Cake Love: All Things Payne (35 page)

Chapter 28 - THE Birthday ...

I have been jobless for a week and a half. Oh, you didn't think Mr. Mitchell would keep an assistant who has sex with her former boss on the office conference table did you? Let's be realistic here, Mr. Mitchell in all his can't-handle-women-with-long-hair and can't-look-people-in-the-eye crazy thought I am the mess. Which, if I am going to be honest, I am a big sloppy mess. I don't think hogs on a farm will come near me with my life being what it is. Oh, that and the fact I haven't showered in five days and am subsisting on Slim Jims, oranges (got to have vitamin c – scurvy you know), and chocolate chips ... cake is too expensive for a jobless woman.

Aria is holding her nose as she comes toward the couch or as I like to call it now "Survival Island." If there is a massive flood that overtakes Chicago and the water makes it up the three flights of stairs to our floor, I will have everything I need in life on this couch: my comforter, napkins, remote (hoping the television floats), assorted snacks (see above paragraph), large bottle of water and my red hoodie in case I get cold.

"Morgana, I will pay you a million dollars if you leave that couch and take a shower, please!"

"You don't have a million dollars, Aria." I tell her in between chews of jerky.

"Back when we were in college we went to parties in frat houses that smelled better than you. Besides we are going out tonight."

I reluctantly set down the yellow and red wrapped meat-like product and glare at her.

"I'm not going anywhere. I'm trying to catch up on
Game of Thrones
and
The Walking Dead
. I don't have time to go out."

She rolls her eyes and groans while taking a seat on the couch as far away from my odor zone as possible.

"I can't believe it has come to this, Morgana. But need I remind you it's your birthday. Happy thirtieth, dear."

She starts to lean in for a hug but thinks the better of it and sits back. I reach for my cell phone on the coffee table and bring up the calendar. Oh God it's March third and I totally forgot.

"You're right. How could I forget? I usually am reminding people weeks in advance."

"I know. That's why I think it's imperative you come out with us tonight. You need to break out of this funk you are in, both psychologically and physically."

"We?"

Aria nods, "Yes, me and Evaleen. Oh and Tiffany is going to be there too. It's Thursday SWIM meet but I thought we could also have your birthday celebration too."

Tiffany? Since when is she friends with Tiffany?

"Wait ... wait ... wait. What? ... um ... Mr. Payne's girlfriend? Tiffany? What?"

Aria sighs again and turns a little to face me resting her head on her hand leaning back on the couch.

"Look, I ran into Tiffany while Evaleen and I had a SWIM meet a few weeks ago. She is actually kind of cool. She isn't the terrible person you think she is, Morgana. Tiffany has a twelve year old boy who is in the hospital. The SWIM meet is the only chance she has to get out and relax. She is a single mom, so it's not like she has a ton of support."

Now I feel terrible. All the names I called her. God I am going to hell. Oh let's face it, I was going to hell long before I met Tiffany.

"Oh that's terrible. Now I feel bad. I should at least buy her a drink ... oh wait I have no money because I got fired AGAIN for the same thing in less than a month."

"Look, I know it's shitty. But just take a break tonight and tomorrow you can resume feeling sorry for yourself. Okay?"

"Fine!" I groan while removing the comforter and standing. My legs are wobbly as I have been on my ass most of the day.

"Oh dear God, that smell. It's like a cat gave birth to a litter box. Go. Now. Before I get the vapors or whatever it is that people die of from toxic fumes."

Aria is covering her face with her hand as her other hand waves me away.

I head off to my bathroom and take a much needed shower. Feeling refreshed after the time in the bathroom I put on a nice green dress and start to feel good about myself. I can do this. When I am back in the living room Aria, in a sleek pale blue blouse and dark skinny jeans, approves my outfit and we head out into the very brisk evening.

Once we enter the dark bar, I see Evaleen and Tiffany already seated in a black padded booth chatting away. It's early evening so the place isn't crowded yet. The bar on the far side of the wall is a worn yet polished wood, and the windows by the door are stained glass. I'm sure the look was smashingly stylish in the 1970s when this place was built, but just makes the establishment a bit depressing now. As we take our seats I give Evaleen a friendly smile.

"Hey, Evaleen! How are things at Mimir?"

She groans and starts to suck at her straw before lifting her head. Her blonde hair up in a sophisticated French twist, small string of pearls around her neck and simple black sweater give her the appearance of a rich socialite instead of a bitter HR manager.

"Ugg, awful. I can't tell you how much the Payne has been acting up. These past two weeks he's been even more of a nightmare. We have gone through twelve assistants in the past ten days."

