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LAURA
'You sure you're okay with this, doll?'
I knew the best thing to do was to confront Eddie about the article matter that got out of hand. I was supposed to be held responsible for this issue but he had strictly asked me to stay out of it and let him do the talking. He wasn't too happy about it either but seeing the rates for the newspaper go up, sort of brought about the silver lining.
On that note, Eddie and I had moved back to our apartment. The memories that were fresh out of containment came crashing back into me and I felt at ease again. We fell into our routine the very next day, heading out with work and waiting for Tony's call on the issue at hand.
I was also ecstatic to hear about the promotion letters being sent out that week and I was absolutely positive to check the mail-box every day. By the end of the week, nothing came by to our building. So, I lost hope and settled on looking past to it. It's what I did best - move on from matters that would end up being pipedreams. When Eddie approached me about it, I shrugged.
'Maybe next time,' I mumbled and continued to browse through the latest reports that had hit the desk. The work had been piled after Barnum's mysterious death which really shocked my colleagues at the Daily Bugle. I was relocated to the social sector temporarily under Abernathy because of the problem and I was doing more than fine. They had ceased any sort of investigations on Paul's passing, slamming it down as suicidal death. They had an honorary speech, a moment of silence and his name plastered across the obituary section of the weekly edition of the newspaper. Tons of eulogy letters had come to his desk and his repute being murmured about every second of the day. By the third day of his passing, I was sick of their yapping about a dead man.
'Hey,' Eddie murmured to get my attention and looked up from the leather sofa I lounged on. To hell with it all, I thought at that moment. I had a shitty evening job and never got my intern promotion no matter how hard I tried. At least I had a person I could depend upon.
He sat near my feet, rubbing a hand over my ankle and smiling graciously. The amber lights that peaked from the curtained windows caused shadows over his face, accentuating his usually abated features. His eyes looked like molten gold for a second before I blinked my trance away.
'You are brilliant and I think that the people up there just don't know it yet. You just have to keep doing what you do to keep them noticing you,' he advised, 'so promise me you'll try harder.'
I was trying harder, I wanted to say back. I rested my head with a tired curve of my lips and nodded, settling on compliance. 'I will.'
'Super because we,' he said and got up on his feet to hold out his hand, 'are gonna' have some fun.'
