It's All a Matter of Choice Read online

  The brunette slipped off her blazer and began to unbutton her blouse. A nice hot shower sounded good, hopefully followed by full night’s sleep undisturbed by copulating couples.

  Maybe she’d dream about Emmet. He certainly was a sweetie.

  If Anita found herself a bit horny in the coming weeks, the nerdy associate would be on the top of her “To Do” list. He looked as if he could use a good tumble. Normally, she wouldn’t consider sleeping with someone she worked with because it could become…well messy, but Anita had a feeling that if she and Emmet played mattress-tag, he would never say a word about it to anyone. Emmet seemed to be a gentleman, despite being socially challenged.

  She’d have to pretty him up a bit first. Convince him to let his hair grow out a bit before getting it cut again. She wondered who his barber was. Whoever it was, he needed to go to someone else. She’d suggest it tomorrow over lunch.

  June Barrows would be quite indignant about Anita thinking such a thing.

  She’d been cutting Emmet’s hair for years.

  *

  John slammed the pay phone back into its cradle. His contact George told him nothing new on Anita Bowen had come up yet.

  “Sometimes it takes a couple of weeks for employment information to come up in the system. Call me back in a month,” George said.

  “A month! I’ve got to be on the streets a fucking month? Come on, George,” John snarled into the phone.

  “I can’t retrieve information that not there, John. Call me back in a month,” George said, hanging up on him.

  George was growing a bit tired of John constantly calling him to track down his daughter. She must not want anything to do with him if she kept disappearing. But he owed John. He had saved him from getting shanked in the prison yard once, and paid off his cigarette debt to the Mexicans. He was in for a couple of cartons. You couldn’t turn your back on someone who saved your ass. John could have made him his bitch, but instead just told him he could repay the favor when they were on the outside. George left his number with John when he got out, and when John got out two years later, he called and asked him to find his daughter, Anita Bowen. Using the information of her last known address with Marion, George was able to find her quite quickly and retrieve information such as her social security number and driver’s license number.

  He was surprised when John contacted him almost a year later, again asking for Anita’s location. It soon began to happen every few months, Anita showing up employed miles then a few states away from her last job. George knew better than to ask John what was going on. It was clear the felon was stalking his own daughter.

  Well to each his own.

  John walked out of the phone booth cursing. Well, there was always Catholic Charities. They’d find him something. He was fresh out of jail with no place to live. Most likely they would even sympathize with him, his daughter just moving away like that and leaving him homeless.

  How terrible for him.

  John checked his pockets. He had three dollars in quarters left. That was enough for a cheap six pack. He’d drink that…then go to Catholic Charities.

  He hoped the month passed quickly.

  Chapter 5 ~ Gasp! A Woman!

  June Barrows had just finished rolling up her hair and changing back into her nightgown and bathrobe when she heard the gasp and wheeze of Emmet’s car in the driveway. She quickly stepped into her pink slippers and after checking that all the shopping bags were hidden away, hurried into the living room and plopped down on the couch, trying her best to look as if she were there for hours.

  June had spent the day getting a manicure and pedicure, then shopping and having lunch with Agnes and Margaret, her hang-out buddies. For fifty-something women, they had it going on. They planned to go to the casino this weekend and June had purchased a couple of new outfits. She settled down on the couch and turned on the television, her blue eyes taking on their practiced dull look.

  Emmet opened the door and walked in whistling. June looked up sharply. Emmet whistling was not normal. He usually came in the house after work with a sigh.

  “Emmet? Emmet is that you?” June called from the sofa.

  “Yep. It’s me mom. I’ve got your sandwich…and it’s still warm,” Emmet replied, putting his empty briefcase against the wall by the front door, then walking into the living room and up to the couch. He leaned down and kissed his mother on the cheek, then placed the bag containing her Reuben sandwich and cherry coke on the coffee table in front of her. He immediately noticed there were no dishes.

  “Did you go out today, mom?” he asked June.

