Love's Inferno

Chapter 5- A Zoom Call Ablaze

Lou

I blanched. 

I know I did but I couldn't believe Anna's callousness. Nothing could've prepared me for how that question had walloped me through the face. The only reason she knew anything, at all, about my personal life was because she had overheard me on the phone to Mandisa. Sweetheart and I had been on a phone call last week where she wanted to create an action plan for the upcoming month. It was their anniversary...everyone but mine,  in exactly two weeks. I had been in the midst of explaining to her how I didn't have the emotional energy to commit to it, mourning, with the launch. I had heard the scrape of a shoe which is when I'd turned from pouring my coffee to find Anna staring at me in the doorway. 

"Sweetheart..." 

"Yeah?" Mandi and I were connected on a molecular level. I knew she didn't need to see my face to know that something was wrong. 

"I'm gonna have to call you back." 

"Okay shap." 

"Shap." I dropped the call and tried to resume sugaring my coffee, with the futile hope that Anna hadn't heard much (if any) of our conversation and that she'd leave. I was wrong. Gravely; as it appeared now. 

I straightened and shifted my glasses. I could do this. I could handle this and I would have to. I would have to handle the entire office knowing that I was an orphan because Anna hadn't left me with a choice. 

"Um-" I could hear my voice breaking so I cleared my throat and took a deep breath. 

"Well? Are they dead or not?" She pressed, hard. "Because you have no excuse for dropping the ball like this and playing hookey otherwise." 

Unbelievable. I didn't know who was worse, her or Dante but at this point, I'd chose Dante any day because at least he seemed to have a sense of a time and place when it came to demonstrating his blatant disdain for me. "I mean the launch is just around the corner, and now because of you and your inability to handle your job Tony's security is threatening to pull him from the launch entirely. So?" I was not going to dignify her with an answer about my family in front of five virtual strangers, so I decided evasion was my best tactic. 

"Mrs. Tanner, I have a distant relative who-" 

"A distant relative?! You mean to tell me that you've failed to perform your duties today because of some distant relative Miss September? You should have been in the office today. Where are you in any case? Because that hovel looks nothing like what you like to call a home.  I mean the thing changes every few months but even I know you're not at home. Your home is normally even messier than that place but I suppose that's just how you are messy. Your apartment. The way you manage your work-" I closed my eyes, willing my tears to wait a few moments longer before falling. I was going to cry. I could feel it. And not because I was sad but because I was enraged. Enraged and sad... but I was always sad deeply, deeply sad. 

"Anna basta!" My eyes flew open and towering in the frame behind me was Dante. 

Anna froze, completely silent and we all watched in unison as he dragged a chair, incredibly loudly into the frame. Slowly and without breaking eye contact with her, he lowered himself next to me. There wasn't much space at Sal's desktop which meant that we were virtually sitting on top of one another. I wanted to run, scramble away from him and I would've if I wasn't caged in by the wall. And yes, I wanted to scramble away from him because I had no idea why he was inserting himself into my business and I was pretty sure I had just lost my job but it wasn't just that. When I had stopped myself from shifting I looked up into the call and found myself wanting to run for another reason entirely. It was the expression firmly rooted on his usually inexpressive face; the man looked nothing short of terrifying. I felt the skin on my arms rise with goosebumps which spread over the entirety of my body once his knees touched mine.