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Chapter Twenty-One Where's the Temp?

When I returned to work Monday everything was a mess. My desk had four new cases that I had to card and register. I had to schedule two meetings for today, call a client to schedule an interview, order office supplies and clean up the meeting room. "Can't a girl take a vacation around here?" I asked. Meghan was busy with her own work and didn't have time to cover for me. "What happened to the temp they were supposed to hire last week?" I asked her. "Chris forgot to call it in, he's been weird this week." "Weird how?" "Just not himself...he's usually on top of things but he seems off." I wondered if it was finally sinking in that maybe Catalina's wasn't coming back.

"Welcome back!" Chris said to me while I was cleaning the conference room. "Some welcome. What happened to the temp you were supposed to hire for the week?" "I forgot about that...when I remembered to do it I thought I could handle things myself. I didn't think I'd get this many at once." I could see he wasn't himself. "I forgive you. How's everything?" I asked him. "I can't complain." he said. This didn't seem like the right time to push him with questions about his marriage so I let it go. "What's the meeting with Morgan and Stern about?" "They want to partner with us on a case they're working on. They wouldn't tell us what the case was about until they got here." "Oh, sounds like an interesting one." "I think it will be, and hey can you make sure you have some time set aside so that we can have you there to take notes and such please? I'd greatly appreciate it." he clasped his hands together as if in prayer. 

It was funny to me how Chris and I could carry on a conversation as if we had never seen each other naked. But that was the right way to have sex with a married co-worker and his wife. Carry on like nothing ever happened so we could both keep our professional lives in tact. When Morgan and Stern arrived I was surprised to see that Melissa Morgan was a woman. I automatically assumed that it would be men. It was good to see a woman holding it down for the women. The meeting lasted about two hours, and the partners discussed a potential suspect in a murder case that we were currently working on. They believed that he had an accomplice and they knew who he was, but he was untouchable. He was a congressman. This would be a high profile case and they would have to tread lightly. Everything would have to be top secret and confidential. They couldn't make any real moves against Congressman Jones until they had concrete evidence. 

The next couple weeks went by smoothly. I hadn't heard from Catalina and I thought for a while that she had moved on and maybe that was a good thing. I could focus on my husband and family again. Maybe she could find out what it was she really wanted out of her life. Zoe's graduation was this Thursday afternoon so of course I had to hit up my partner in crime to shop. I couldn't just go to her shop and pick something since I had to look like the mother of a graduate. I had to go find a nice dress so we went to the mall. I found the perfect dress in store number three: Taylor's Boutique. It was a gray dress, fitted, with a small split on each side. The back was cut to the middle of my back, long sleeves, and hung a little off the shoulders. I bought a new pair of shoes because why not? So they were black 5" leather heels with peep toes and I got the matching bag too.

Zoe wore a red pant suit, Antonio wore a black suit and Charles wore a black pin-striped suit. We all looked good. The graduation was at 6:00pm at the Multiplex Auditorium. Eva came, Mr. and Mrs. Waters, (Charles' parents) came, and my father came. Antonio recorded the entire event with his new camcorder. When they called Zoe Waters we all stood and clapped. Afterwards we stood in front and took pictures and met some of the other parents. Then we went to dinner at The Philadelphia. Zoe got a $1,000 Visa gift card from Charles' parents, My father paid for one year of her dorm rent and we bought her a slightly used but new to her Ford Escape. Antonio had even saved up $300 and got her a gift card. She was so happy with everything and it turned out to be a nice family day.

The next day at work I was proudly showing off pictures of her at the graduation. Mr. Harding said he knew someone in admissions at SCAD although he didn't think she would need his help. I told him every little bit is appreciated. I decided to leave a little early. I had so much personal time that I needed to use before I lost it. So I called Zoe up and asked if she wanted to go shopping for her new dorm room. I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could before she went off to college. She said yes so I went home to meet her and she, of course, wanted to drive her new car. We went to the strip mall and she spent $400 on bedsheets, towels, a chair she couldn't live without, a microwave, a laptop, a dorm fridge, arts and crafts supplies, school supplies and room decorations. "Hey mom, let's go see if dad's working!" Zoe said. She sounded like the little 3 year old girl that I wanted so much to hold on to. I hadn't realized how close to Charles' office we were. He had bought this office so many years ago hoping that being so close to the strip mall would help draw him more business.