Disclaimer: I don't own the situations or characters portrayed herein. I'm just playing with them for a while.
Photo Finish
His day promised to be a good one.
For one thing, he and Amanda had a date tonight. He felt like he never saw her anymore, what with her always working on either a security review for Beaman or homework with the boys. On the few days Phillip and Jamie were away from home with Joe, she usually ended up pulling some stunt like waxing floors at 10:30 on a Saturday night to prove a point. But once a week they had a night set aside just for them, and tonight would be that night.
For another thing, he had about 20 minutes just to sit back and relax until he had to go to the morning meeting. He had a wonderful cup of coffee in one of his favorite mugs. He had the paper, and the news wasn't all bad.
And then the phone rang.
It was Billy, saying that the review board was getting ready to give Amanda a letter. For one horrible second, it felt like the world had crumbled away beneath his feet. Then he sprang into action.
A letter meant a permanent downgrade in Amanda's clearance. A letter meant disgrace. More worrying, in his current state of selfish and heartbroken panic, was the fact that it could mean he wouldn't be able to see her. Not at work. Not even socially.
He'd have to break off an engagement no one even knew about if he didn't want to be branded and censured along with her.
He wasn't going to, because he was going to get to the bottom of this, but if it wasn't cleared up soon…
The day had started off so well, too.
