Authors note:
Thank you everyone for your replies!
And I'm sorry it took me this long to keep on but I hope next time I won't keep you waiting so much.
Lady-Jolly: I loved your last story, Confessions for Monica. When are we getting a new one?
Now, please spare my life!
Chapter 2Part 1 Don't let this feeling end
"Well, well.. Aren't you happy to see us, Monica?" Kathleen asked sarcastically when they left Jamal's office.
"What are you doing here?" Monica asked defiantly, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Where are your manners, Mony?" Gregory said wrapping an arm around her shoulders that she immediately tried to get rid of. "Instead of saying something nice like 'Long time no see'. Is that the way you greet your partners?"
"You've never been my partner, Gregory. Kathleen was, but now..." she turned to look at the former Search and Rescue angel with something that resembled sadness in her hazel eyes.
"We'll work together again, Monica. Isn't that great?" Kathleen asked.
"We won't work together, Kathleen, and you know that," the little angel said coldly. "In fact, I'm here to stop you to do your job."
Gregory laughed in scorn. "Hold your wings, little angel! You think we're giving up so easily? Of course not! We've gotten Jamal's soul, we're not losing it!"
"You don't have it yet!"
"Didn't your boss told you he's offered his soul to our master by the time of his death?" the male demon asked again. "For me that's a promise!"
"He still can regret it and ask for forgiveness, you know that!" Monica's eyes flashed with certainty. "That's why you don't want to leave him alone! You still can lose him!"
"Ease, Monica, ease!" Kathleen told her ex friend patting her shoulder in mock understanding. "Gregory can be a little rude, you know him. He thinks he can beat you in a will contest, but I have a better proposition."
"I'm not interested in any of your propositions, Kathleen, thank you."
"Are you sure? What if I tell you I'm willing to give up on Jamal?"
"Sure you do!"
"I will... if you agree to make a deal," the female demon said.
"I don't make deals with any of you..."
"If you fail this assignment, you risk to lose God's love. If you lose Jamal's soul, you're losing one of His children's soul. Don't you think that would make him angry?" Kathleen asked knowing that was a very sensitive cord for an angel. "You were created to save them not to lose them. He'll forgive you, yes, but do you think you'd keep on being a caseworker? I'm pretty sure you'd be back to Search and Rescue or what is worse, you might be send somewhere else... like cherubim sitting or gardening..."
"That would be humiliating, Monica!" Gregory made fun of her. "From being the best caseworker to take care of the noisy little cherubims. Lucky you like children!"
"That will never happen!" Monica said with clear anger in her voice. "First because that's not how it works, second because I'm not losing this assignment!"
"You have already, dear!" Kathleen told her. "But there's a way for you to get it. If you only hear my proposition..."
"I will never...!" the little angel said.
"An interchange," the demon interrupted her and Gregory looked at her quizzically until he heard the last part. "Jamal's soul for Andrew's."
"WHAT!" Monica shouted feeling how anger and fear raised in her heart in a second.
"You heard me, yes, I can accept Andrew's soul instead of Jamal's. You know, Monica? I've seen you two together and you make me sick! All that sugar..." Kathleen shivered. "Don't you get bored? Honestly..."
"How can you ever believe I'd trade Andrew! Other than the Father, he's what I love the most!"
"That's it, you'd said it, dear!" Gregory replied. "'Other than the Father'. The question is who you love the most. Your God or Andrew? You can choose. God's love and your assignment or your blondie friend."
Just when the Irish angel was about to argue, a buzz in the intercom interrupted them. Monica pressed a button to reply to Jamal's call. "Y-yes?" she said, her voice clearly trembling.
"Monica, I need you here!" the man's voice ordered.
"Think about it, Mony," Kathleen said walking away with Gregory. "God or Andrew? That easy."
Wanting or not, Monica couldn't take out of her mind Kathleen and Gregory's words. Of course she didn't want to risk her assignment but she would never ever send Andrew to hell. The problem was that there was indeed the possibility of someone ending up there, Jamal, and God was trusting her to save His child.
Before she realized it, it was already five o'clock, her time of leaving the office. She only looked at the clock when Jamal left his office and passed by her desk.
"See you tomorrow, Monica. Gregory and Kathleen are waiting for me. I need the payment orders first hour in the morning, ok?"
"Ok," the angel replied. "See you tomorrow."
She was collecting her things when the phone rang. "There's a man looking for Miss Monica," the man at the lobby desk told her. "He says his name's Andrew."
"Yes, tell him I'll be there in a minute," she said though her voice lacked the normal joy she had when she was about to see him.
Nearly five minutes later, Andrew saw her leaving the elevator and from that moment he could say there was something wrong. She looked tired and the tender smile that usually greeted him didn't appear when he took her hand and leaned to kiss her. "Are you alright, Monica?" he asked.
The Irish angel met his green eyes and saw there a deep worry that only matched the big love she always found there. "I'm ok, Andrew, just tired..." she chose to say. "Can we go have something to eat?"
"Whatever you want, angel," he replied knowing she wasn't telling him all but thinking she might feel more comfortable to talk in another place.
He took her hand and they walked in an odd silence until they reached a café, three blocks away from Monica's new office. "Do you want a coffee?" he asked trying to cheer her up.
