Madeline

Chapter Ten - Your Lonely Eyes

Miranda

I barely took notice of my surroundings as I drove to work after dropping Matt off at his house. My brain was spinning, doing it's best to grasp the question my mouth had just shout out for all the world to hear, well Matt and myself at least. We were going to talk about it later tonight. That was where I let it be left, talking about it later. Wasn't the whole fear driving this based on not wanting to wait ever again? There were two fears raging inside of me at that moment, one was that this was actually going to happen and destroy us and the other was that us moving in together would work out great and we'd be together for the rest of our lives.

I knew without a doubt that there was no other person for me than Matt. Even friendly dates had seemed too awkward and wrong every time I had tried over the last six years. I knew I loved Matt and that he loved me, but what I didn't know was what that love really amounted to. I hoped with all of my heart that it was forever and he'd already told me he hoped for the same, but we'd said those same words six years ago and it hadn't added up to anything but the will to wait for him to find me again.

In my heart I knew the single fear that was the root of any doubts in my head was that I was afraid of being left alone again and I couldn't take that a second time in one life. What if we moved in and everything was great but he had to leave and finish school somewhere for a year? With that question, the what if game began and it preoccupied my mind through a half hour of traffic and long after I had parked my car and walked into my office building. I was almost out of what ifs and about to begin answering them when my boss walked in to my office and raised an eyebrow at me.

"Working hard?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry. Have a lot on my mind I guess."

"I'd call it more than a guess. I don't think I've ever caught you in here staring off into thin air. There's not anything serious going on is there?" I smiled at him and shook my head at the way he always seemed to take on a fatherly role with me. It was not a rare thing for new employees to actually assume that I was his daughter, but they were always quickly corrected by me. I hated anyone thinking I had my job because my daddy owned the company, but it didn't hurt that my daddy was old friends with the man who did.

"Phillip, I'm not your best friends little daughter anymore. You don't have to look out for me, I can take care of myself now and then." He smiled as I rolled my eyes.

"Hey, if I don't ask and your father finds something out before I've given him fair warning, then I never hear the end of it. Not to mention that any time your mother gets upset with me over something I'm banned from her cooking and you know how addicting that stuff is." He sat down in the chair facing me across the desk. "But mostly you're the daughter I never had and I can't help but worry."

"Phil, you have six children, four of them daughters." I looked blankly at him, shaking my head again.

"Yeah, but none of them are you, so you're still the daughter I never had." He stood back up from the chair and moved to the still opened door of my office. "The real reason I dropped by was to remind you that you've got the presentation for today's meeting and to make sure that you actually do have it."

"Have I ever let you down in three years? Even when I was balancing my Senior year of College with this job I was always prepared. Don't worry." He held up his hands in a submissive gesture and backed out into the hall, leaving with a small wave and a smile. I waited a few more seconds to make sure he was gone and then I sprang into action. I had a presentation to throw together in two hours and I didn't even have the slightest clue what it was even over. I knew Matt had definitely become a distraction lately, I just hadn't realized how much of one.

VvVvV

I was in the middle of working up note cards for my speech when Phil returned to my office accompanied by Jennifer, the woman I trusted most and was closest with in the office. She was also the only person senior to me after Philip. I could tell by the look on his face that he'd pulled something over on me. It had been a good two years since that face looked my way, I had learned fast after my first year to always double check anything he said to make sure I didn't end up doing more work than needed.

"Miranda, have you got everything ready?"

I looked at him and cautiously answered with a nod. "Yeah, why?"

"Because I'll need to look over everything before presenting it, being that it's my turn to pitch the ideas to the clients today, but thanks for getting it all done for me. I was starting to get worried that I couldn't fool anyone in this office into doing my work for me anymore."

"Phil! Do you have any idea what I've just been doing!"

"Well, it resembled a headless chicken." Jennifer finally spoke as she moved around him and sat down in the chair he'd been in earlier. "Which means that Phil was right, something's got you more distracted than either one of us has ever seen you."

