The Anniversary… part 2

Paul let the phone ring out as he kept his eyes fixed on Debby.

“Goodnight Debby” And with that he headed out, just as the phone started ringing again.

“Hello baby”

“Pauuuuul, oh my gosh! This is too much! You’ve outdone yourself on this one! Mehn!!”

Paul couldn’t stop himself from laughing out.

“Stop laughing….stop! Ok where are you? The ride just brought me home and I’m just getting in. Your note says I should change for dinner. You should have told me, I don’t….OH MY GAWWWWWD!!!! PAUL!!!!”

By this time, Paul was in stitches. He guessed she had just walked into their bedroom and seen what he had left in there. In between her shrieks of delight, he managed to tell her that he had to hang up and start heading out, though he had a nagging feeling that she didn’t hear a word of what he said. Oh well.

He skipped out of the office and headed for the lifts…

Debby or no Debby, this night is going to be awesome!

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

Adah was having a shitty day. She was having a shitty day because Debby was having a shitty day and as her personal assistant, it was only fair that she also had a shitty day right!

Wrong!

She somehow got through to lunch time without any event. She was just coming back from lunch when chaos began.

She pulled on the brakes when she saw Debby on her seat talking away on the phone. This would not have been much of a problem if Debby wasn’t sounding so upset over the phone.

“I’ll get it sorted out I promise! No… yes, but… ok sir. I will. Hello… hello…”

She cringed! Oh no… someone hung up on Debby!

The last time that had happened in Adah’s presence, Debby had called the client back and screamed at him for a good while after which she ended the call by athletically hurling the phone like she was at the Olympics.  Fortunately for her, her bosses where nowhere around at the time… unfortunately for the phone, it was smashed into a hundred pieces.

The problem with today’s hang up was that Debby didn’t call back to scream at the client (meaning that he must be one of the top ones), neither did she have an Olympic practice session with her mobile phone. So she turned and faced the next thing (person actually) that she could hurl something at.

“ADAH! Where on EARTH is the report I asked you to send to Chief Ade THREE days ago? THREE DAYS Adah… THREE FREAKING DAYS! What’s so hard in pressing the send button on your email? Don’t I have enough problems in my life? ARGH!!!”

Adah had braced herself by holding onto the nearest chair. She fought back the tears as she felt eyes nervously gaze her way.

“But I sent it. I did, and I copied you.” She managed to say.

“You did huh! Really, you did. Ok take a seat and show me.”

Debby stood up and beckoned her to the chair. She watched on while Adah, nervously but determined, searched for the email. They both saw it at the same time. They both saw that Adah had sent the report to the WRONG client.

“I see!” Debby simply said and walked into her office.

Adah wished the ground would open up… she couldn’t stop her fingers from trembling as she hastily typed out an apology to both clients and corrected her mistake. Debby showed her ‘thanks’ by sending her an official query. To be fair, she knew she’d messed up a lot of late and Debby surprisingly had been lenient with her through most of it.

Yet, an official query? What was she supposed to…

The ringing phone cut off her thoughts abruptly.

She snatched it up without looking at the caller ID,

“What?”

“Hmmm, if that’s how you now greet your mother, then I’m officially worried.”

“Mum! Sorry, I’m having a bad day…”

“I see. And that’s why you haven’t called me in over a week now?”

Mum and her attention seeking self! Arghhh!

She loved her mum, she really did. But she did like attention, a little too much. She had refused to accept that as a young girl grew up, her attention shifted to other things. Like makeup, girlfriends, dieting, mirrors, boys men…

“Mum, please I’m sorry. But this isn’t the time…

“That’s what you always say. This isn’t the time. So when is the time? Tell me, when?”

That’s it!

“MUM!!! Just hold it there okay… hold it right there. I’m working really hard at getting a life. I have phone bills, rent, fuel bills, money I send to you monthly, gas bills, bills, bills, more bills and a WHOLE lot of other things to take care of in my life. If I haven’t called you in a week, it’s not the end of the world, it doesn’t mean I don’t love you to pieces, cos I do. But stop nagging me about this pleeease!!!”

It felt like the air was sucked from the room as eyes quietly glanced her way. Even Debby had stopped what she was doing for a moment.

“Hmmm. I’ve heard you.” Mum’s voice was flat. “Forgive me, I didn’t mean to nag. It would have just been nice if u had remembered that it’s been eleven years today since we lost your father”

With that she hung up.

Adah slapped her forehead. “DAMN”