Our Hearts' Desire (The Monkees Family Vol. 2)

Chapter 36

Late in the afternoon on Wednesday, Gabby had a most unexpected visitor to her office. Robert poked his head in to let her know that Wendy was in the reception area and would like to speak with Gabby on a matter of some urgency.

"I wonder why she didn't just call me."

Robert just shrugged his shoulders and said "Beats me. But she's got her Lady Nesmith look on, mixed with at least a bit of her crazy eyes look, so it must be something fairly important. I've got a bottle of wine at my desk if you need it."

Gabby laughed, then paused and said more thoughtfully "Yeah, better go grab it and give it to me, Robert. Go put it on the bookshelf and I'll go get Wendy."

Gabby walked out to the reception area and saw Wendy pacing, twisting her hands and wringing them, muttering silently to herself then running her hands through her wild hair. Gabby gulped and immediately determined that this was a code red situation and told the receptionist to hold all her calls and to route them through Robert and tell him to take a message. She plastered on a big, welcoming smile and cooed "Wendileh, it's so good to see you! Welcome to my world! Let me show you around!"

She and Wendy embraced and Gabby could see that Wendy had been crying. She immediately changed tacks and said "Wanna wait on that tour and see my office first?" Wendy merely nodded and let Gabby lead the way. As they approached her office, Robert spotted them and stood up from his desk. "Wendy, you probably already know, but if you don't, Robert is my assistant and Boy Friday, as he likes to call himself. He's been doing a fantastic job for us here. He organized that charity softball game for us recently. Well, he and Micky did."

Robert approached Wendy carefully as Gabby gave him a warning nod and he said briefly as he hugged her "Wendy, it's great to see you. Gabby's office is that way. Go on in. I'll catch you on your way out."

The two girls went into Gabby's office and she saw with relief that Robert had indeed left a bottle of wine on the credenza with the bookcase. She walked towards it and said "It's almost cocktail hour, Wendy, want a glass of wine to celebrate your maiden visit to my feminist coven?" Wendy just nodded her head and looked around at her surroundings. There were posters with various political and organizational slogans, many books on the shelves, stacks of leaflets and boxes of files, but mostly, Gabby's office was decorated as a home away from home since she spent so much time there.

Finally, Wendy spoke after taking a sip of the glass of wine Gabby had handed to her. "This is a really nice, homey office, Gabby. It's very you. Welcoming and full of purpose and drive."

Gabby examined the remarks for any tinge of sarcasm, double-meaning, passive aggressiveness or snark and decided there was none, which sort of startled her. Wendy must really be having a crisis if she couldn't even summon up a good backhanded insult disguised as a compliment as she had fallen into the habit of doing over the years.

"Thanks. So what's up, Wendy? How are you, and is there some particular reason for your visit or did you just feel like catching up?"

Wendy took another sip of wine and kept her eyes focused on the coffee table in front of her. "Well, uhm, I did have something I wanted to talk to you about, and I was in the neighborhood, and it seemed like it would be better to talk to you about it here than to ask you to haul your ass up to our place. You're busy and have stuff going on."

Gabby tried to make eye contact with Wendy but couldn't catch her glance. "Wendy, I'm never, ever too busy for you. Of course it's always okay for you to come here, but it's never a problem for me to come to you if that works better."

Wendy finally looked at Gabby and said "Actually, it had to be here. I can't talk about what I want to talk about at home or the studio because I don't want Mike to overhear us discussing it."