Really? - M.J. Garrett (english readers txt) 📗

is still the most romantic thing I've ever heard!"

I peeked through my squinted eyes and slowly turned to face her. "You're not mad?"

"Abe, I'm not mad at all. I may be a little embarrassed for you, but when I look at what a man I have, I can't help but smile." She cracked a smile and pulled her glasses off her face. "Now, what are we going to do about getting you a job?"

Here I am, sitting in front of one of the most amazing women in the world. Angela, sat there dressed in her black pant suit with her face glowing with pride and I'm coward in the seat like a pouty guilty child in trouble. She looked at me like I just saved the world.


**


"Can you act?" Rick pulled down one corner of the paper he was reading and peered over the top. "There are a couple of job offers, but it's for acting and modeling. I don't really picture you as a model."

"Really, Rick? I can't model, but I act?" What nerve? "Well, I did play the lead role in Romeo and Juliet. I killed it!" I looked toward the ceiling with my hands folded behind my head trapped in a moment of nostalgia. The feel of the crowd cheering and clapping made me breathe in deep as the smell of the oak stage and stale air filled my nose.

"Abe, how old were you when you played Romeo?" Rick blankly looked at me as if he was calling my bluff.

"It was third grade." I looked at him as he cracked a smile of disbelief. "What?"
"Didn't you go to an all-boys school?" Sitting there, he looked at me waiting for the truth to unveil. I sat there trying to escape the conversation, knowing that he somehow knew the truth. "You weren't Romeo were you?"

"No! Fine, you got me!" I had hoped that he wouldn't figure out my true role that I played in that ridiculous play. I sat there, again sinking into yet another chair.

"You played Juliet, didn't you?"

"No!" I looked around the room trying to find a quick escape, but I couldn't find anywhere to hide. He sat there with his blank face, peering into the depths of my shallow soul. "Fine! Yes! I played Juliet!! Is that so hard to believe? So what if it was a chic role? It's art!"

"I knew it."

Silence filled the room as we both looked into each other’s eyes. I could see the wheels turning through his twisted mind. I could tell he was picturing me in a dress and face painted with exaggerated makeup. I couldn't hide. He had me pegged. Smothered in embarrassment, I leaned back into my chair and again folded my hands behind my head. "Don't rob me of this feeling, man. Don't rob me."

"Does she know?" He asked me as I could see that he was plotting my embarrassment.

"Yes." I looked at him full of confidence, challenging his audacity.

"No she doesn't." Smiling at me he pulled his eyes toward the phone sitting on the table.

"Don't even think about it, Rick!" Leaning up to square up to him, "I'm warning you, Rick. If you do this...Damn it, Rick! Put the phone down!"


Chapter 16

I pulled a chair from the kitchen table and placed it in front of the window. I sat there and looked out the window overlooking the parking lot of the apartment complex. Things seemed to be going so well for me. Job, kids, girlfriend, and Rick. My bills were caught up and I wasn't really drowning in unfortunate events.

In such a short time, I have become the person that I never had an interest in entertaining. Brought out of my self-inflicted shell of solitude, I find myself occupied by reality. Erin and Erika sat across the table and penciled in math and science homework. Their beautiful blond hair softly rested down their back and their shoulders as they propped their head up with their hand. Everything about them was so similar. The way they formed their hands around their little pencils were identical. Their feet dangled off the front of the kitchen chairs and they both crossed their legs at their ankles. Right foot over left and both of them swing their feet while engaged in their assignments.

Looking at them and then out the window, I realized that if I made it this far and survived, I was bound to climb my way out of the temporary jobless predicament. I smiled and leaned back in the chair as I ran the idea of acting and doing commercials through my ridiculous mind. If Rick was serious, I think I could do it.

"Dad?" Erika's sweet voice filled my ears as I turned to answer her.

"Yes, Dear?" I smiled and looked into her beautiful green eyes.

"Are you really going to try and be on TV and in Magazines?" She softly laid her pencil on the table as both of the girls looked at me smiling. "If so, that would be awesome! You will be famous!"

