The Bet
By Karen Singer
Chapter 59 (Monday – week 9 Part 5 of 5)
Ray stared
foggily at the empty glasses in front of him.
Fortunately, the bartender hadn’t shut him down. He vaguely remembered Derek promising to talk
to him. Derek! The sap!
The damn guy had gotten to Mel ahead of him. And then he had done the stupid, stupid thing
yesterday about letting on that he was after her money! Stupid!
Stupid! Stupid! As he had been doing all afternoon, he
grabbed his glass and emptied it one more time over that thought.
But that wasn’t
the only thought he was drinking over, in the back of his mind was also Gloria
– the tiger! His beginning relationship
with her had him more confused than ever.
Damn the woman was good in bed!
And she came up with things he had never even heard of before. Talk about fun! But she didn’t have Mel’s money! He grabbed his glass again… but it was empty. He held it up and finally saw the bartender
nod. It took all his effort not to throw
the empty glass against the wall.
Maybe he had had
enough? Never! Not while trying to purposely get stinking,
sloshing, incredibly drunk! Never
enough! He wanted to tell the bartender
to bring him two drinks while he was at it, but that would have taken more
effort than his muscles seemed to possess just then.
Gloria – the
tiger! Mel – the rich bitch! And what was that, that Derek had said about Chad…
Sissy… whatever! The damn pervert! He had been wearing a damn maid’s dress
yesterday in Mel’s apartment. What was
it that Derek had said about him?
The memories were
foggy, barely there anymore. But slowly
the words did fall back somewhat into place.
Sissy! And a bet! And…
“Hi Ray.”
He looked up to
see two of Derek’s crew hovering over his table. “Go away!” he slurred.
“We’ve come to
take you home,” the second one said.
“Don’t want to!”
He replied. Did that come out
right? He was so drunk he wasn’t
sure. Close enough anyway.
He felt a strong
hand hooking itself under one of his arms, pulling him up out of his seat. “No!
Have another!”
“You’ve had
enough,” one of them said to him.
He was too wasted
to really fight much with them. He
wanted another drink. Many more
drinks. He had to forget about Mel… and
the tiger… and… Sissy?
It was a while
later when Mel heard Andrea buzzing her phone line. “What is it?” she asked.
“Derek is
calling for you.”
Mel shook her
head. Not now! “Please tell him I’m busy and I’m going to be
wrapped up all night.”
Hopefully, that
would put Derek on hold for another day.
She didn’t need his kind of distraction at all right now. She heard the line going dead again… and
Sissy grunting again at the same time.
“What now?” she asked. “Are you
messing your diaper again?” She saw his
head pop up high enough that she could see it from behind her desk.
“No,” he said
holding up his legal pad. “I found
another part that I think belongs with those other two.”
Mel was
surprised. “Those two things you showed
me earlier?”
“Yes. Except… I think there’s something missing
that goes between those and this.”
Mel got up from her seat to see. “Maybe that doesn’t go with the other parts at all.”
Mel got up from her seat to see. “Maybe that doesn’t go with the other parts at all.”
“No,” Chad’s
silly voice replied. “I’m sure it does…
somehow.”
Mel took his pad,
which had only a few pages left in it, and looked carefully. The subject did look like it really belonged
with the other things instead. She
surprised herself when she handed the pad back to him and said, “Keep digging. Maybe you’re onto something.”
Chad was actually glad that she
seemed to approve. “Um… Do you have any more of these pads? I’m going to use this one up pretty soon.”
“Are you
kidding? This is a legal office. We’ve got boxes of those things. We never run out!” She sat back at her desk and buzzed
Andrea. “Andrea, we’re going to need
more legal pads in here. Bring a
bunch!” But even as the words came out
of her mouth, her thoughts were circling around the pieces that Sissy had
sorted out as being odd and out of place.
Why hadn’t she noticed them before?
It was then that she realized why each of those pieces had seemed more
familiar to her than most of it. When
she had gotten the original version of the contract – with everything out of place,
they were some of the sections that had been purposely put where they shouldn’t
have been. Had the previous attorney
been trying to send a little message?
The company
parking lot was mostly empty by the time Derek climbed up into his big SUV to
go home. Except, he didn’t want to go
home, he wanted to talk with Mel.
Especially after the “lunch” he had shared with Ray. As he had promised, he had sent someone… two
guys really… to gather Ray up from the bar and drive him home. But during their lunch, Derek realized that
he might have passed on some information that maybe he shouldn’t have. Information about Sissy.
Not that he
really cared all that much. The stupid
sap deserved everything he got – everything!
He was sure he still had no feelings about Sissy’s desire to keep it all
a secret. But still, he couldn’t help
but wonder if he had done something that maybe he shouldn’t have. Maybe it was just that it was information
that Mel had said she didn’t want known.
