A little Alternate Universe for the episodes "When Girls Collide", "Eine Kleine Nacht Murder" and "Lunar Eclipse". Inspired by my new friend Tatiana from Brazil. This is her story…told with a little help!
Sister(s) Golden Hair
David stood, beer in hand, in front of the refrigerator door. The kitchen was quiet and dark with the only light coming from a street lamp reflecting through the little window. The long gulp burned but soothed as he walked through the even darker apartment, plopping on top of his unmade bed. The bed he…they… had slept in the night before. Well, not really slept so much…though she had helped him to forget, however briefly, the last year and a half of his miserable life.
He flipped on the TV and grabbed a pillow. A shiny earring fell into his lap. Setting it on the night table, David tossed the pillow back and paced around the dimly lit bedroom, hands deep in his pockets. His feet tangled and tripped over something on the floor.
He held up a lacy piece of lingerie in front of the flickering light of the TV.
"David Addison, you are by far the biggest jackass that ever lived," he murmured, tossing the accoutrements of Annie aside. "What were you thinking?"
David: Maybe we ought to make a point of doing this more often.
Maddie: No, thanks.
David: Yeah, you're right.
Maddie: You know, we should be very proud of ourselves.
David: For what?
Maddie: For everything we've been through together. Most couples would have, I don't know, murdered each other by now.
David: Murder, now why didn't I think of that?
Maddie: David, you'd be quite popular in prison!
David: Oh, I'd be very popular! They'd make me the prom queen! No thank you, I'm very happy. If I'm gonna dance with somebody I'm very happy to be right here dancing with you. How bout you? You happy?
Maddie: Yeah, I guess I'm happy. At least I'm not sad.
This whole …thing…this whole idea with Annie was set in motion by what Maddie said to him. She seemed so sure of herself. And of them. Or the end of them. So…was she happy? Not sad…What kind of an answer was that? The kind of answer that wasn't good enough.
It was all just supposed to be a test.
He couldn't shake the look in Maddie's eyes when she found him working undercover…literally…with Annie on the Sapperman case. As hard as she tried to mask it by screaming high decibels of blame at him, he saw the disappointment and hurt in her eyes. He was only trying to get her attention. Why he let it go that far was beyond him. Well, he got her attention all right … he just wondered if he would ever get it again.
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Just three days ago Maddie had told her therapist she was over being romantically involved with David and that she had managed to free herself of the feelings she had had for him. If this were true, then why was her heart ready to explode?
Annie had been her favorite relative growing up. They had pretended to be sisters when Maddie's mother took them on shopping excursions or on family vacations together. As teenagers they even double dated when Annie was in town with her mother. And in college, she was always a little competitive when it came to boys, usually managing to always let Maddie know she was one up on her, snagging the most popular boy on campus.
Maddie remembered the night Annie first went out with her husband Mark. Annie called her long distance while she was finishing a photo shoot in Paris, talking non-stop about love at first sight and that he was the man she was going to marry.
Well, she did. And now ten years later Annie was here, in L.A., having an extra-marital affair with her best friend…her business partner…her ex-lov…her ex-partner…
Exactly what were they now?
The betrayal and pain trickled down her chin in one lone tear.
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"Mr. Addison, you in there? I really need to talk to you sir."
The banging on the door stirred his queasy stomach and amplified the pounding in David's head.
"All right, all right already. For the love of… This had better be good, Viola, or so help me--"
"Now sir, j-j-just…first let me say how sorry I am to—"
David ran a hand through his mussed hair and squinted at Viola.
"Uh…s-s-sir ar-are you okay, sir? I mean you look so…so…. Oh…wait…I-I-I'm not interrupting anything am I? Because I could come back later. It's just that…well, Agnes, sir. If I didn't come over here she was going to have my head on a platter and well--"
"Bert!"
"Y-yes sir?"
"You gotta stop…you're making the room spin…what do you want? And give me the Cliff Notes version." He leaned his head on the door and closed his eyes.