"Jerk, you could have just asked." I said as I looked at Phil who was starting to grin wider.

"Yeah, but rather than push I let you work it out, besides I really was hoping not to have to do all that work myself, it is why I have employees. Now, I understand that it's none of my business and that you don't have to tell me what's on your mind, but I don't think I have to tell you how annoying I will be about it until you do."

I gave in quick, truth was I figured the two of them could probably help. They were both older and wiser, Phil was my dad's age and Jennifer had ten years on me. "Okay, okay, I'll spill. I don't know if I've mentioned him before but. . ."

"Not Matt again?" They both interrupted me at the same time. "If the next words out of your mouth don't involve him moving back here and taking up all your time being together than I don't want to hear it." I blushed as Jennifer spoke.

"Actually, he did move back and we have been spending most of our free time together." I had them both stunned, neither had apparently figured on this eventuality ever taking place. "But that's not the problem, in fact that's all going great. What's bothering me today is that this morning I basically asked him to move in with me."

"This morning?" The dad face was back on Phil as he slightly cocked his head and squinted at me.

"Oh, shut up grandpa. You don't have to do anything at night for there to be a morning." Jennifer said before turning to face me and asking, "Now what do you mean by basically?"

"Well, I didn't actually say the words 'move in' but we're going to talk about it more tonight when I get home from work and he's free from watching Madeline."

"Okay, wait. Now who's Madeline and when did he even get back."

"Why don't I just start from the day I got back from that last out of town trip I took to snag that big account in D.C." I was in the middle of retelling everything that had happened and filling them in on who everyone was when Cindy, Phil's secretary walked into the room to tell us our clients had arrived.

"We are all three going to lunch after we bag these guys and you're finishing this and then telling us how in the world you got to moving in together in two weeks time." Phil whispered to us both as he read over the presentation walking down the hall. "And you're giving this thing because I have no idea what any of these cards say, you wrote them all in Spanish." He handed them back to me as we walked into the room and shook hands with what I hoped were the representatives of the company I had prepared for.

VvVvV

We were sitting around a table a few hours later waiting for our lunch when I couldn't take their stares any longer. "Okay, I'll finish with the story! You guys really could have helped me keep my concentration in that meeting by not giving me those annoying stares of yours the whole time."

"What stares? Do we have stares Jennifer?"

"I wasn't aware of any special stares, but Miranda is the expert people reader, so maybe she sees something in our eyes that we don't even know is there." I rolled my eyes at their sarcasm and choose to just ignore it.

"Anyway, I believe I was at waking up late this morning. . ."

"Beside him." Jennifer interrupted and finished the thought.

"Fully clothed after a night of absolutely nothing happening." Phil added with a wink.

"Right, well after we rushed around and were driving to his house I blurt out 'You know, if you wanted to just stay at my place, Lizzie could drop off Madeline on her way to work and you wouldn't have to run all the way back every morning.'" I told them the rest of what happened and finished to find a smile on Jennifer's face and a confused look on Phil's.

"So, neither one of you actually said the words, move in?"

"She already told us that, Phil. Pay attention." He looked back and forth at us both, obviously trying to figure out what he was missing. Jennifer sighed, as if being put out but smiled as she explained to him, "They didn't say the words directly, but they said them in every other way, so Miranda's trying to figure out how to actually say it tonight when they talk about it."

"Oh." We both laughed at him before their eyes and my attention were pulled behind me by my favorite sound in the world, Matt's voice.

"Hey you."

I saw Jennifer mouth 'He's cute' to me before turning around and looking into his beautiful eyes and nearly losing myself in them. "What are you doing here?" As soon as I asked I saw Gordo walking in our direction, taking Madeline's hand in his after shaking the hand of an older man with a full graying beard.

"Well, I was going to surprise you tonight with this and another idea I've come up with today, but I can't wait now."