  “Oh. Oh yes. Agnes came by and convinced me to get out the house. She’s a sweetheart to drive me about to pick up a few things. A real sweetheart,” June replied, “Not that you have the time to do it. I’d be stuck inside forever if I had to count on you, Emmet.”

  Emmet took her comment in stride. He knew his mother preferred going out with her friends and was just saying that to make him feel guilty. He didn’t, though he looked properly chastised for a moment for June’s sake.

  As his mother reached for the bag, Emmet saw her nails flash a bit.

  “Got your nails done too,” he commented. His mother liked deep red fingernail polish.

  “Yes. Agnes thought I’d feel better if I got a manicure,” June replied, taking out her sandwich and unwrapping it. It was quite warm so she had nothing to complain about.

  Emmet walked into the kitchen, took his mother’s breakfast plate and coffee cup off the table and quickly washed them, drying and putting them away. Then he looked around the kitchen and realized for the first time in a very long time, he didn’t have anything to do. Normally, he’d tote his paperwork into his home office and spend the evening completing it. But thanks to Anita, he didn’t have any paperwork. None at all.

  She certainly was something else. They had returned to his office after lunch and Anita began to leaf through the paperwork, reading the names on each file.

  “Emmet, you have nothing to do with some of these files. Who’s Jeffrey Lyons?” she asked him, “and Adam Jenkins?”

  “Just some other associates,” Emmet said, flushing a bit.

  “Why don’t the girls have these?” Anita asked looking at Emmet and frowning slightly.

  Emmet shrugged.

  “They just slipped them in with Brandon’s I guess,” he said lamely.

  Anita scowled at him now.

  “Emmet, you’re a nice guy, but you can’t let people use you like this. You’re doing your work and their work, when you really shouldn’t be doing any of it,” she said, “You should be giving this stuff to the office workers.”

  Emmet sighed.

  “Yes, I know that Anita, but the truth is I don’t go out on closings so I’m always here. The girls feel I can do my own paperwork…and I am here…so….” he said lamely.

  “You set up interviews for closing…that counts for something,” Anita said, gathering up all the files. Emmet’s eyes widened to saucers behind his glasses as he watched his entire day’s work being swept into Anita’s arms.

  “What are you doing?” he asked her.

  “I’m taking these where they belong, Emmet. There are people here specifically to do this work. I’m one of them,” she said, straightening. “I’m taking these to the girls. You’re going to have to find something else to do this afternoon. I’ll see you later.”

  And just like that, Anita walked out of the cubicle, leaving Emmet’s desk completely cleared. He stared after her for a few moments, then spun toward his terminal. All he had on his desk was a stack of the latest financial magazines. Smiling slightly, he picked up the first one and began to thumb through it.

  By the end of the workday, Emmet had a list of over thirty possibles for cold contact tomorrow. He also had time to go on the net and find the names of the proper department heads to ask for. Normally he did that at home. It was a simple thing really, but most associates didn’t do that. They simply asked who they nee
ded to speak to when they called a company.

  Emmet found out early that asking for a department head by name made him seem less like a solicitor. It was easier to get through that way. He also tried to find out the names of the secretaries and other employees in the department. Secretaries are rarely paid attention to, and acknowledging them often made reaching their bosses much easier.

  When asked what he wished to speak to the department head about, Emmet never said he worked for B, B & B. Instead he would tell the secretary he was calling about a problem with payroll or marketing they were having with B, B & B’s competition. In fact, he often sounded like a representative for the competition. This normally got him through.

  Once he reached the department head, he then talked about the problem and how negatively it affected their company, the losses in time and profit etc. When he had the department head agreeing with him, then Emmet told him there was a solution to the problem, gave them a short synopsis and asked for an appointment to discuss it further. Often, they were quite surprised that he worked for a rival company, but by this time, Emmet had shown so much insight into the company’s problems and needs, he generally got the interview.

  Emmet was very good at what he did. And now, with Anita now employed at B, B & B, he would be able to spend more time doing it. Which meant more money.