I nod and turn my attention to Tiffany as I REALLY don't want to talk about Mr. Payne.

"Hello, Tiffany, nice to see you again."

She smiles sweetly and gathers her long brown hair to drape over one shoulder. Tiffany looks just as gorgeous as she did when I first met her, with her tan V-neck sweater accentuating her golden eyes and ample bosom.

"Great to see you again, Morgana. I heard about the job problems, I can't tell you how sorry I am."

She gives a sympathetic grin.

"Yeah, well when you work for tweedle-dumb and tweedle-asshole maintaining a job gets hard."

She snorts and covers her face in embarrassment, looking at Aria and Evaleen to make sure they didn't notice, which they did.

"I think I can guess who Tweedle Asshole is?" Tiffany removes her hand and smirks while fiddling with her wine glass.

"Payne. Does any woman like him? I mean seriously that man needs to take a class on how to interact with people and not treat them like shit." Evaleen adds to the conversation.

"Well, I feel bad for Tiffany. She's his girlfriend." I try to mutter the words as if I am just mentioning this fact in passing but the high pitched tone and supersonic speed that I utter them causes the entire table to stare at me.

"Oh he's not my boyfriend. I mean, I did try once a long time ago. My husband had died in a car accident almost ten years ago and his parents and sister died in the same accident, so that's how we met. We grew close as he would help me with my son. About a year after I made a move but he turned me down. We were still emotionally not ready to have a relationship, then over the years things changed. I see him more like a brother now than anything else."

We are now staring at Tiffany with our mouths hanging open. She is nervously looking around at us expressing small giggles with snorts sprinkled in here and there.

"Oh, I would get why you think he's my boyfriend, me telling you I am his girlfriend when we met. I thought I was helping him out, you know when you think a friend is being harassed by a guy, or in Henrik's case a girl, so you tell them they have a boyfriend, or girlfriend in his case. When Henrik would mention you, Morgana, I just got the impression that you were causing him trouble so I decided to play the girlfriend to get you to back away. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cause problems."

"Whiskey. The bottle and four shot glasses." Aria holds up her hand for the waiter that is passing by.

"So, wait a minute. I ... uh ... you aren't his girlfriend? Okay I can see that now. But the accident, my God, I had no idea."

Tiffany's eyes grow big and she glances around the table.

"I thought you knew. You know right, Evaleen?" Tiffany's eyes are pleading with Evaleen.

"No, I had no idea. No one in that office knows anything about Payne's past, well, except the Mimir brothers." Evaleen shakes her head and resumes sipping from her straw.

"Shit balls!" Tiffany exclaims.

Chapter 29 - THE Drunk Dial ...

"So Henrik has no family?" I ask grabbing a shot glass that the waiter just dropped off and hug the whiskey bottle as if it's a life preserver.

"Yes, he had an uncle in Baltimore, shady character. Always in and out of jail. The uncle's son, Henrik's cousin shot the uncle about a year ago. I don't know it all seems sort of sketchy to me. I understand why he isn't really in contact with his cousin."

Wow. No wonder Henrik is such an asshole. He's had a terrible life for a long time. As much as I don't want to I am starting to have some sympathy for him.

"Don't you dare, Morgana!"
Brain pipes up waving her squiggly finger at me.

"Come on, Brain. Look at his life. He is still human, you know."

She rolls her eyes in disgust.

"He fucked you and then left you --with no underwear I might add -- to get fired. There are people in this world who have been through worse and still treat others with respect. What he did was awful."

"Now I wouldn't call it awful, Brain."
My Vagina calls out, waving her sensual hips.

"Okay, you two just leave it. I may have some sympathy for him but you are right, Brain, it doesn't excuse how he treated me."

"That is some messed up shit." Aria slurs as she throws back a shot. This is her third shot and it is already affecting her. How can someone who is a bartender get drunk so easily? Aria defies logic sometimes.

"Just forget I said anything. I really did think everyone knew. The way he talks about you two I just assumed you were his friends." Tiffany points to me and Evaleen.

We look at each other and break into laughter. Shaking our heads at the same time like creepy twins who wear matching everything.

"Oh God, that was good. Oh man, I haven't laughed that hard since ... well ... since you interviewed with the company, Drake. No, Payne has no friends, except for you, Blackburn." Evaleen points to Tiffany and I figure out that's her last name.

"What about Edgar? He told me they were friends in college." I counter Evaleen.

Evaleen giggles and squeaks and then giggles some more.