Herbert stood in the apartment hallway, shifting uncomfortably.
"Oh for Pete's sakes! Come in!" David opened the door wider and trooped back to his bedroom. He retrieved three aspirin and sat on the edge of the bed, washing them down with a glass of water.
Bert stood and stared at his boss with trepidation. The mid-morning sun filtered through the shutters and cast enough light for him to see the room was in disarray. He toed a woman's high-heeled shoe absentmindedly as he tried to avoid eye contact, clearing his throat.
"Sir, I know I probably shouldn't intervene, I mean, I know this is not any of my business, but Agnes told me what happened and for some reason she thinks I can come over here and make you snap out of…of whatever it is that you're trying to do and that maybe, just maybe between the three of us…uh….that would be you and me and Agnes…that sir….well maybe we….or you sir….should just tell Ms. Hayes you've made this huge mistake and—"
"Wait a second Bertie boy. Just what is it that you and your little Ms. DiPesto think I've done wrong? Other than break a few undercover protocols I've done nothing—"
"Sir! Excuse me for interrupting, but yes you have….uh, if I may respectfully say so, sir."
David looked Bert square in the eyes. He knew what he had done and he really didn't need Herbert Viola to tell him. Usually he could make Bert squirm and come down off of his high horse when he did that, but not now. Now, his loyal employee…his loyal friend wasn't backing down.
"Okay Mr. Viola…go ahead."
Bert came further inside the room and tripped over a stiletto lying on the floor. Getting up, he tossed the shoe across the room.
"Herbert, get on with it, will ya?" David said, rolling his eyes.
"Well, sir…Mr. Addison…Agnes and I followed your every move when Ms. Hayes went to Chicago and other than that one night of indiscretion—"
"Is that what you call that these days?"
Bert quieted, mustering up more courage. "Sir…I guess what I'm trying to say is I know you could have had many other…well…I mean we know everything that you passed up while Ms. Hayes was in Chicago, and then there was that meaningless marriage, the loss of the baby—"
"This isn't This Is Your Life for Chrissakes!"
"Okay, okay…but Mr. Addison, what if the tables had been turned? What if it was Ms. Hayes you had found with…with say your brother Richie on the Sapperman case—"
"Bert, that's about enough. I think it's time for you to go!"
David grabbed Bert by the arm and manhandled him to the door. The smaller man turned out to be slippery, though, and managed a getaway, tripping down the three stairs into the den and stumbling to the other side of the room.
"Maybe that's not the picture I should be painting right now—"
"Viola! Don't make me come over there!"
"Mr. Addison, please, just let me finish and then I can go knowing I did what Agnes asked," he pleaded with hands raised, sitting on a trunk in the middle of the room. "She won't let me back in the office if I come back without doing this…." he mumbled to himself.
The sun was just starting to come through the large window in the den and lit the back of Viola's head. David couldn't stand to look at Viola sitting on the trunk…that trunk. He had left it there since Maddie had come over at 4am one night, clad in an overcoat over her nightgown, sneakers on her feet. The night he knew she had finally come to some kind of realization about them…and he kissed her. And he knew and she knew that kiss meant something. It was only later he found out that she was running from Sam and his damned proposal.
"One last chance Bert, but get off the trunk would ya? It's uh…kind of a family heirloom…or something," he said, sitting across from Bert on the stairs.
Viola hopped up quickly, as if he were afraid the trunk would collapse and he would be lost inside it forever. David shook his head and ran a hand over his eyes and face, motioning for Bert to sit next to him. Bert complied and affectionately put his arm over David's shoulders.
"Love doesn't count for much, does it Mr. Addison?" he said with a sigh.
"Bert?"
"Yes sir?"
David glared at his short little friend and Herbert took his arm away, slightly embarrassed.
"Let's wrap up this little pow-wow of yours Herbert. My head hurts and I've got things to do."
"What I've been trying to say Mr. Addison is Agnes and I know why you are seeing Ms. Hayes's cousin and we think you're making a big mistake."
"You do, huh?" David said with a hand covering his forehead.
"Y-yes sir. And Agnes says you and Ms. Hayes need to quit being a couple of nincompoops and be honest with each other."
David looked up at Herbert as he stood to go. He knew he was right. And Agnes was always right, bless her nosy little heart.
"Guess I better go. Agnes is uh….waiting to get a full report," Bert grinned.
"Well, I wouldn't keep her waiting if I were you."
Viola closed the door as David sat gazing across his furniture-free apartment. For five years he and Maddie had jumped around the truth and now what was he doing? Filling a void? Playing games?
Maybe it was time to be honest…or just start all over. The problem was he didn't know where to begin.
David picked the trunk up and carried it back to the closet. This might be a good place to start.
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Maddie smelled the coffee brewing as she came downstairs, surprised that Annie was there that morning, considering what had happened the night before. She quietly picked up her keys from the foyer table. Carrying her suitcase and overnight bag, she slipped out the front door to the waiting yellow cab.
Embarkation was only two hours away and barring any traffic jams she would soon be setting sail. Maddie remembered that she hadn't been on a real vacation since she joined Blue Moon. Five years ago she thought she was set for life, thinking about retiring from the fast lane of modeling and diving into some other interests she had had for a few years. Only life had thrown her a curve ball.
Of course, things were different now, weren't they? She wasn't just taking a trip for pleasure…it was more of an escape.
Escape. Running away. Avoiding. It was all the same. She shuddered to remember what that had done in the past. Running away to Chicago probably would have been okay, for a while anyway, had she only called David while she was there. Or, at the very least, sent the little bundle of letters she had written to him but never mailed. Her dear sweet mother packaged them up and sent them to her after she discovered them while spring-cleaning. Thank goodness she had sealed each one in an envelope.
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David checked his watch: 2pm. He punched the intercom for Agnes.
"Ms. DiPesto?"
"Yes, Mr. Addison?"
"Has Ms. Hayes arrived yet?"
"No, not since…", she checked her watch she wore hanging on a lanyard around her neck, "…eight minutes ago when you buzzed me last."
David smiled sheepishly, glad she wasn't standing in his office looking like she had "I told you so" on the tip of her tongue.
The intercom buzzed again.
"Yes, Ms. Dipesto. Tell me it's the blonde."
"Well….it's A blonde, Mr. Addison. Line one."
Agnes's voice resounded the disappointment he knew was on her face.
"Ok, Agnes. Thank you."
"Sure Mr. Addison," Agnes sighed.
David took a deep breath and pushed the button for the call.
"Hello Annie," he said with little enthusiasm.
"Well, don't be too overjoyed David!"
Silence grew between them. He hadn't really tagged her as a nagger before.
"Or….did I…did I do the wrong thing? Calling you at work, I mean? Mark hates it when I call him at work. I'm sorry David. Just call me when you have a chance, okay? I'm at Maddie's."
Mark…the husband, he thought. Now that little piece of information might have made for different circumstances.
"You're at Maddie's? Have you talked to her today?" For some reason he thought Annie would be hiding away back at his apartment, given these circumstances. She was one brave woman to be standing her ground in Hayes Castle with the Queen lurking nearby.
"No, David. I slept in a little this morning, but she was here last night. I thought she had gone to work. She's not there?"
"You haven't seen her or talked to her since the uh…the little thing last night with the Sapperman's?"
"No and I would really like to talk to her, David. And you. Can we have dinner tonight? I think we really need to talk." Her voice rose to a full-fledged whine.
"Annie, I can't. I have to work. Viola and I have a stakeout tonight."
"Oh…well…maybe after you get off."
"It'll be late Annie, maybe tomorrow, but just to be clear, you haven't seen Maddie at all today? She is not there now?" David inquired patiently.
"David, I'm standing in her bedroom right now. She let me borrow her dress last night and I'm just—wait, David. Her suitcase is gone…and a lot of her clothes are missing---"
David slammed the phone down. This was all starting to sound and look way too damn familiar.
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The morning had come and gone, though Mr. Addison and Ms. Hayes had missed that part of the day. One had been curing his hungover head. And the other? That's what had Agnes worried. The staff had returned from lunch hours ago, and now it was ten minutes before closing time. And still no sign of Ms. Hayes. She grabbed Bert by the arm and dragged him into Maddie's office, closing the door.
"Agnes, what is it now?"
"Bert. She hasn't called. Not a peep. This is just like last time. Mr. Addison sits and waits while Ms. Hayes gets miles and miles away. What are we gonna do?" she exclaimed, arms flailing, her Converse Hi-Tops pacing the length of the office.
"How do you know that, Agnes? Maybe she just needed a day at home."
"With little Ms. Two-Timer? I don't think so, Bert." Her voice rose higher with concern.
"You didn't see the look on Ms. Hayes's face last night. This could be the end Herbert, don't you see?"
Bert looked over her shoulder to see David standing in the doorway. He had heard every word about Maddie possibly taking a hike again. And so had the rest of the Wobblies, as they crowded around him listening.
"Have you heard from her Agnes?"
"No, Mr. Addison."
David turned to go as the office staff let him through. "That's right folks. Don't let me get in your way," he seethed.
The slam of the door shook a picture off the wall. The glass window with the Blue Moon logo cracked.
Bert looked at the staff flinching with horror. "Uh….I'd give him five before we head down to the garage…just… you know… to be on the safe side."
And Agnes cried.
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David told himself just one more drink and then he would go. Only, he didn't know where to go.
He was supposed to be on a stake out with Bert. At least, that was what he had told Annie. Going back to his apartment wasn't an option. He figured she was there…why did he give her a key? And there was no need to go to Maddie's house; he already knew she wasn't there. The house was dark when he drove by earlier.
He downed the last of his drink. There was only one other place to go. And there wouldn't be any blondes.
"David! Maddie found you with her cousin? And you thought doing that would make her come running back? What were you thinking?" Terri exclaimed, putting little Wally on the floor with his toys.
"Well, it started out that way—"
"Yeah, and one thing led to another and she forced you to sleep with her, right?"
"Something like that," David replied, rolling his eyes. Wally fussed and looked up at David, making a sour look. Even the little guy didn't like his side of things.
"Look…David…I'm not here to judge. God knows I've made my fair share of mistakes in my life. But, what are you going to do about this mess you've made?"
"I haven't really figured that out yet. The only thing I do know is I don't want to go back to my apartment right now. I don't think that would be such a great idea," he said, getting up to go.
"Stay here."
"What?"
"You can stay here, David. The couch isn't much, but…it's all you deserve at the moment," she said with a loving punch on his arm. "Let me get this little guy to bed and I'll get you some blankets."
"What about the big guy? I don't want to intrude, Terri."
"Who, Walter? Oh please! Walter won't care. He'll be home later…though he may want to put in his two cents worth on all of this!"
"Great…" David said, shaking his head and jamming his hands into his pockets.
Terri picked up Wally, who fussed some more and blew a raspberry at David over her shoulder.
David smiled and waved good-bye. "Yeah, I know Wally…and then some."
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Maddie exited the cab while the driver put her bags next to the gate entrance, the large cruise ship looming high overhead. A person could easily get lost in a luxury cruise-liner that size while sailing to the Greek Isles. She paid the driver and was left standing alone. Other passengers were bustling around making their way to the gate, yet Maddie stood watching, as the embarkation line grew longer. A young couple stood arm in arm with passports in hand, smiling and kissing. Honeymooners, she supposed. They certainly didn't look like they were running away from anything.
I'm not the one who left in the middle of the night for Chicago for four and a half months. I'm not the one who met some guy on a train and married him. And I'm not the one who divorced him a week later. I've got a clean slate. All I did was show up. And wait. And then wait some more. And I'm still here. And I never left. So don't talk to me about commitment. And for God's sakes, stop asking me how I feel about you. Do you want to know how I feel about you? If a guy did to me what you did to me I'd knock his teeth down his throat. You still have your incisors, so I guess that must mean I still care.
David's words still stung, but she wasn't the one who was having an affair with another person's spouse…a relative and close friend…that really hurt. Regardless of where their relationship stood, avoiding all the messiness with Annie in town didn't seem to be the answer. When she returned from her last cruise five years ago, all of her money had been stolen. Maybe a lot more was at stake this time.
Maddie tucked her passport back into her purse, grabbed her bags and hailed a cab.
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The yellow taxi honked in Maddie's driveway.
"Annie, your cab is here," Maddie called, opening the door to acknowledge the driver.
It had been a long weekend with her cousin and she was ready to have her house to herself again. Annie had been bored with her life back in Connecticut and just wanted an adventure and some fun. Maddie agreed David could certainly be adventuresome and revealed more of her jealousy and hurt than she intended. Opinions were voiced, tears were shed and Maddie admitted that she still had deep emotional ties to David; feelings that she thought had subsided, but obviously were still there. And Annie confided that, through all of his bluster and bravado, David wasn't completely over Maddie either, as most of the conversations they had eventually led to him talking about her.
Annie packed to leave. It didn't hurt that Mark had unexpectantly come to town. Or that David had played his own avoidance card. Annie hadn't seen him since the Sapperman case fiasco, but apparently she had talked to him, revealing the fact that he had said he had another stakeout with Mr. Viola last night. Maddie knew better; she was the one who billed the clients.
Maddie leaned against the closed door, engulfed in the solitude of her empty house. Maybe there really was a reason she was thirty-six and still alone. "Because you're nuts, that's why!" she remembered David telling her that night at his apartment.
Her daydream evaporated with a knock on the door.
"Hi Walter! To what do I owe this visit from my ex?" Maddie smiled, giving Walter a peck on the cheek.
"Just in the neighborhood and wondered what my beautiful ex was doing!" Walter kissed Maddie back, looking a little mischievous.
"Right. Just in the neighborhood, huh?"
Walter smiled sheepishly and shrugged, looking around the foyer and into the den. "Are you alone?"
Maddie laughed. "I'm thirty-six and live alone Walter, remember?" she teased.
"Look…Maddie…David was at our place last night."
"Why am I not surprised your being here has to do with him? What? Was he incapable of getting himself home when he found the bottom of the bottle?"
Walter took a few steps in the foyer, folded his arms across his chest and looked at Maddie with a tilt of his head. "Maddie, ugly sarcasm was never your forte," he said with a squint.
Maddie's cheeks blushed with embarrassment. Her snide comment even caught her by surprise. She could see Walter meant well, but she couldn't help herself.
"I'm sorry Walter," she sighed. "I've had a really long weekend…just a lot on my mind, I guess."
"Yeah…I can see that," he said quietly. "So…you're alone…and—"
Maddie raised an eyebrow. "You know, don't you?"
"I guess I'm not a very good liar, am I?" he smiled.
"Annie is gone, Walter. She just left to meet Mark…her husband."
"Ah…I see." Walter sat on the bottom of the staircase and motioned for Maddie to join him. "Well…since I'm in the neighborhood," he drawled, looking at Maddie, waiting for her to share her side of the drama that had unfolded the last few days. She didn't comply.
"Look…Maddie… I know everything. David told Terri and I all about it last night. And I have to tell you, he is one miserable pup right now."
"Yeah, well…he's a big boy, Walter. He can make his own choices and suffer the rewards, just like the rest of us."
Walter looked confused with her attitude.
She rested her head and face in her hands, trying to put off the major headache that was looming. "David and I both made choices over the last couple of years," she sighed. "They may not have been choices that have made us happy, but still, they were ours to make. And if I could take a few back, change the outcome of some of the decisions I made, I would. And that, Mr. Bishop, is the shortened version of our very complicated story."
Walter met her eyes, propping his chin in one hand.
"What is it?" she asked, perplexed.
"Well… I guess I'm just wondering…I mean… I can't help but think about the day little Wally was born. The way you two were screaming at each other…it just seemed as though…I don't know," he reminisced with a laugh.
Maddie held his gaze as her eyes misted with the memory. She had told David she loved him. And after all she had done he seemed willing to accept her again with open arms.
"Maddie, you just say the word. If he has totally screwed this up for the two of you and you want nothing to do with him I'll take care of it. I'll put himon a boat and sail him to Tahiti or someplace."
Maddie laughed a little herself and wiped the tears from her eyes. She appreciated Walter's good will, but this was her and David's problem, not his.
He reached inside his pocket for a handkerchief and handed it to her with a little smile. "Can I just ask one thing?" he asked, a little leery of stepping over the line.
"Of course, Walter," she sniffed.
"Do you love him?"
"Oh, please, what does that have to do with anything?"
"I think you know the answer to that question," he said, standing to go.
Maddie stood with Walter in front of the door, stuffing his handkerchief into the pocket of his shirt, fluffing the ends. "Thanks for coming Walter."
"So…do you want me to ship him out?" Walter quipped, but serious.
"No…no, not just yet, anyway," she smiled. "It's not really a good week for cruising, I'm afraid."
"Okay, Ms. Hayes, I've got to go. I promised Wally a trip to the park so Terri can have a break. See you soon, I hope."
"Bye, Walter."
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He sat in Maddie's office, the sun still hiding behind the tall L.A. buildings. He remembered watching the sun rise and set at Blue Moon while Maddie was away in Chicago, afraid he would miss her call or even her return. On her desk were a bundle of letters addressed to him with a Chicago return address. Letters she had written, but never mailed. Why, Maddie? He thought, running a hand through his hair.
He wasn't snooping in her office; they were in the way of the pad of paper he found in her desk. He was going to write his own damn letter. But there they were and it took every ounce of willpower not to pull one out and read it. What if they revealed everything she had been thinking while she was gone? That she loved him, wanted him to wait, that she would be back soon. On the other hand, what if she didn't send them because it was the last thing he would want to read from her: lines of sad goodbyes and a million other reasons and excuses as to why she thought they shouldn't be together.
David pushed the bundle around the desk, picked them up and slid them back in the drawer where he had found them along with the pad of paper. If she couldn't send her own letters, why should he bother to write one of his own?
A few lines on a yellow legal pad probably wouldn't forgive what he had done anyway.
Maddie stifled a yawn as her heels clicked across the quiet parking garage. The last time she had been this early had been her first day at Blue Moon. Only a few days after she met David… after he dumped a wastebasket on Agnes's head, equated her with a "Miss March", smirked at her the whole time like some hormonal adolescent and then to top the day off, he called her a cold-hearted bitch. And she had slapped him. She hoped he wouldn't be in until later…if he came in at all.
Taking one last look around, David closed Maddie's office door and grabbed his packed overnight bag. He didn't think he should be there when the office staff arrived, or for that matter, whenever Maddie decided to come back. All he knew is he needed to lay low a while and Mexico was just the place to do it.
He walked through the dark office and opened the door to leave Blue Moon. Maddie stood in the doorway cast in a silhouette of light. Neither said a word, though David knew her wheels were turning. It was just a matter of who would break the barrier first.
"Leaving for lunch already, David? It's not even 8 o'clock yet. And you still want a paycheck?" Maddie brushed past him and set her briefcase on Agnes's desk. "Or did you stay the night?" She nodded towards the bag on his shoulder, her sleepless night not helping her in the sarcasm department.
David flipped the light switch hard with his finger, annoyed that she would admonish him about leaving when he knew she had booked an extended leave herself. There were a million things he wanted to say at that moment, like what was in the letters he had found, but he knew he couldn't go there. Instead, he needed to see her face and to look into those cornflower blue eyes to know if he even had a shot in hell of making things right.
He supposed he should start by simply being honest.
"Must have been a quick trip for you this time, huh?" His smirk was almost more than she could stand.
Oh, he'd be honest, all right.