  Emmet walked back into the living room and sat down in the armchair.

  “Wheel of Fortune should be coming on soon,” he said to his mother.

  June looked at him.

  “You’re going to watch it with me?” she asked him, slightly surprised.

  Emmet nodded.

  “Yep. You complained I didn’t spend enough time with you, so I’m going to watch television with you tonight,” he said, adjusting his glasses.

  June looked at him suspiciously.

  “What about your work?” she asked him.

  “I don’t have any,” he replied.

  June put her sandwich down.

  “What do you mean you don’t have any?” she asked him. Emmet always had work to do. That’s what kept him in the house in the evenings and on weekends.

  “I don’t have any. It’s all finished,” he said, “The office girls are doing it now.”

  ”Office girls? You have office girls doing your work for you, Emmet? That doesn’t seem right,” June said, not liking how this sounded at all. Emmet dealing with office girls? “You should do your own work and not pass it off on ‘office girls.’”

  “Mom, they were hired to do the associates’ paperwork. It’s why they are there,” he replied, frowning slightly.

  “Well, why weren’t they doing it all along then?” June snapped at him.

  “Because I never left the office to do any closings, so they felt I could do my own paperwork,” Emmet said, “But there’s a new girl there now named Anita who knows her job. She took the paperwork to them. So now I can concentrate on setting up more interviews.”

  June’s blue eyes rested on Emmet a moment. There was something about the way he said the name Anita that she didn’t particularly appreciate.

  “Anita eh? What is she like?” she asked him.

  “She’s a brunette, about five-nine with brown eyes. I think she’s about twenty-three or twenty-four. She’s very nice…” Emmet said slowly, then took a deep breath and added, “I’m having lunch with her in the cafeteria tomorrow, so you won’t have to make lunch for me.”

  “Lunch with her? But Emmet, I love making your lunch. I’ve done it for years. Plus, spending your money in the cafeteria is a waste. It’s so expensive,” she said.

  “Mom, I already have more money than I know what to do with. Buying Anita lunch isn’t going to break me,” he said evenly.

  June Barrows’ eyes went round.

  “You’re…you’re buying her lunch? Paying for it, Emmet?” she asked him incredulously.

  He nodded.

  June Barrows threw her hands into the air with disgust.

  “So it starts,” she said, frowning at Emmet. “Emmet, you don’t have any experience with women at all. This strange girl walks into your place of employment and already you’re spending money on her. What did I tell you about women? This is a perfect example as to how they have one hand on your privates and the other in your wallet.”

  Emmet felt himself tighten a bit at the idea of Anita with her hand anywhere near his cock. Then he colored. That was not a gentlemanly thought at all.

  “Look at you. You want that,” June said accusingly, “I can see it in your eyes. They’re all glassy.”

  “Mom, I don’t want to talk about this,” he said, “I’m just buying her lunch…not marrying her.”

  June clutched her heart dramatically.

  “Emmet, don’t even say such a thing. What would I do without you?” she asked him, her voice quivering.

  “Oh, I don’t know. Find a boyfriend? Get a job? Live a little?” he thought.

  “Mom, I’m not planning on going anywhere, so stop worrying,” Emmet said to her as “Wheel of Fortune!” was chanted on the television screen.

  June flopped back on the couch, her sandwich growing cold and her cherry coke growing warm.

  “You say that now…but taking women to lunch is the beginning of the end. Next you’ll want to leave me alone at night so you can go out and do immoral things,” she said, “Then you’ll be moving out to live with her in a den of iniquity.”

  Emmet looked at his mother in amazement.

  “Den of iniquity? Really mom…you’re overdoing it,” he said.

  “I am not,” she snapped, “I’m going to be left all alone, and more than likely they’ll find my body right here on the couch a week after I’ve died of neglect.”

