"No, I had Chinese yesterday," L'Atrice bellowed. "Fran bring in the menu from that Italian place."
I brought in the menus and dropped them on her desk.
L'Atrice mumbled to herself while she perused. "Umm, nah, not parmesan. What about lasagna? No, too much dairy..."
I turned to leave.
"Hold on, Fran," bellowed L'Atrice, breaking out of her mumbling trance. "Don't be in such a hurry. We'll decide in a minute."
I glanced over at Thea, who gave me a reassuring "but be patient" look.
"The numbers are on the menus," I stated.
She ignored me and turned to Thea. "Tell you what, why don't I take you out to lunch?" I took a deep breath waiting, wanting Thea to say, "NO."
Instead she bubbled, "Great idea. I need to get out of here."
"Great, let's go. Fran, let them know I'm at a meeting." And with that L'Atrice swept out in a flurry.
"I'm right behind you," said Thea. But as she left, she surprised me with a kiss. "Don't look so gloomy. I'll see you later."
Thea found me at Mocha Daze after work, whirling darts at Hugo's new dart board -- part of the renovations of the shop. I'm not much of a dart player, but I had stuck L'Atrice's picture in the center of the target and was aiming pretty good.
"Remind me not to give you any pictures of me," she quipped. THWAP! I tossed another dart at L'Atrice's face.
"No. You can give me pictures, " I said. "Just don't piss me off." I went back to the dart board, because I was in fact, already pissed off at her. THWAP!
"Hey, talk to me," she said. "What did I do?"
"Nothing. Absolutely nothing," I said, not bothering to keep the sarcasm from my voice.
"What do you want me to do Fran? I've talked to L'Atrice. You've got your job. What did you want?"
"I wanted you to back me up! I wanted you to tell them what happened."
"And I did! I stated your case - but it was your word against hers. And right now, at this company, her word has more weight!"
THWAP!!!
"You gotta play the game a little, Fran. You have to watch out for number one. The field isn't always level - but eventually things even themselves out. Let it go, babe."
THWAP!
"Bullseye!" I yelled, having hit L'Atrice square between the eyes. I looked at Thea - geez, she was gorgeous, but my voice had venom when spoke. "She stole my design. She got away with it. You could have helped me. But I guess you were looking out for your number one. Don't expect me to forget that."
I regretted what I said even as I was saying it, but I couldn't help it. And when Thea left, with genuine hurt in her eyes, I wanted to run after her and tell her I was sorry. But I was angry; so I didn't.
THWAP!
