Unstuck (10 page)

“What?” he asked me. Wow! Bad mood.

“My name is not on this table, Mr. Maynard,” I said grinning.

“Since when I’m 'Mr. Maynard', Lucinda,” he asked annoyed and Stacy looked back at me, and I thought she was worried that I was in trouble or something, “You buy my underwear for fuck’s sake,” he said rolling his eyes. Well, Patrick was cranky.

“Fine! There’s no place for me at the table Patrick,” I said crossing my arms and tapping my foot.

“I’ll check on that,” he said and walked towards a brunette woman that I assumed was his mother. He hugged her affectionately, they both looked towards the table where we were standing and waiting, the woman waved at Stacy and she waved back.

“He must really like you,” Stacy said looking at me. She had to look down because, even in high heels, she towered over me.

“Excuse me?” I was distracted by my obviously short size. Although I’d prefer to to be called petite, thank you very much.

“Yeah, I’ve known Patrick for a long time. Our parents are very good friends,” She explained and I nodded. Why is he so negative towards her?  “I’ve seen a lot of assistants in events and family parties.” What? Am I going to those too? Well, who cares, where else would I be? At the pool house, petting Fish? “And I’ve never seen any of them talking to him like that.”

“Oh! Well, he deserved that. He is in a foul mood,” I said turning to look at him still talking, animatedly, to her mother.

“That he is,” said Stacy laughing. I looked at her and we both laughed out loud. Poor girl. In that instant Patrick walked back to our table, still with a frown plastered on his face, and a few people were arranging the table.

“What the hell, Patrick?” I asked looking at him really pissed by then, “I didn’t mean for you to get me a place at the table,” I said putting my hands on my hips, “I just wanted to know where to sit. I’m your assistant; I should probably be sitting at the assistants' table.” It was embarrassing that he had his mother re-arranging the table sitting for me. “It’s embarrassing,”

“Oh! Grow up, Lucinda! Embarrassing for whom?” he asked. I decided I was not going to argue with him anymore.

“Don’t be embarrassed, dear,” I heard a voice from behind. I felt all the blood drained from me “Patrick is right, you should be in this table after everything he puts you through,” I turned and saw his mother all motherly and with a genuine smile.

“Thank you, Ms. Maynard,” I smiled, “I’m Lucinda Stuart,” I extended my hand and she hugged me instead, “It’s a pleasure to meet you Miss Stuart.”

“Lucinda or Lucy,” I heard Patrick said and both, her mother and I, looked at him. “She doesn’t like to be called Miss Stuart.”

“Ok, Lucy then,” she smiled and then excused herself, “Way to go, Patrick,” I said sitting down in the place where my name tag, scribbled in silver marker, was placed. Embarrassing. Patrick sat next to me and next to him was Stacy. At that point I would have loved to switch places with Patrick. I was fond of Stacy now.

“You are not a great third wheel, Lucinda,” He said once he was settled.

“You are an ass,” I said whispering.

“What?” he was taken aback by my revelation. I was sure that was not the first time he was called an ass.

“She is a great girl, Patrick,” I shook my head.

“She is annoying,” he was pouting. Again, the 35 year old acting like a 5 year old.

“She is not, Patrick,” and with that our exchange was over because table began to fill. It turned out that I was in the table with Patrick’s parents, Stacy’s parents and her younger brother. I could then picture it perfect. Stacy running after Patrick at age 5. Stacy trying to kiss and hug him and Patrick being annoyed by that. Was that it? Did he think she was annoying because she harassed him when they were kids? I rolled my eyes at my discovery.

“Something wrong?” he asked I just shook my head. Ass! We had delicious dinner and delicious wine. I was thankful for all those years of eating and dinning with my bosses because I’d learned my forks and spoons perfectly. I was drilled by everyone in the table at some point. I think they were curious about the assistant that had yet to cry in front of everyone. They were all perfectly nice and I liked them all. Some were more open, like Patrick’s mom or Stacy’s father, and some others were the quiet kind, like Patrick’s father or Stacy’s brother, but they all were nice to me.

By the time the dessert was on our table Patrick stood up and announced that he was going to say hi to someone he knew. A second later Stacy moved to his seat next to me. I guess she’d figured her real date was me and she seemed to prefer that.

“This chocolate cake is delicious,” she said licking the spoon.

“Stacy, not very ladylike,” her mother said shaking her head. She giggled and put down the spoon on her plate.

“It’s delicious,” I said.

“I didn’t want this,” she said, her face turning serious.

“What do you mean?” I asked. I, somehow, knew it was about Patrick, “Come with him,” She shrugged, “Our moms wanted this. Seems they can’t get that he doesn’t like me,” “Oh, I don’t think that’s the case, Stacy,” I lied, but really, it was so true it was heartbreaking.

“You don’t have to lie,” Oh. “I know he doesn’t like me but I’ve made my peace with that. Our mothers not so much,” She gave a broken smile.

“Have you always liked him?” I was curious.

“Yes. Now less than 10 years ago. I was completely in love with him but he never showed any kind of interest towards me, instead, he slept around with all my friends,” she shrugged once more and licked her spoon again.

“What an ass,” I said out loud and she giggled.

“In his defense he didn’t know how I felt. I was very good at hiding it. We were best friends but then, one day I couldn’t take it anymore and I told him how I felt. That’s when everything changed. We drifted apart and we only see each other in events like this one or at family parties or weddings or…. You get the idea,” she said looking at me. Why was she telling me all this?

“Why are you telling me all this?” seemed I had to replace my thoughts filter.

“I like you…you don’t take his shit and I’ve seen the looks you are giving me, like I’m a wounded puppy,” She gave me a wide smile.

“I’m sorry,” I said embarrassed and looking at my hands on my lap.

“Don’t be. At least I have someone to talk to right?” I nodded and we kept on talking about whatever crossed Stacy’s mind. I was right, she was a great girl. When Patrick came back Stacy asked him to sit next to her so we could keep chatting. When we left Stacy rode in the limo next to me, leaving Patrick all by himself. He gave me horrible looks but really, I was doing a great job at being a third wheel now, I’d managed to become friends with Stacy.

“Good night, Patrick,” said Stacy once we were at her place.

“Night, Lucy, I’ll give you a call for lunch,” She said before stepping out of the limo and walked, alone, towards the door.

“Lunch?” asked Patrick raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, Lunch. Seems that there’ll be a second date,” I said with humor in my voice. Patrick couldn’t help it and laughed at my comment while shaking his head.

“What the fuck happened tonight?” he said in between laughs.

“I was a great third wheel,” I said smiling.

“Yes, you were,” he smiled back.

“You are an asshole, Patrick,” I said once he turned his look to the street outside, “Hey! I think that’s too much informality with your boss,” He said frowning.

“You are, Patrick. Stacy told me everything and for your information, she didn’t want to go to the gala with you, your mothers were the ones that wanted you two to go together,” I crossed my arms. His face softened and looked back at the street.

“You are right, I’m an asshole. But what was I supposed to do? She was my best friend! If we kept being friends I would only have hurt her more, right?” Oh! That was Patrick’s weird version of protecting someone: turning into an asshole!

“You said I was going to become your only female friend in the world,” I said feeling bad for him too.

“She is not my friend anymore, Lucinda,” He kept on staring out the window.

“Do you miss her?” I asked him. Maybe, just maybe they could be friends again.

“No, we are two different people from the ones we were 10 years ago. We’ve changed and from what I see, we are not compatible anymore.”

“I didn’t ask you if you want to marry her,” I said rolling my eyes, he laughed.

“I know,” and he went back on staring the street.

We got home at around 1:00 am; Patrick felt like having something to eat since he had hated the food, as always. So, cooking in a dress was a new experience for me.

“Have you decided?” I asked leaning against the kitchen counter while Patrick went through the blessed binder.

