Love.com (24 page)

By the end of the weekend, Ilene
’s workers unearthed many antiques in her attic. Jay took the task of looking the items up online for her to make sure the woman didn’t cheat her. He dealt in old trading cards, but the principal was the same.

An old table yielded twenty-four hundred dollars. It didn’t seem to bother Ilene it was missing the chairs. A
n old cuckoo clock brought in over nine hundred dollars. A cracked porcelain pitcher and an old television set from the nineteen-fifties brought in nearly five hundred dollars each. There were several more items that were listed on the sheet the dealer gave her. She made a total of nine thousand and thirty-two dollars overall. Not a bad haul for cleaning out the garage over the weekend.

Jay was
still working on getting an accurate worth of the baseball cards. He hadn’t given her the final figures yet. Sunday evening, she sat on her front porch thinking about how fate seemed to turn when one wasn’t looking. She thought she’d given up everything for a man who never wanted her, her life’s savings, her own sense of self. Turned out, Eddie replaced it all for her in a roundabout way, and then some, with his hobby of picking up other people’s trash.

She could forgive Eddie now. It wasn’t the money that brought about her desire to let her husband go to his final resting place. It was realizing how tormented Eddie must have been to deny what he was all these years.
He’d suffered far more than her, she realized, feeling guilty for only dwelling on herself.  Emily didn’t want to know the identity of the man he loved. It seemed pointless to level guilt at that person too, who was trapped in the same hell as her husband with no way out.

That night she didn’t
think about how badly she botched things in her life and marriage in her think tank. For once, she went to bed and slept without dreams, woke up without doubts, and went to work with a resolve to give Ambidor exactly what they wanted.

Emily
arrived an hour early, dressed in a classic navy suit that Joan insisted upon. She wasn’t nervous; a calm entering her as she mentally went over the questions already posed by Ian a week before.  She had this in the bag, she knew. Nobody knew the account as well as she did.

A call to St. Vincent’s
Hospital assured her Ida Berkowitz still lived. She was going to see the woman on her lunch hour, with a surprise the old lady would no doubt appreciate.

Anne-Marie called her first thing that morning on her way to work. The woman was jumping through hoops to get her money, cooperated to the degree of desperation. Emily referred her to the accounting department later that
morning for her fee.

As
Emily sat alone in her office before everyone arrived, she allowed herself to think of Ian. He was in Luxemburg today. She felt a heart pang to know he would be gone a whole year. Whether Ian realized it or not, he helped her get through one of the most difficult times in her life. She theorized her intense feelings for Ian were some defense mechanism she used to not deal with Eddie’s secret life, or her own feelings of self-loathing for not seeing it from the start. Try as she might to analyze Ian into a corner where he would stay; her heart was still full of him.

She was meeting a guy online that night for drinks.
Bachelor # 5 was a construction worker named Roy who liked to play backgammon. He enjoyed walks on the beach, and collected stamps. It was time she got out and allowed herself to get over Ian. He certainly didn’t have to get over her. He hadn’t called since his apologetic voicemail. She knew better than to think Ian would ever allow himself to dwell or have regrets.

It never truly began, her relationship with Ian, but it was over. Whatever she imagined in her mind was abruptly derailed, denied a destination. She didn’t know if that made her crazy or not, but in some twisted way, she found herself again, found some meaning in it all.

As the office filled up, she took a deep breath, knowing the VIP’s were being picked up at their hotel in less than an hour. They were bringing the new guy with them today. He was taking Ian’s place for the next three months until the ad business was finished.

She read her email while she waited, chuckling to get one from Evan. He was worried, by the tone of it, giving her a pep talk he thought she needed. Emily wondered how Tabitha was taking it that she was out of commission for a week and couldn’t undermine this meeting.

Stu walked into the office and looked troubled. She decided the confrontation between them was overdue. Tabitha wasn’t
there to interfere. Stu had to know which side of the fence was his best option. After what Ian told her, he had to choose sides.

Stu looked up as she entered his office, his expression wary. “Good morning, Emily. I see you have a gloating expression. Looks good on you
, by the way. I’ll just be an hour and have my office cleaned out.”

Emily looked confused. “What do you mean?”

“I was terminated by Evan this morning via email,” Stu supplied coldly and ignored her as he shuffled through his desk. “Don’t tell me you didn’t have something to do with that? We both know you followed me to the Carlton Hotel. You told him I was screwing his girlfriend, didn’t you?”

“Were you?” Emily felt relief to know Stu was leaving. She could never trust him. How it came about was none of her doing.

Stu chuckled and shook his head. “No, sorry to dispute office gossip, but it was never about that. Sorry I can’t fill you in on all the particulars, but it appears somebody installed a bugging device in the room. All our conversations were being recorded.”

Emily knew it was Ian who had been watching them, but said nothing. Corporate hit man, for sure. He was suspicious of the pair from the start, probably already knew more than her when she told him what she overheard
outside the conference room. “What will you do now?”

“What do you care, Emily?” Stu paused in cleaning out his desk to glare
up at her, pushing up his glasses defiantly. “You got what you wanted in the end, didn’t you? All along Tabitha thought you were this pathetic little mouse. Imagine her surprise to know she underestimated you?”

“I had nothing to do with any of this, Stu,” Emily
informed him coolly. “You and Tabitha cut your own throats plotting against Evan as you did. What about her? Did he fire her too, or just cut back on her allowance?”

Stu chuckled and shook his head. “Well,
last I heard she went home to pack for New York on Friday night and found the locks changed on her apartment door. What do you think, Emily? I’d say she’s out of a home and a job.”

