Weekend in New England – Chapter 1: Barry Manilow
A/N: Joss expects to spend the weekend with one man, but another man arrives instead. A pillow fight, germ warfare, John in a wet suit and Joss flips (off) her top – in other words, general silliness ensues.
This story was inspired by a Chapter 7 review of The Other Guy from persnikitty5: 'A weekend away would be nice for Joss, but I don't think John will let that happen'.
The usual disclaimers: Nothing you recognize belongs to me.
Administrative Assistant Celia Cook had worked for her boss a long time and thought she knew everything about him, so it took a minute for her to realize as she brought in a stack of old briefs into his office, that Steven Piascik was humming.
She thought it was momentary aberration, but when she realized he hadn't given out any directives for hours, she saw that he was leaning back in his chair, gazing out the window, humming.
Something was wrong. Her boss wasn't barking out orders, wasn't working and most disturbing of all, was humming.
Humming.
Barry Manilow.
Three of his top associates and a paralegal had noticed as well. They signaled each other to meet with Celia in a conference room on the far side of the building.
"What's with the humming?" Jeff Podurgiel, the paralegal, asked.
"What's with the song?" Allison Turner laughed. "Barry Manilow? Please. That man has had so many face lifts, his stomach is on his forehead."
"Who is he?," Kerry Chan asked.
"This old guy," Allison said. "My grandmother loves him. His songs are the stuff you hear in the dentist's office – you know, before the drill drowns him out."
Celia had to stick up for her generation. "Barry Manilow was incredibly popular." She told the story about the meeting between Manilow, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel, where Manilow told them that he would be bigger than them both.* "And he was," she said to their incredulous faces, "for a very long time."
"But Steven's not old en-," Elizabeth Mugabe caught Celia's piercing glare, then she slapped her hand on the conference table, laughing. "He's taking her away, that's why he's humming Weekend in New England!"
Elizabeth was the first to suggest that Steven was involved with the stunning police officer she had seen him chatting with at the Aspirations Day event, she, Kerry and Allison had spoken at several months ago. "He's just happy."
"He's too happy," Kerry fretted. "He hasn't given us any additional work for three days. We've never seen him like this."
"I'm just glad he found someone," Elizabeth said. "It's been two years since the divorce and after that Michelle –"
"She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." Allison made a cross with her two forefingers, as if she was warding off vampires. They all grimaced. "We do not speak of her."
Elizabeth got a faraway look in her eyes. "Hmmmm, a weekend away. What do you think they'll do?
Allison, Kerry and Jeff answered simultaneously.
"Well, she is a cop –" Allison smirked.
"Some men like to be tied up and beaten-" Kerry laughed.
"Handcuffs and a baton-" Jeff whispered.
Celia gave them all her piercing glare and the laughter and snickers abruptly stopped. Kerry and Jeff looked at, then away from each other, red-faced.
"Wait – Jeff, didn't you say that Steven was upset when he came back to the symposium after the break Saturday afternoon?" Allison asked. "Jeff…Jeff?"
"Huh? What…yeah – his new girlfriend met his old girlfriend at the luncheon. How do you think that went over?"
"Sounds like he was able to fix it, if they're going away together." Elizabeth held out her hand. "Pay up. I called it back in January and none of you losers believed me."
Four twenty dollar bills are pressed into her hand.
"What are you going to spend the money on, Elizabeth?" Celia asked.
Elizabeth smiled. "This won't pay for a weekend in New England, but I'm sure I'll come up with something…"
Next, we learn a little about the place Steven has chosen for that special weekend and in Chapter 3 Joss announces her weekend plans to Taylor and John.
A/N: *I heard about this story from a relative and found this in the People magazine archives, February 8, 1982:
Early in his recording career, Barry Manilow went out to breakfast in Philadelphia with two other aspiring young singers barely more famous than he. Their names were Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel. The three had little to say to one another. Suddenly Barry announced, "I'm going to be bigger than both of you put together."