Had she said that to him? In
truth, he wasn’t really sure.
But the bottom
line was that Ray now knew all about Sissy… if Ray could remember anything he
had been told. Ray had been so wasted
already that Derek wasn’t at all sure that he would be capable of remembering everything. The only part that he had purposely held back
was about Robin. He never once mentioned
Robin’s involvement. But from what he had
told Ray, he had no doubt that if Ray were capable of putting things together
properly, which he really wasn’t all that sure about, then Ray would be able to
deduce that Robin was doing something with Sissy as well. Maybe more than something.
And because of
all that, he really wanted to discuss what he had told Ray with Mel. But Mel was busy tonight. The contract business. But still… maybe she wasn’t too busy. He drove out of the parking lot and headed –
not for home, but for Mel’s office where he figured she would still be.
When he got
there, he was gratified to see two cars still in the parking lot, one of them
Mel’s. The door was locked when he tried
to open it, but the lights inside were on.
He knocked loudly. Someone came
out of an office further down the hall.
He didn’t know who she was, but she wasn’t Mel. The woman finally unlocked the door and
opened it enough to talk.
“Sorry, we’re
closed,” Andrea said.
“Um… Is Mel here?” Derek asked.
Andrea shook her
head. “She’s here, but we’re
closed. I’m sorry. You’ll have to call tomorrow for an
appointment.”
“I’m Derek,” he
told her. “Can you at least ask if
she’ll see me?”
Andrea
immediately recognized Derek’s name. Not
sure if she should, she opened the door wide enough to let him in. “I really shouldn’t,” she replied. “But I know you’re on her list of calls to
answer. So…” She locked the door behind them and led the
way up to Mel’s office.
“You have a
guest,” Andrea announced softly as she led the way back into Mel’s office.
Mel looked
up. “Derek!” she exclaimed. She didn’t really know if she was happy or
angry that he was there. She had passed on the message that she was busy
tonight and he had still shown up.
Derek walked into
the office and put a big smile on his face as she mentioned his name, but at
the same time, he was taking in everything in the beautifully appointed, but
slightly feminine, office. Mel was
obviously working hard at her desk, but the one biggest thing that he couldn’t
help but notice was Sissy… sitting on the floor wearing… one of the most
ridiculous dresses he could ever imagine.
And Sissy appeared to be working too.
He was completely surrounded by yellow legal pad papers. He grunted at the sight of the twerp. Obviously, Mel hadn’t been kidding when she
had passed on the message that she was busy.
He suddenly felt bad about his own selfish needs. “I heard you were busy,” he said. “I was just hoping that you weren’t too busy
to at least say hi for a few minutes.”
Mel shook her
head. “Sorry Derek. I really am.
But we’re totally swamped here and we’re really stuck for time.”
“Yeah, I can see
that,” he replied as he looked around a bit more. “Sorry I bothered you.” He was about to walk out when another thought
struck him. “What are you doing for
dinner tonight?”
“Dinner?” Mel was a bit surprised at the question. “I hadn’t even thought about it! I don’t have a clue what we’re going to
do.” She glanced at the clock, it was
already later than she thought.
“Want me to get
you something?” Derek asked.
Mel jumped at the
offer. “Would you? You’d be a lifesaver!”
“Glad to,” Derek
replied with a smile.
“Can I come?”
Andrea asked from where she was sitting on the couch. “I haven’t been able to do much to help them
yet, so maybe I can at least help you.”
“Sure. Why not?” Derek agreed.
Derek and Andrea
had been gone about twenty minutes when Sissy found the next odd spot. “Mistress!” he called from his seat on the
floor. “I found another one that matches
up with the last one I found. But it
still looks like there should be something else in front of that last one.”
Mel got up to see
what Sissy had found now. One look was
all she needed to notice a pattern developing.
Those odd out of place sections again!
“Good work Sissy. Keep at
it.”
Once she got back
to her desk, she put aside the section she had been reading and tried to
remember all the different sections that had been out of place in the first
copy of the contract she had gotten. It
wasn’t easy.
Derek and Andrea
came back before she got very far… and they each carried a large pizza box in
their hands. Pizza or not, once she got
a whiff of the smell, her mouth watered.
She was hungry. The pizzas were
placed on the coffee table in front of the couch. Mel got up from her desk and immediately
joined Andrea and Derek in selecting a piece.
“Mm!” she exclaimed. “I didn’t
realize how hungry I was!”
Only then did she
notice Sissy, still sitting where he had been, simply staring at them… and the
pizza. But he wasn’t saying anything… as
he probably shouldn’t. But Mel felt bad
about that. “Did you finish all that
baby food we put in your bag this morning?” she asked him.