I smiled at them and laughed under my breath. Their young minds have been occupied with the thought of what I was going to do. Sure, I wanted to make them proud, but realistically I knew that acting wasn't for me. I got up from the chair and kissed them on their pretty foreheads and then made my way into the office area of the house.

Glancing around Rick’s office was somewhat surprising. I looked at his wall of photos and then started to really study who Rick was and how he entertained himself. Pictures of Rick at parties and events! It must be nice to have such a social life. I stood there looking at them and one picture caught my eye. Pulling my face close to the picture, I squinted to narrow in on the tiny details. "Is that...no way?"

"You like that?" Rick walked in the room and leaned against the wall as he rubbed the red skin of the apple he had in his hand. Pointing at the picture, I smiled and asked if the person in the picture was who I thought it was. "Yep. That, my friend, is Mr. Trump. I took that picture with him just after we made a business deal that made both of us millions."

"Really? Are you fucking kidding me?! Wow, that is the Mr. Trump?" I looked at the picture in pure amazement. "Millions? If you make millions, what the hell are you doing living here in this apartment with the common folk?"

"That's my favorite part, Abe." He smiled and walked over to the pictures and stood beside me. We both looked at the memories that everyone else wanted. "Abe, I don't work in the mail room."
"What do you mean? Everyone told me that you did." I was dumbfounded. I didn't know what to say or what to do at this point. I stood there mumbling moronic unfinished questions while he smiled and removed the picture from the wall and stared at it.

"No, I don't work the mail room. I own that business." He took a deep breath and bit into the apple. I didn't understand why he would try to be so modest. Why didn't he say anything to me? I was almost offended, but I understood the reasoning.

"So, you fired me!!" He quickly looked at me and smiled.

“Well, I didn’t fire you personally. Someone else usually does the hiring and firing.” Standing there with that smirk on his face made me mad, but I couldn’t hide the smile.

“So what do I do now?” I asked him while we stood there smiling and looking at his memories.

“You didn’t need that job. You are way over qualified. I was thinking that maybe you could be used for a far better and more important role inside the company.” Biting into his apple he leaned back against the desk. I glanced at him and then at the pictures on the wall, then back at him. His eyes narrowed as he slowly chewed the apple. You could definitely tell that the wheels in his head were turning. If there was a moment that I wished for some super power that allowed me to read his mind, it would be now.

We stood there for a minute or so, just silence. Neither of us said anything. He still leaned up against his desk with a mouth full of apple and I stood there with my hands on my hips. They say that you can tell a lot about someone’s confidence level by the way you stood. Standing with your hands on your hips was supposed to mean that you were full of confidence. Maybe some sort of Superman pose? Standing with your arms folded across your chest and leaning away meant that you were protecting yourself. A sign of caution and vulnerability. I think that if you were to base our personality and confidence on these body language rules, you would be completely wrong.
Standing there with his arms folded, leaning against his desk, his bottom eyelids lifted slightly and his eyebrows lowered as the wheels continued to spin.

“It seems like you need a little space to gather your thoughts, I’m going to check on the girls.” As I walked toward the door, he quickly spoke and I turned to face him. Still leaning against his desk, he quickly asked me to sit down. “Am I in trouble? This seems like one of those moments in school where the teacher sits me down and expresses a deep dissatisfaction with my performance.”

“Just sit down. It’s nothing like that.” He took a deep breath and pushed himself off the desk and slowly paced around the room. As he centered himself in front of the desk, he pulled his arms from around his chest and placed them on his hips. The Superman pose. “I have an incredible opportunity to do something amazing. By doing this, I can change the lives of several important people.”

“Well, what is the problem? It sounds like a good thing.”

“The problem is that I don’t think that the person is quite ready. It will take time and a lot of training to get them up to speed, but I know with the right attitude, they can do the job and do it well.”

“I’m sure that if the person is a good responsible person that they will be up to it. You seem like a good judge