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Part Two.
"So you were saying something about playing baseball," Angela starts by way of making conversation.
"Yea, yea. Played for the St Louis Cardinals." NOTE: They just won the World Series! Whoo hoo!
"The who?" Angela asks.
"Ah, .. 'The Who' are a group of musicians. The St Louis Cardinal are a Major League Baseball team. .. From St Louis. .. Missouri"
"Ha, ha. Very funny." Angela replies laughing but still looking like she's still missing something.
"Yea, well anyway I was playing professional baseball for St Louis for a few years. Worked my way up through their farm system till I made it to the big league, where I actually only played for a season and a bit"
"You had to work on a farm to play baseball?" Angela is still feeling a little lost but at the same time she feels like she could sit here all night and listen to Tony explain it to her.
"No!" Tony replies rather amused at Angela's misconceptions. "A farm system is a sort of .. a graded system of baseball teams, where you start at a lower level and then work your way up. The better you are, the higher up you go, with the highest level being the Major Leagues"
'I could do this all night,' Tony thought. Just watching all the various emotions play over Angela's face was amazing. He still couldn't believe she was sitting there talking to him.
"Ohhh. Okay, got it now. So I guess you made it to the highest level"
"Yea, for a little while." Tony sighs.
"What happened"
"Well that's were I injured my shoulder and ended up finally getting cut"
"Because of the shoulder"
"Yea. For a while it seemed like the worst thing that could possibly happen to me, but then Marie got sick and baseball and the whole shoulder thing just didn't seem to matter that much anymore"
"Yes, I guess that kind of thing would change the way you look at things," Angela says quietly.
"It's all about people these days Angela," Tony says as he looks into Angela's eyes. Feeling a little like he's drowning in there, but doesn't want out. "Without people you love in your life, things or the things your doing don't mean anything"
"That is so true Tony"
Angela can't believe that this guy sitting across from her is saying things like that. She briefly recalls her last date where 'Jerry' spent half the night talking about his new car, his new condo, and his new office. The other half of the very short night she spent trying to stay away from his hands.
A few more moments go by while Angela and Tony sit and just look into each others eyes. Both of them seemingly content to do just that. Tony finally notices that some of the other patrons in the diner are starting to look at them funny.
"Well, I guess you know what I do for a living these days, so, ah, what do you do to keep a roof over your head Angela?" Tony asks trying to steer the conversation to something a little more main stream.
"Advertising," Angela replies trying to regain her grip on the present. "Mostly on the management side of things these days"
"Management side?"
"Yes. You see there are the creative people, and then there are the management people. Not that you can really manage the creative people, but you try to keep them interested and moving in a useful direction"
"Ah," Tony replied.
"Yes, you see someone has to be concerned with expenses, profits, and what I like to call advertising the advertising"
"And that's you?" Tony asked.
"Yep. I'm .." Angela started and then panics, "in what you might call middle management"
"Middle management"
"Yea, uh, that's right," Angela replied. It wasn't quite a lie Angela thought. As the President I am kind of in the middle, between the Board of Directors and the rest of the Company. "I was, .. actually still am one of the creative people, but these days, I, uh, manage. Mostly"
"That middle management must pay pretty good if you can afford to live out here and drive a Jag"
Tony's has a feeling that she wasn't telling him everything, but then at this point or maybe there might never be a point where there was a reason to call her on it. Meanwhile Angela was fighting with the impulse to tell him everything, and with the idea that if she told him she was the President of the twelfth largest advertising agency in the country she might intimidate him.
"I, uh, got the house and the car in the separation agreement," she said while thinking they were pretty much hers to start with anyway.
"At least you got something out of the marriage"
"Yea, a house, a car, a terrific son and another deep and nasty scar on my self esteem"
"Oh yea? Well your self esteem seems to be getting better," Tony offers with a big smile.
"What makes you say that?" Angela asked, smiling slightly and looking at Tony quizzically.
"Here you are out picking up strange men at gas stations," Tony said with the smile on his face getting bigger.
Angela is quiet for a moment thinking about all the different ways that she could interpret or deny that before her own smile starts getting bigger and she says, "So .. are you trying to tell me that you're strange"
Tony starts laughing as he says, "I guess I asked for that one, and no I'm not strange. Unique maybe, but not strange"
"Unique is good," Angela comments quietly while smiling at Tony.
"Yea, I suppose we are pretty unique to each other, coming from such different worlds like we do Angela"
Angela just smiles and nods at Tony and for a few moments they drift back into a comfortable silence.
Hoping to lighten the mood a little Tony comes out with, "Hey you didn't try and deny that you were trying to pick me up"
"Hmm. I didn't did I," Angela replies looking down into her coffee cup and immediately she can feel the color coming up in her face as she thinks, 'Aren't we just little Miss Subtlety tonight.' Then she grits her teeth and thinks, 'But I don't want to let him think I'm just being friendly.' And then just as quickly thinks, 'Don't hide it.' as she determinedly looks back into Tony's eyes fully aware that her face is probably glowing red.
Tony suddenly feels like all the wind was just knocked out of him. He had felt like they were hitting it off, but the sight of her siting there blushing and looking at him with such open determination has his heart racing.
"Uh, well then, uh, maybe I could call you then Angela," Tony quietly asks her,just barely able to talk, as he leans forward and reaches a hand out across the table between them.
Angela looks at his hand for a moment before taking her own hands and putting them in Tony's, while at the same time she starts smiling happily.
"Yea. I'd like that."