Tuesday, July 6, 2004

Part 5 - Chapter 6 - Fired

On Monday morning, Craig woke up late, as usual. He got up, dressed, and then wandered through the house in search of Lucy. He found her downstairs talking with the butler. When he walked into the room and gave her a kiss, Lucy smiled at him and continued her conversation with Jordan.

Craig stood by and listened for awhile, intending to join in, but he quickly discovered that he didn't have anything to add. To him the conversation seemed to be mostly gossip, talk about some people Jordan used to work for and some obscure actors he had met. Craig had never heard of these people before and he wasn't interested in hearing about them now, but Lucy seemed fascinated. He thought about heading to the kitchen to get some breakfast, but suddenly he didn't like the idea of leaving Lucy and Jordan, so he stayed.

The conversation was only interrupted when the phone rang and Jordan went to answer it.

"Mr. Townsend is on the telephone for you, Miss Stuart."

Lucy was a bit wary about talking to Arthur, the last time she had seen him he hadn't been happy with her decision to drop the lawsuit and she was concerned about what he had to say to her now.

"Listen, Lucy," Arthur began, his tone subdued. "I just wanted to let you know that I've decided to hire someone to clean out your father's office. I thought you might want to drop by and pick up any personal items that you want to keep before they come. I haven't been in there since. . ."

Arthur trailed off, but Lucy was touched by sentiment in his voice. "Don't bother hiring someone. I'll do it," Lucy offered. When Arthur asked if she was sure, she insisted that she wanted to.

"Thank you, Lucy. I appreciate it," Arthur said, before saying goodbye.

"What was that about?" Craig asked as Lucy hung up the phone.

"I offered to clean out my dad's office at work," she explained, all the confidence and certainty that had been in her voice when she was on the phone, drained away and now she only seemed sad.

Craig touched her on the arm comfortingly and asked, "Do you want me to come with you, give you a hand?"

Lucy shook her head. "No, that's alright. There really wouldn't be much for you to do there. I don't want you overdoing it with your arm."

Craig grinned seductively, "Yes, Doctor."

Lucy smiled back at him and kissed him on the cheek. "I'll have Jordan come with me to help carry boxes and I'll be back before you know it."

"Ok," he agreed. As Lucy gave him a hug, Craig eyed Jordan over her shoulder. He wasn't happy about Jordan going with Lucy to help instead of him, but decided it would be better not to start anything, so he kept his mouth shut.

Craig was tired of hanging around the house, so he called James and made plans to meet for lunch while Lucy was at the office.

"So how have you been?"James asked as he and Craig sat down at the restaurant.

"I'd be great if I didn't have this thing on my arm," he replied, motioning towards his cast. "I don't mind taking a little time off, but not being able to play at all is about driving me crazy."

James shook his head. "Tough luck, huh? How long will it be until it's healed?"

"Another month at least. Then who knows how long it will take to get completely back to normal."

James nodded silently and turned his attention to his menu.

Craig sensed something was odd, so he asked, "Is there something on your mind, man?"

"Actually, yeah there is," James replied, setting the menu aside. "I'm glad you called me today because there's something I've got to tell you." James paused and Craig waited for him to continue. "I'm not going to cancel the tour."

"What?" Craig exclaimed. "You're going ahead without me?"

"I didn't want to replace you, man, but what do you want me to do? Give up this opportunity and do nothing, just because you can't play right now? Come on."

"I can't believe you!" Craig said angrily as he rose from his seat. "Since when are you the star of the show? These gigs are mine just as much as they are yours."

James shrugged. "I'm sorry, but don't take it out on me. I'm not the reason you aren't playing. Maybe in a few months we can work out something new."

"Forget it," Craig said and stormed out of the restaurant.

Lucy opened the door to her late father's office and paused a moment in the doorway. She took a deep breath and said to Jordan, "Let's get to work."

As Lucy sorted through her father's belongings and packed them into boxes, she became reminiscent. Once in awhile she would come across a familiar item and pause to tell Jordan about it. He listened attentively to her stories about her father and about her family. Lucy couldn't tell if he was really interested or if he was just being polite, but she appreciated having someone to listen to her either way.

After cleaning out one drawer of the desk, Lucy moved on to the next one. Inside was a stack of papers. Assuming that they were just boring business papers, she flipped through them quickly, but something in the back caught her attention.

"Jordan, why don't you take those boxes out to the car?" she suggested as she slowly sat down on the desk chair and examined the papers. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. She was sure that she was mistaken. She looked it over again until she heard Jordan return, then she quickly stuffed the papers into a box and moved on to the next drawer as if nothing had happened.

Arthur was working at his desk, back from his weekend trip, when his office door flew open and Eileen stormed inside. He rose from his chair to greet his daughter, but she was not in a pleasant mood.

"How could you do this to me?"

"Do what?" he asked with concern.

"How could you tell Hector that he could marry me?" Eileen asked, too angry to pause to let Arthur get a word in. "Saturday night he just throws all of these plans at me and I'm wondering how long I've been in the dark while the two of you have been planning this behind my back. You had no right to do that! When I decide to get married it's going to be to someone that I chose, not someone that you or anyone else chooses for me."

"Eileen, calm down," Arthur finally managed to interject, but his words only got an angry look from his daughter. "Nothing's been decided without you. Hector only asked for my approval. But, of course, whether you marry him or not is up to you, sweetheart, not me."

"Oh," Eileen said sheepishly, suddenly feeling very embarrassed about how she had reacted.

"If you don't want to marry Hector just tell him so."

Eileen frowned. She had come to her father hoping for a better solution than that. Just telling Hector no didn't seem to be an option that she could afford to choose. But she nodded anyway and said, "Ok, I will."

Meanwhile, outside the office door, Lawrence had been about to knock when he inadvertently heard Eileen's outburst and paused. He hadn't meant to eavesdrop, but once he heard what they were saying, he didn't walk away. This news changed everything.

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