Emily took little pleasure in knowing Evan kicked his mistress to the curb; literally. She guessed hearing how incredibly ruthless Tabitha was must have turned him off. She knew she had Ian to thank for all of it
now, knowing he made sure Evan heard the recordings. He finished this for her before he left. She appreciated it, knowing she had little stomach for what it took. She was too soft-hearted for what needed to be done. While she felt badly for the pair of them getting what they deserved, she knew it had to happen.

“If it’s any consolation; I wasn’t the one who went to Evan with
any of this,” Emily told him and frowned. “I didn’t think he would believe me without any proof.”

“No, you
just had your boyfriend do it for you!” Stu shoved stuff in boxes, eyeing her in disgust. “Don’t think I won’t sue Stone and Watterman for illegal tapping. This isn’t over by far.”

“I wish you well, Stu. Do yourself a favor and learn from this when you go to your next job. You can’t cheat to get to the top. It doesn’t work that way.” Emily retreated from Stu’s office; sure he’d take his severance and unemployment and find another job. He was all talk now, his threats to sue the agency pure bravado.

“You just watch your back, Emily. I can’t tell you how much Tabitha would love to ruin your life right now, the way you ruined hers.”

Emily froze at the door, his obvious warning
she had a dangerous enemy making her stop and turn, eyeing him in disgust. “I’m not afraid of her, Stu. She got what she deserved. Would you have really stood back and let Evan kill himself like she planned?”

Stu looked dismayed, looking away
from the accusation in her gaze. “I didn’t agree to any of that, Emily. I told her it was wrong. You can think what you want, but I never encouraged her.”

“Guilt by association than. Choose your allies better next time, Stu.”

She left his office, relieved she didn’t have to deal with the pair of them again. Ian fixed everything for her. She was determined not to read anything into it. He did it for the agency, to make sure they didn’t undermine the campaign. Even as she told herself that was Ian’s reason for eliminating them from the equation, she knew the truth. He did it for her.

Ian knew when he discovered he was on his way out
of Ambidor that he had to act quickly. He knew Tabitha and Stu would always be a thorn in her side. She realized again how precarious fate was. Had Ian walked away from here and done nothing, Tabitha might have gotten her wish. She knew reading more into his noble gesture was trouble, but she couldn’t help it. 

Now that his plotting mistress was out of his life; Evan was sure to be smarter and more wary.
She wondered if she should come clean about what she knew of the matter, but figured correctly her boss wouldn’t want to discuss what a fool he’d been.

Emily
was waiting for the Ambidor people when Daisy arrived at her office. The middle aged black woman was frowning under her elaborate hair-do. She worked in payroll for the last twenty-five years. She looked agitated as she sat down, a file held in her hands, adjusting the bifocals that hung on a sparkling chain around her neck. The chair groaned in protest under her hefty weight.

“Mister Evan is off this week,”
Daisy began and rolled her almond-shaped brown eyes. “I figured it was the best time to come to you with this, Miss Emily.”

Emily frowned. “What’s the problem, Daisy?”

“For over a year I been asking Miss Meyer for her social security card. She’s been putting me off since the day she hired in. I need that to report her earnings. Mister Evan was always too busy to take my calls. I finally got fed up and went back to her former job, and the college she said she graduated from. And guess what?”

“What?” Emily tensed, wondering what Daisy discovered in her search.

“They got no Tabitha Meyer in their records that ever graduated there. I went as far as to search the whole country in the database. And guess what?”

Emily knew this didn’t bode well at all. “What?”

“No Tabitha Meyer her age even exists, least on paper. So I did an audit on the name. Guess what?”

“Just spit it out, Daisy! This guessing is making me crazy!”

“Tabitha Meyer died in a nursing home in Florida three years ago. Guess—”

“No more guessing! Just tell me!
” Emily swore if she asked her to guess one more time, she’d throw a stapler at her.

“You don’t need to get all mean
with me, Miss Emily,” Daisy said in an indignant tone, her attitude turning insolent, dark eyes flashing in resentment. “I did this company a favor! I went above and beyond my job description! Ain’t no cause to go and yell at me! You got a damn imposter working up in this office!”

“So she used a fake name,” Emily felt a headache coming on. “Who was she?”

“I’m gettin’ to it,” Daisy said and clucked her tongue. “You rush me and I forget what I’m going to say.”

“I’m sorry, this is just rather shocking. Do continue. Who was she?” Emily waited patiently for Daisy to
finish.

“I didn’t get no hit on the name, so I got all CIS
on her skinny ass. I took a DNA sample of her hair, Miss Emily. You know how she was always struttin’ her stuff around? Well that’s how I got me some of that hair,” Daisy whispered conspiratorially and giggled. “It cost the agency three hundred and ninety-five dollars to get the testing, but I got that bitch’s name finally! Uh huh! I think a raise in it for me!”

“Who
is she?” Emily was impressed Daisy would go so far just to find out who Tabitha Meyer really was. It was diabolical, but it was good work.

“Her name is
Stephanie Anne Watterman. And Guess what?”

“I already guessed,” Emily said and groaned inwardly. Tabitha was Hugh
Watterman’s daughter too. The long-dead founder of the agency must have had kids on both sides of the blanket. He died five years before Emily came to work there. She heard the old man was a pervert. He was never too old to chase the girls in the office around. It appeared he was Tabitha/Stephanie’s father. “Who was her mother?”

“He
r name was Alice Kitner. She was the old man’s secretary for a time. We all knew he knocked her up and sent her to Florida to have the kid,” Daisy said and shrugged. “When he died, the payments to her stopped. Looks like his kid came lookin’ for her piece of the pie.”

“
Thank you for your work on this, Daisy.” Emily had no clue what she would do with this information. It was too bad Evan hadn’t seen fit to take an interest in the true identity of the woman he was screwing the last year. He might have been amused to know it was his wife’s half-sister “She’s been terminated already. No need for this to get around the office. It would only upset Mr. Stone.”