A New Story

*9*

On Wednesday morning, Katie let herself into the house, as she normally did, and made her way downstairs where she knew she'd find Maria already typing away. She took a deep breath as she entered the office and put a smile on her face.

"Good morning! How goes it in space?" Katie asked, referencing Maria's current book project.

"Mmm, it's going okay. A bit stumped at the moment."

"Having a good morning though?" she asked, hopefully.

She cringed when Maria stopped typing. She must have caught something in her tone of voice. Katie continued to put her things down on her desk and glanced to see Maria slowly turning around. "Yes," she said slowly. "A good morning. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, you know, just friendly curiosity. Making conversation. It's what people do." Katie cringed even further inside. She was overcompensating, and she knew it, and she knew Maria would be able to tell.

"Yes, but something is off. You're acting all...weird."

Katie sighed and closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again and slipping her hand into her purse to pull out a folded newspaper. "I was just...hoping...that maybe if you were in a good mood...this—this wouldn't bother you so much."

"What wouldn't bother me so much?" Maria asked as she stood and walked toward Katie's desk, hand out to take whatever it was her assistant had.

Katie took another deep breath and unfolded the paper, turning it toward Maria. She watched as the author's eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open in horror. She suddenly had a thought. "Oh, I brought you a coffee!" She said and grabbed it from the desk, holding it out toward the woman who currently stood stock still.

Maria snapped. She grabbed the paper out of Katie's hands with both of her own. "Coffee! A bloody coffee is what got me into this mess! I cannot believe this! The one time! The first time! I knew I shouldn't have agreed to go out for anything with that man!" As she went on her tirade she paced back and forth across the room.

Katie made a decisive move and stepped out from around her desk and toward Maria. Surely this wasn't so bad. "That man is your friend, Maria. Your good friend."

"That man promised me that everything would be fine. There would be no trouble. It was just coffee." Katie watched as Maria walked toward the nook in the bookshelf where the spiral staircase came down from upstairs. "Just a chat about how his trip was. How my meeting with the publisher had gone. Oh yes, just fine indeed. Now I'm labeled as his latest conquest! Oh, I can't wait to see what he has to say about this!"

"Where are you going?"

"Where do you think I'm going? I'm going to talk to the bloody actor who I now am apparently in a relationship with!" As she continued to speak, her voice got louder and the paper was being waved higher. Katie watched as she marched up the steps and a few moments later she heard the door slam.

The woman plopped back down in her office chair with a sigh and rubbed her fingers into her temples. For a brief moment, she considered warning Daniel that a powerful storm was headed his way. But she was determined not to get in the middle of Maria's relationship with the man—no matter how much it killed her to see her friend resisting a man who obviously cared so much about her and her daughter.

**—**—**

Daniel was sitting at the dining table across from JP as the two sipped their coffee and discussed an upcoming project, when there was a rather loud banging at the front door. Both men frowned and as JP got up to answer it, Daniel motioned for him to stay seated and got up himself.