"Yes, it's ok," she said without the enthusiasm. He opened the door for her and went to order their beverages while she took an empty table. Her distant sight and the non-happy tone in her voice made Andrew decide he wanted to know what wasn't right. Hopefully, he thought, the coffee would help her open up to him.
"You haven't told me how was your first day, baby," he offered gently, placing the big cup of moka latte in front of her.
"It was ok, I guess..." she said taking a sip. "Just what I could expect."
"Did you meet Jamal or the other employees?" he asked reaching to take her hand.
"Yes, I met him. As for the others..." but she didn't complete her sentence. Looking at their intertwined fingers, the 'deal' the demons had proposed came to her mind as well as the fear of knowing they had placed their eyes on her beloved angel. She couldn't let him get hurt...
"They were mean to you?"
"Mean?" she asked and chuckled quite sarcastically, for the first time looking at him. "I've known them long enough to know that's how they'd act..."
"You have?" he asked not really understanding.
"They are Kathleen and Gregory, Jamal's personal assistant and personal driver," she told him and didn't miss the way his eyes flashed with anger and his hand held hers tighter.
"Kathleen and Gregory? Both of them!" She just nodded. "Monica, you have to be careful!"
"I know!"
"Angel, I couldn't bare if something happened to you..."
Monica bit her lower lip seeing the caring concern in Andrew's expression and she knew she was right in what she had said before: other than God, there was nobody she loved more. And for that she couldn't tell him anything, she couldn't even mention the 'deal', nor that he would accept it. Unable to hold his sight, she freed her hand from his and took another sip of her coffee.
"I want you to be careful, Monica," Andrew said in a very serious tone.
"I can take..." she was about to answer when the cell phone she has gotten as an employee started to ring. She sighed heavily and took the phone. "Yes?" she asked almost angrily.
"Your new boss wants you in the council meeting with him tomorrow, Monica," Kathleen told her. "I'm sorry to tell you that I'm gonna be there too..."
Hearing her voice, Monica felt the color draining from her face, but at the last remark, she couldn't help but exclaim a "What?" that made Andrew look at her worriedly.
"Until you don't accept my deal, I'm not leaving you alone with Jamal, baby," the demon said. "You know the rule".
Thinking twice before replying and saying something that would make Andrew wonder about that 'deal', Monica stood up from the table and walked away as if she had trouble with the signal. "And I've told you I don't make deals with you, Kathleen! Least of all if Andrew is involved!"
"Pity..." the demon answered. "I saw you walking out of the office. He really cares about you, you know? How will he feel when you tell him you failed your assignment? He may be the angel of death waiting for Jamal's soul and will get nothing but seeing him go straight to hell... literally!" Kathleen laughed.
"I haven't lost Jamal yet..." Monica spent some more minutes arguing with her ex co-worker, Kathleen sarcasm and certainty only making her more and more insecure and scared.
When she hung up the phone, she wanted nothing but run to Andrew's arms and let him fix her self-confidence, but she froze in her place when she turned to walk back to their table and saw him laughing and chatting with a blond haired woman that was now using her chair. A sudden anger overcame her and in three quick long strides she was by the table again.
"You've gotta be kidding me!" the little angel heard Andrew telling the girl.
"No! I promise!" she laughed.
"Excuse me," Monica said with barely contained rage, "but I think you're using my chair."
Her tone of voice surprised Andrew, who looked at her unable to believe that was the same Monica, while the woman looked at her somehow embarrassed. "I-I'm sorry?" she asked.
"I think you heard me. You're using my chair," Monica repeated.
"Deborah, this is my girlfriend, Monica," Andrew said standing up and trying to cover the angel's attitude.
"Oh, hi!" the blond girl said cheerfully.
"Hi," Monica replied coldly.
"Hum... Well, Andrew, I think I better leave you alone. It was nice talking to you!"
"Yes, I enjoyed it very much..." the blond angel said.
"Come by again soon," the girl told him.
"I will, thanks."
"Bye, Monica!"
The Irish angel didn't answer as she was feeling a mix of anger and sadness rising in her chest and in her eyes in the form of tears that would appear in any moment.
Andrew saw his new friend going away before he turned to face Monica, whose eyes were already shining with tears. "Now, Monica, can you please explain me what's the matter with you!" he said in a low thought very angry voice.
"You still ask, Andrew?" she answered tumbling on her chair. "I had one of the worst days in my life as a caseworker and when I need you the most, you're with another... woman!"
"Baby, I was just talking to her!" he argued. "You even weren't here!"
"But you should've been waiting for me!"
"I was! And that you had a bad day doesn't give you the right to be so rude! I wish I could help you more, but I'm not in your assignment!"
Arguing with Andrew was all the little angel needed to break down, so at his last words, tears started to cross her cheeks. "Ok, I know! Forget I even mentioned it!"
"Monica..."
"As I told you the day we met, I may be unlucky but certainly I'm not incompetent!"
The memory of that particular moment in a day he held dearly in his heart was like a punch on his stomach. Her tears and her outburst were nothing but the proof that whatever she had been through today had certainly taken its toll on the little angel. Regretting his hard recriminations, Andrew reached a hand to take hers. "Angel girl," he started with a doubting voice, "that's unfair!"
"You didn't mean it?" she exploded looking at him through her tears. "Yes, you did! I'm rude and boring and you had a good time with... Deborah. Well, stay then! I'll see you later!" Monica said standing up quickly, grabbing her purse and leaving Andrew speechless in the lonely table.
