The alarm clock went off at 5am on Monday. Ephram rolled over and hit the snooze button. The day he had been dreading since Friday had finally arrived. He got up when the alarm clock went off again and got ready for work. He got to work at 6:30am. He enjoyed getting an early start because phones weren't ringing and there were no distractions in the office. He pulled his chair up to the piano and started to play. He thought about the topics from the meeting on Friday night and changed a few things. He pulled out some music paper and started to write the score as he played. He finally looked up from the piano when he heard a knock on his door. He got up and opened it.
"Madison. Hey. It's 9 o'clock already." Ephram looked at his watch.
"No, it's actually 9:30. I have to take Jake to day care so this is the time I usually get in. Is that okay?" Madison walked further into Ephram's office and stood in front of his desk.
"Oh, sure, fine. It doesn't bother me. Would you like to go to one of our conference rooms or work in here." Ephram turned to follow her and was caught off guard by her demeanor. She was very professional and to Ephram it seemed as though she was all business.
"Wherever is fine." Madison replied trying to hide her insecurity about this entire situation.
"How 'bout we go to the conference room down the hall?"
They walked down the hall to the conference and sat down. Madison pulled out a piece of paper from her portfolio.
"Before I forget. Here. This is the band's practice schedule and other engagement schedule. They are working on their next album right now and playing at several local bars. In fact, I thought it would be good if you could go watch them tomorrow night. They are playing at Linq."
"Are you going tomorrow night?"
"I wasn't planning on it. Jake takes up a lot of my time."
"Oh, that's fine. I understand. I'll go check them out tomorrow night." Ephram looks a little upset but he understands.
Madison notices his discomfort with going by himself. "Let me see what I can do about the babysitter staying a little longer tomorrow. I probably should go with you and introduce you to the band and everything."
"Look, I'm fine going by myself. I don't want to take you away from your son and husband." Ephram went out on a limb with that statement trying to grab some information without acting like he was.
"Oh, no, I'm not married." Madison said guardedly.
"Oh. I just figured..." Ephram replied.
"It's okay. Jake and I are by ourselves. We do just fine. He is the man of the house and he knows it too."
Ephram cracked a smile at Madison's comment. "So how old is the man of the house?"
Madison hesitated when Ephram asked that question. She was searching for an answer. She finally said, "He's four. Jake's four."
"Four, huh. He definitely is king then," Ephram smiled at Madison. Madison smiled back hesitantly. Ephram continued to smile and look at Madison. She was still as gorgeous if not more so now. He thought to himself that working with her was going to be extremely hard to do, but he had to be professional. "So shall we get started? We have a lot of work to do."
Madison was relieved to know that Ephram didn't catch onto the age of Jake. She took a chance and it paid off or so she thought.
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