  ”Mom, you’re healthy as a horse,” Emmet said, slightly irritated now. “You can cook, shop and do what you need to do to live if I wasn’t around. But I don’t plan on going anywhere…all right? Now let’s watch ‘Wheel.’”

  Emmet clamped his mouth shut tightly, folded his arms and stared at the television. Vanna White was standing around doing nothing since the letters turned themselves now.

  June looked at Emmet. Her son reminded her of her of husband with his face like that, his jaw tightly clamped. When his father looked that way, there was nothing else to discuss.

  Emmet sat there watching the television but his mind was on his mother. She was really selfish and controlling and he knew it. Yet, Anita seemed to like him…true, he had only met her today but she had wanted to buy him lunch. He hoped it wasn’t because she felt sorry for him after seeing him eating that pitiful, onion-less tuna fish sandwich. Anita was the first woman to show any interest in him that he could remember. If she did like him, then he would do his best to keep her liking him, no matter how much his mother tried to discourage him. He didn’t want to end up a forty year old virgin still living with his elderly mother. If she didn’t like him, maybe he could find a way to make her interested.

  Emmet’s stomach clenched uncomfortably. What did he have to offer her though? He drove a car that was on its last lugnut, he lived with his mother…and he was a nerd. He looked like one and acted like one and knew it. He wasn’t outgoing and confident like Anita was. He certainly wasn’t good-looking. In fact, he was a rather sad case.

  Still, Anita did choose him over Brandon to show her around the workplace. Most of the new girls loved Brandon with his good look and smooth lines. Emmet was a non-entity. A fixture at B, B & B, like the water fountain…or the bathroom. People only paid attention to him when they wanted something and even that acknowledgement was fleeting. He rarely even got a thank you when he finished someone else’s paperwork. And he never complained. Emmet was used to being dominated and controlled, thanks to his mother, and it spilled over into every aspect of his life.

  But tonight, he had stood up to June. Kind of. And she actually shut up instead of continuing to nag him. That was a first.

  Maybe the first of many firsts coming his way.

  C
hapter 6 ~ Lunch and Then Some

  Brandon Luster walked through the office the next morning, whistling and with a file under his arm. Emmet was in his cubicle, looking over his list of cold calls when the handsome blonde walked in. Brandon placed the file on his desk with a flourish.

  “There you go. Honeycutt Inc, signed and sealed,” Brandon said, turning to leave.

  Emmet looked at the file, then took a deep breath.

  “Um Brandon, would you mind dropping that off to the girls?” Emmet said.

  Brandon stopped and turned back. He raised both eyebrows at Emmet.

  “To the girls? Why?” he asked him.

  “Because that’s who’s supposed to do the paperwork. I have calls to make,” Emmet said, swallowing a little.

  “But you always do the paperwork. It gets out faster,” Brandon said, frowning.

  “Not anymore. You’re going to have to give it to the office workers,” Emmet said, his voice a bit stronger now.

  “They’ll take too long. When you do it, the bonuses are cut that afternoon,” Brandon said, bristling now. Emmet knew how to push the paperwork through when given to him early enough. The office girls completed everything before they processed it.

  Emmet straightened in the chair and looked Brandon in the eye.

  “I’m not in any hurry for the bonus, Brandon. Like I said, I have calls to make. If you want it done quicker, you have the option of filling out the paperwork yourself,” the associate said.

  “Me?” Brandon said incredulously. “I don’t do paperwork.”

  “Neither do I,” Emmet stated, turning back around in his chair, looking at his list and entering the first contact name into his computer as if Brandon were no longer there. But Emmet’s heart was racing.

  Brandon stood there a moment, his blue eyes burning a hole into Emmet’s back. Then he picked up the folder and exited the cubicle, muttering under his breath.

  Emmet turned back around, saw Brandon was gone and let out a sigh of relief. It worked. If he were going to keep his desk clear, he had to stand up for himself. He sat there a moment, then picked up a piece of heavyweight paper used for report covers and a black marker. He neatly folded the paper in half, then wrote the following on it: