Paul locked the Range Rover again and took the elevator up to the fourth floor, he carried Madison and her diaper bag across the hall and sighed before opening Stephanie's door, "Maddy's here!" He smiled but noticed Stephanie's face was pale and her eyes were full of tears, "are you okay?"
She only shook her head and wiped her face, then held her hands out for her daughter, "hi baby girl, hi." Her face seemed to lighten up once she had Madison in her hands, "Paul, I need to ask you a favor, um, my house is being like, fumigated, and, do you have an extra bedroom or something?"
"Well yeah, but I live pretty far away from here, why don't you just get a motel room or something around here?" He knew something was wrong and she was avoiding it, like she always did, "Stephanie?"
"I'm gonna be sick, take Madison." She shoved Maddy in his arms and ran out the door down the hallway, barely making it to the bathroom.
Paul looked to her desk, trying to find why she seemed really upset. He used his free hand to look through a couple of papers, he noticed one said 'US Immigration' before he heard footsteps coming towards the room, "so, are you alright?"
"I'm fine." Steph stood in the doorway, "I don't like hotels, they're gross, and a lot of them don't like babies because they cry. I don't care where you live, all I ask is that you have an extra bedroom. I hate when you ask questions." She sighed and sat back down at her desk.
"Jeez, well I won't ask any more damn questions. Sorry." He rolled his eyes, "if you hate when I ask questions, I hate when you're mean." He bit his lip, "if you need a place to stay tonight, maybe, you should be a little bit nicer about it."
Her eyes burned a hole in his forehead, "oh shut up." She huffed, "you know what? I don't have to stay at your house, I'd rather stay in a disgusting hotel room than have to spend another hour with you."
"Yeah, right, make it seem like I'm the jerk, while I go and pick up your daughter, I'm standing here holding her as you yell at me, and I never refused letting you stay at my house."
"Give me my daughter," she snatched Madison from his hands, "wait, are you saying you'd let me stay at your house?" She bit her lip, "I'm sorry I yelled."
"Well I don't want you at my house if you're just gonna yell at me. You can't yell at me in my own house." He put his hands on his hips and looked out the window, "is there any specific reason there would be a tow truck parked right behind your car?"
"What?" She screeched, jumping from her desk to the window, "how do you know its for my car and not yours, which is parked right next to mine."
"Cause the driver is looking into your window." Inside he was smiling, "I'll get Shawn to watch Maddy and I'll go out there with you. Shawn!" He yelled towards the door, "he was probably listening to us yelling."
"Yeah, hey, what's up?" Shawn calmly walked in the office, hands in his pockets.
"Keep an eye on Madison, we'll be right back." Paul patted Shawn's shoulder before rushing out the door with Stephanie on his heels, it was an awkward silence in the elevator but once they got outside, Stephanie went off on the tow-truck driver.
"What the hell are you doing with my car?" She screamed, Paul's brain rattled, "I've been paying for it since I bought it. What's the problem?"
"Ma'am, the bank told us to repossess it because," the man looked to Paul and pulled out a roll of papers from his back pocket, "read these ma'am. They told us its confidential between you and them, and us."
Paul squinted his eyes as he looked away, nothing was said as Stephanie read the papers, then handed them back to the man, "is everything okay?"
"Yeah, everything's fine. I know why this is happening." She looked as if she were going to burst into tears again, "about staying at your house, I think you have to take us now." She looked to the truck driver, "can I get my belongings out of my car before you take it?"
"Sure, go ahead. It would be even better if you gave us the keys, you might have an easier time getting it back." He nodded towards her.
Paul pulled her eyes out of her pocket, "here." He put them in her hand and walked towards his own car, "let's get the carseat and everything else in here."
For a slight second, a small smile turned on her lips, then she closed her eyes and looked back at the truck driver, "here's the keys, just please be careful with it, please. It's brand new."
"Yes ma'am." The driver unlocked her car and opened the driver door. She opened the back door and started to take the carseat out, "Paul, can you get her stroller out of the trunk please?"
It was the first time she'd ever asked him to do something for her and actually said please, "sure, will it fit in my trunk?"
She just nodded, thinking about why her car was being taken away. She slowly took the carseat from her car to Paul's car, "this goes to a latch somewhere, I don't know where it would be in your car."
He looked at the strap in her hand, "yeah, it goes around the seat into the trunk, I've seen the latch before, "I'll get this for you. Just go deal with the tow guy." He took the seat and worked on installing it in his car. When he was done, he waited for her and the truck driver to finish talking before he approached her, "so, what's really going on?"
"I don't want to talk about it yet." She sharply replied, gathering a few more things from the Range Rover, then nodding towards the driver, "thanks Jerry." She put the stuff in Paul's trunk next to the stroller, "I might explain when I feel like it."
"Oh." He sarcastically nodded, "you can't explain to me why I have to take you to my house in my car? I just have to do it huh?"
She sighed, "yes, you do, if you want to keep your job." She closed the trunk and started back for the office building.
"Are you even sure you're my boss anymore? Cause obviously, something happened to your house, and now, your car, is your job next?" He was hot on her heels, unable to resist talking about the predicament he believed she was in.
"Stop following me like that, I can feel you breathing down my neck." She pushed the button on the elevator, "if you give me time to think about how I want to let people know about my problems, maybe you will be the first person I tell."
"So you are having problems? Steph, just tell me, I'm not gonna judge you or anything. You can tell me."
"Yeah, and then you'll tell Shawn and he'll tell everyone else, I'm not worried about you 'judging' me, I just don't want everyone to know what's going on. End of subject, okay?" She fixed her skirt and the elevator door opened, "are you ready to go home?"
"Early? You're letting me off early?" Paul was in shock, "why? Something must really be wrong, this is so weird." He followed her into her office, "of course I'm ready to go home, I come to work ready to go back home."
"How do you think Shawn would handle being in charge while you and I aren't here? I'm thinking about taking a little bit of time off and putting him in charge." She gathered a stack of papers and stuffed them into a briefcase.
"Wait, I'm above him, why would you put him in charge and not me?" He got kind of upset, he'd been jumping through hoops for Stephanie for the past eight years and hearing this wasn't fair.
She shot him a look and he instantly shut his mouth, "before you start arguing with me, there's a few things I want to tell you. After you hear those things, then maybe you'll understand why I'm putting him in charge, and not you." She handed her bag to him and smiled, "I'll be right back, I'm going to Shawn's office to get Madison so we can leave. I'll meet you downstairs, and can you get the diaper bag for me, please?"
"Yeah, sure." He smiled back, noticing hers wasn't fake, or sarcastic, it was a sincere smile. This was when he realized something bad had to be happening.