“Yes Mistress,” Chad
replied.
“Then get over
here and help yourself. Just don’t get
any on those contract pages!”
Andrea ran off to
get some paper towels to use as napkins as Sissy gratefully grabbed a piece of
the delicious smelling pizza for himself.
The first “real” food he had eaten in days!
Derek wandered
around Mel’s office with a piece of pizza in his hand. Mel was working at her desk and Sissy was
working on the floor. Andrea had
disappeared to the ladies room for a few minutes. He stood over top of where Sissy was working
and looked down at all the papers on the floor.
He recognized the flowchart Sissy was creating. But flowcharting a contract? It didn’t make a lot of sense. But he had no
doubt that it made sense to Chad…
Sissy. He had always been smart like
that. So why couldn’t he be smart about
the rest of his stupid life? The idiot!
Derek nearly
jumped when Sissy suddenly jerked up and proclaimed. “Found it!”
“What?” Mel
asked quickly coming out from behind her desk to see.
“That missing
section.” With Derek looking on, he
showed Mel how the new section fit neatly in the missing link between the other
sections he had found.
“Good work,
Sissy,” Mel told him. She just didn’t
have a clue yet what it all meant but something was starting to tug at the back
of her mind.
“Yeah,” Chad
agreed. “But where does it lead? Why stick these sections in the middle of all
this other stuff? And obviously it looks
like there’s going to be more.”
“I’m starting to
get a nasty little suspicion about where this is going, but we’ll have to wait
and see. Find those other sections!”
Chad immediately got back to work.
Not knowing why,
Derek grabbed another piece of the pizza out of the box and brought it over to
Sissy. “Still hungry?” he asked.
Chad was totally surprised at the
offer, but he gratefully took the slice of pizza. “Thanks!” he replied, meaning it very
sincerely. He munched on it as he
continued working.
Derek only stayed
around for a little while after that and the office became deathly quiet as Mel
and Chad
worked. Andrea finally stretched out on
Mel’s couch since she didn’t have much else to do except to refill Mel’s coffee
cup. She had even started filling Chad’s
bottles for him – with the same coffee.
She figured the poor guy probably needed it. And every once in a while Chad had to excuse
himself to go change his leaking diaper again – which she duly recorded on her
list of times that so far, Mel hadn’t been interested in.
Mel searched now
for the sections that she thought might have been out of place before. It was nearly eleven o’clock when she found
one she was fairly sure of. She read it
though. It seemed to be perfectly fine,
but like the sections that Sissy has already found this one again had one of
those “In the event of” clauses – with several possible outcomes depending on
other events. She pawed through the
pages of that section again and pulled them out.
Getting up from
her desk, she went around to where Sissy was sitting on her floor. “Set what you’re working on aside for now,”
Mel told him, “and see what you make of this.”
She handed him the pages she had just separated out.
Chad got down to work –
flowcharting the section while Mel watched him closely. Each possible outcome got mapped, or at least
accounted for. But he hadn’t even
finished yet when he suddenly proclaimed, “It looks like this is another
piece. But I can’t really tell since I
think there must be a section or possibly several sections that would go before
it.”
But Mel now had
no doubt that the section belonged with the others, just as she had no doubt
that eventually they would find all those missing links – as well as possibly
more. She picked up all the pieces that Chad
had managed to put together so far and took them to her desk and studied
them. Yes, there was no doubt they all
went together, and that they were all going somewhere. And she was more afraid than ever of where
she suspected they were going to lead.
“Andrea,” she
called, rousing her assistant from where she looked to be comfortably stretched
out on the couch. She held out the
yellow papers. “Can you see if you can
do something with these to make them more understandable?”
Andrea was glad
to get up from the couch where she had almost fallen asleep and do something
useful. She took the pages and studied
them. “Give me a few minutes,” she
replied before heading off to her own desk.
Thirty minutes later, she was back again. “How’s this?” she asked.
Mel studied the
pages Andrea had created. Each page
matched what Chad
had done, but each page was now much more readable and understandable. Especially since Andrea had left out the
silly geometric shapes that Chad
surrounded everything with. But Andrea
did include some perfectly drawn arrows linking all the important sections
together. “Perfect!” Mel
proclaimed. “Thanks.”
“That’s what I’m
here for,” Andrea replied happily.
As Andrea went
back to the couch to get a little more sleep.
Mel dug further into the contract.
And this time she went straight to the one passage she was most worried
about. The one passage she just knew was
going to pop up inside of one of Sissy’s little geometric shapes.
And unnoticed by
anyone… the decorative clock on the wall of Mel’s office… struck midnight.
1 comment:
Oooh it's going to be an all-nighter an you're going to stretch this to Friday! Tease! *pouts*
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