed Marla walking in. Marla quickly walked over to Diane and noticed the distraught look on her face. She walked right up to her and Diane still didn’t budge.
“Diane?”
“Oh my goodness. Hey, Marla.”
“Is something wrong”, asked Marla as she sat across from her.
“I’m done.”
“Done with what?”
“With this. This snooping around and invading people’s privacy. I want nothing to do with it.”
“Diane, you can’t stop. We have to find out what’s going on. We have to find out who this note belongs to.”
“Who cares?! Maybe we weren’t meant to know whose it is.”
“Diane, what happen?”
Diane went on to tell Marla the re-enactment of everything she saw and how Michael may have spotted her. As she told the story, she was still disturbed by what she had been through. Marla listened in disbelief. She was upset and heartbroken, expecting the worst. Thoughts started running in her head again of whether this was payback for what she had done in the past. Once Diane finished, Marla hesitated to tell what she saw. She was too busy thinking about the health of her marriage and what was to come. “Marla? Why aren’t you saying anything?” Marla realized she had to tell what she saw, but worried about how Diane would take it. Marla decided to tell her small pieces at a time, giving her the “long version”. Once Diane heard all she needed to hear, she put her head down and quietly cried to herself. Marla quickly got out of her seat, sat beside Diane, and placed her arm around her.
“What is this, Marla?”
“This is reality.”
“How do I go home? How do I face this?”
“Well, you have to remember that we both have heard some things that leave us to question our husbands, so right now we can’t point fingers. We still have to determine who it belongs to. We still don’t know what the others have discovered.”
“This is what I feared.”
“Yes. No one wants it, but we can’t live in a lie. We have to know the truth. We have a reason, Diane. We’re not looking for trouble. We found something that has to be addressed.”
###
Angie walked into her living room with a bottle of wine. Rhonda and Stephanie were sitting beside one another on the loveseat. Both were still in amazement. They had went through a bottle of wine already. Although Rhonda and Stephanie had reason to worry, Stephanie’s situation was a lot lighter, because Rhonda didn’t actually witness anything. Rhonda, on the other hand was fired up about Angie’s report. Especially since Angie was making it seem worse than what it was. “Girl, he might as well laid his head on her breasts, how close she had them up on him. I seriously believe he could’ve kissed them. ….It was getting so hot in that lobby, I had to get up and leave.” Being intoxicated, Rhonda was ready to leave and attack Jimmy. Stephanie managed to get her to stay a little longer.
“Like I said a few days ago, men ain’t no good.”
“You hit it on the nose, Angie”, said Rhonda as she raised her glass to toast.
“Girl, I be knowing that stuff. Sometimes I think I’m a psychic, because I hit it right on the nose. I swear I could be a counselor.”
“You should be. The Angie Show.”
“Girl don’t get me going. I’d be on there, reading minds.”
“I don’t know what he could have been doing that time of the day”, added Stephanie.
“I would tell you, but I’ll wait. If you think long enough, you’ll know”, responded Angie.
Rhonda raised her glass to toast to what Angie just said. Disgusted, Stephanie excused herself and stood to her feet. She had heard enough for the night and decided to leave. Eventually, Rhonda left as well.
###
Marla and Michael laid in the bed, in the dark. Neither one had said anything, then Michael turned to Marla.
“You know, I saw something odd today.”
“What’s that”, asked Marla, worried.
“I believe Diane was at the job, earlier today. Have you talked to her, today?”
“Yes. You sure it was her? Why would she be at your job?”
“That’s what I was wondering. I tried to see if it was her vehicle, but I didn’t know her license plate number.”
“Michael, that’s crazy. She isn’t the only one on the planet with that type of car.”
“I guess you’re right. I just thought it was odd. I’ve never seen that car in the lot before.”
“It might’ve been from another company. Plus, how would Diane know how to get to your job.”
“You’re right.”
“Did it scare you?”
“Of course not. I just thought it was odd. It would be unusual to see her, but I wouldn’t be scared to see my sister-in-law.”
“Okay. Well, goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”