"Edgar? Uh ... maybe ... uh ... yeah. Perhaps. I don't know about Edgar. Why would I know about him? He's not even my boss it's not like I try to find out about his personal life for Christ sake!" Evaleen's voice goes high and then low and then growls the last part.

"Hold on there, cowgirl. We are talking about Mr. Payne's life, not grilling you about Edgar. Relax. No one thinks you have the hots for him. I mean they KNOW you have the hots for him, they don't think it." I explain my point as Evaleen glares at me while the rest of the table chuckles.

I push back my second shot and am starting to feel good.

"Drake, forget about Payne. Here I got something for you." Evaleen digs in her purse and pulls out a small piece of paper, sliding it across the table. I pick it up and see a website scribbled across it www.datingEblackbook.com.

"Is this a dating site?"

"Yeah. I did it a few times. The guys on there aren't bad. You just got to weed out the losers to find the good ones."

As decent as my buzz is right now it can't hold back the irritation I feel. I push the paper back to Evaleen.

"Bechmann, just no. Please give me a break. I don't think I can handle men right now."

Her lips curl up into a smirk and she gets up waving me to come with her. I grab my purse and make my way through the crowd to her side. We end up in the ladies room as she heads into the blue toilet stall. Despite the very dated establishment the bathroom is quite modern. The gleaming light gray tile looks new with blue mosaic counters and three white basin sinks. I decide to empty my bladder too since I am in here. As I hover my ass over the toilet seat I hear Evaleen.

"You know you can have your job back anytime you want, Drake."

I quickly wipe up and flush. When I leave the stall Evaleen is washing her hands and I saddle up beside her at the adjacent sink. As I wash my hands I glance over at Evaleen who is smiling while drying with a paper towel.

"What do you mean anytime I want? I was fired."

"Uh, technically you were never fired. I put you on time off without pay. You are still an employee of Mimir."

I bypass the paper towels and grab her arms, turning her to face me.

"And you were going to tell me this when? Any time over the last month and a half I would have liked to know that."

She pries my wet hands from her and tries to dry her damp sleeves.

"Well, I thought Payne would man up and try to get your job back for you as soon as he came back to the company since he was just as much to blame for the situation I found you two in. But, of course he said nothing, his usual course of action. As tough as that man pretends to be when the shit hits the fan he clams up like a ... a ... clam!"

I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding and lean back against the sink.

"I might be partially to blame for that. I don't know if Aria told you but a few days after the 'Munting' with Mr. Payne he came over and, well, things got steamy."

Evaleen is shaking her head in confusion.

"Munting?"

"I use that instead of incident. Trying to trick my brain. Anyway I told him I wanted more than a one night stand and he said he didn't. I sort of made it clear I didn't want to see him anymore."

"Well, he's been asking about you despite what you said to him. This week he has become so annoying. Usually he is just abrupt and condescending, but this week he keeps hanging around my office asking if I have talked to you. It's weird. I don't like this Payne at all."

I smile. My grin is so big I think my cheeks crack.

"Really? Does he look tired, like he hasn't gotten any sleep and maybe forgot to shave? Oooh, is he growing a slight beard?"

"Oh God, Drake, don't make me throw up the two shots and margarita I have in my stomach. I need at least three more shots before I consider up chucking. So, what about the job?"

We open the door and head back toward the booth.

"It's not like I have much of a choice. I need the money and it would be nice having a chance at the Executive Development Program again. I have a feeling Payne will most definitely recommend me for that when the time comes. Plus, I really like Mimir."

Evaleen hugs me and explains she wants me there tomorrow to sign some papers. We get back to our seat and do a few more shots. My head is spinning now. Evaleen and I get up to dance a few times. As I make my way back from the dance floor to take a break I see Aria and Tiffany giggling at something and looking at me. They shove a cell phone in my direction.

"Here, Morgana, it's for you."

I nod and grab it, "Hello?"

"Morgana?" I hear Mr. Payne's deep voice on the other end.

I glare at the two laughing ladies, or should I say girls, sitting in the booth.

"Yes, hi did you call me?" I ask.

"No, I thought you called me?"

"I think my drunk friends called you. Sorry, Mr. Payne. I'll let you go now."

"No wait. Where are you?"

I bite my lip knowing I shouldn't tell him due to the bad decisions I always make when drunk. I try to find my Brain but discover her on a chair in the corner, passed out with one squiggly arm over the back of the chair, the other dragging the floor.

"I'm at the Upper Lounge on Lake in West Side."

"Don't go anywhere I'm coming there. I want to see you."

He hangs up before I have time to answer.