“No… I feel like having some kind of sandwich but I don’t know which one,” He said while reading the recipes.

“I’m getting rid of these,” I said taking my shoes off and Patrick looked up and nodded.

“I don’t know how you women can walk in those,” He shook his head.

“They do suck after a while but they are so pretty.” I said holding them for him to see. He smiled.

“Oh they are pretty indeed,” he said with a tone that let me know that he liked women in high heels. “I just don’t know how can you walk around in them,” he continued. “This one,” He said pointing at the binder, “I want this sandwich.” I grabbed the binder and turned out he wanted a simple grilled cheese. We could have been out of that kitchen 20 minutes ago if he had said so. I fixed it and he ate it in the kitchen.

“Hmm, love it,” he said after the first bite.

“Good,” I nodded and sat on the kitchen floor while he ate. I was too tired to sit on a stool on my evening gown. He looked down and joined me in the floor.

“Comfy,” He said smiling and giving another bite to his sandwich.

“I know,” I smiled.

“Thank you,” he said looking serious all of a sudden.

“It’s just a sandwich, Patrick,” I laughed and shook my head.

“Not for the sandwich, although it’s superb. I meant to thank you for dealing with Stacy.”

“Stacy is not something you have to deal with, Patrick,” I said looking at him sitting next to me. He shrugged.

“I know. It’s just that I have no idea what to say or how to make things less awkward,”

“You are making them awkward, Patrick. She’s moved on, you know?” I turned around so I was facing him completely. “I can tell that you cared about her at some point,”

“Of course I did,” He gave another bite to his sandwich and said, “she was my best friend, Lucinda ,and all of a sudden she is all
I love you, Patrick.
What kind of shit was that?” He shook his head.

“Oh My God, Patrick. You are annoyed that she fell in love with you,” I laughed out loud. “Can’t believe it, you managed to make this about yourself.” I was laughing hysterically by this point and he was looking at me weird. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” I said grabbing my stomach, until it hurt from laughing so hard, “I think I’m sleep deprived.”  He looked at me and laughed out loud which sent me laughing again. We were probably laughing during 5 minutes straight until we ran out of air.

“Seriously, Patrick, shut up or I am going to pee myself,” I said trying to take big breaths.

“Man, I hadn’t laughed this hard in a long long time,” He said wiping a few tears from his eyes.

“I didn’t know I could laugh this much,” I said finally breathing normally. “I’m serious,” I said in a somber tone, “I think I’d never laughed like this before,” suddenly my red dress seemed very interesting.

“Well, now you have, and I see no reason to stop, do you?” He asked, looking for my face with his eyes. I looked up, smiled and said no. “Good,” he said smiling, “Because I like laughing with you,” that simple line was about to turn into an awkward silence. I knew awkward silences, I was the master of them; I created them to make employees uncomfortable on certain situations, I had to fix that.

“Well, If you are done here I think I am going to bed,” trying to get up from the floor in quick, dignified way in a evening gown wasn’t easy but I managed with a little help from Patrick.

“Yeah, long night,” He said leaving his plate on the sink.

“Patrick, you didn’t send tomorrow’s schedule and I have nothing on the calendar,” I said looking him directly in the eye. Awkward moment was gone and now we were back to that comfortable place I liked so much.

“Oh right! I forgot to tell you, don’t hate me Lucinda,” I gave him a look that implied that I may hate him, depending on the information he was about to deliver. “Tomorrow is your day off.” What? Day off? What was that?

“Day off?” I asked weirded out. How was Patrick going to survive without me, “Yes, there’s nothing programmed and I need to work a bit so I’m staying home all day long,” “Yeah, I know but… how are you going to survive?” I asked seriously, “Oh, Brian is coming,” he said and went on laughing which sent me laughing again.

“Ok no, STOP,” I said containing my laughter, “I can’t keep on laughing, this should qualify as a workout,” I said grabbing my stomach.

“I know,” he said as we both walked out the office “But seriously, Lucinda, you don’t have to be here tomorrow, do whatever you want.”