Maddie turned to go into her office.
"What? Can't take an honest question this morning, Ms. Hayes?"
She stopped in her tracks.
"You want honest? I'll give you honest!" she turned, her voice rising with every word.
The fire in her eyes had returned. God, he missed that.
Maddie stood stoically in front of him, arms folded. "I've spent thousands of dollars the last year and a half with someone who kept telling me to be honest with my feelings, my feelings David, and just when I thought I had everything figured out, just when I thought my life was in some sort of normal even keel, you—"
"I what Maddie? Looked at another woman twice? I'm sorry that doesn't meet your approval, but you pretty much told me the other night we were through—"
"David! My cousin? My married cousin! How could you not think that that wouldn't…" Her chin quivered and her eyes filled with tears.
David stuffed his hands in his pockets, taking a step closer. "Why does it bother you, Maddie?
"Why? David—"
"I mean, if she weren't your cousin or a friend, how would you feel?"
"I can't answer that."
"Can't or won't? I thought you were going to be honest."
"Maybe both."
"Not good enough Maddie." Her eyes seemed to soften as he took one last step towards her. He took it as a good sign that she didn't retreat. And an even better sign that her eyes trailed a path down to his tie and back to his eyes, hesitating slightly on his face and lips.
"Maddie, true happiness comes to those who let go and allow themselves to feel." Since that last appointment with her therapist she had tried to forget that David had practically told her the same thing. And then she came upon David and Annie and a multitude of feelings she had pushed away for so long came flooding back. It was scary and she almost evaded them again on a Greek Island cruise ship.
David gently brushed a strand of hair away from her face and met her gaze. "I'm sorry, Maddie. I don't know why I did it."
It was back. She had missed that…the sparkle in his eyes. That look that always seemed to tell her how he felt without ever really saying it, his heart on his sleeve.
"Oh, I think you do. But, that's okay David. I don't need you to tell me. I already know," she said assuredly, grabbing her briefcase to go.
"You do, huh? How can you just think—"
"I do uh-huh."
"So…?" His question hung in the air. She knew what it was.
"So…I suppose the Sapperman case was open and shut?" she retorted, turning back to him.
"Definitely shut."
"And there's no need to see them again? To do more surveillance?" she quizzed.
"No need whatsoever."
"Then…fine. Let's just see what the next month…or two brings us," she shrugged, standing in the doorway of her office, a glimmer of hope now dancing in her eyes.
"Fine."
"Good morning Mr. Addison." Agnes entered Blue Moon just in time to see Maddie closing the door to her office.
David picked up his bag and put it over his shoulder.
"Going somewhere, Mr. Addison?" she inquired fearfully.
He smiled slightly, looking at Maddie's closed door. "Not today, Ms. DiPesto. Not today."
Agnes put her purse on her desk and stood in the center of the office as David closed his office door behind him. She let out a big sigh, smiled and giggled.
She couldn't wait to hear the first door slam.
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Epilogue
"Well I keep on thinkin' 'bout you, Sister Golden Hair surprise.
And I just can't live without you, bum- bum, bum, bum, bum, bum- bum,
Hmm- hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm- hmm, nuh- nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh,
But it doesn't mean you ain't been on my mind."
David closed the door of his apartment with one foot, singing and glad no one was home but him. He grabbed a beer from the fridge and started to take it back to the bedroom, stopping short as he surveyed his barren apartment.
"Will you meet me in the middle, will you meet me in the air?
Will you love me just a little, just enough to show you care?"
With his head inside his closet, he tossed and threw various odds and ends out into the bedroom. A basketball bounced across the room. Something hit the wall with a honk and a squeak.
"Dum- dum, dum, dum, dum, dum- dum, dum, I've been too, too hard to find.
"But it doesn't mean you ain't been on my mind."
With one final push, the trunk stopped in front of the large den window.
He sat, looked around again….and smiled.
.......................................
Title credit: "Sister Golden Hair" by America
Thanks for caring, Jen. You are too cool for words! ;)