Here you go. Merry Christmas! ho! ho! ho!
Reviews:
KT- We love Charlotte too. :) Here's more.
Dnacer- Thanks! Here's some more original character talk.
JAMlover- Oh wow! Thanks!!!! We're not sure how the story will end--we dont know anything, haha.
Code name- ROCK ON! was a brilliant addition. The non-writer of the phrase agrees.
BigTuna- You're just too good. Hmm... Well, they're not always Katy, you know!
Dean- I'm glad you enjoy it!
Literati- Thanks!
C.O- Oh thanks! We're trying to make them real in their unnatural settings.
Kerber- We're waiting for your story! And here you go!
Empty Hallway- Oh thats so funny! Thanks!
Meg- Oh, she's adorable!
Trisk- Hmm, well we hope this one's better for you!
Maddi- Oh, well we hate you too. :)
Rach- I'm glad you love it! Here's more!
The phone vibrated against the desk, humming loudly next to where Kade sat in the waiting area of his mother's office, his feet kicking into the wind, his chin against his palm in boredom. He was quickly jolted awake by the new, unfamiliar ringtone and he raced over to the table, knocking his mother's purse on the floor and pulling out the phone. He picked up the phone and looked at it, excited he recognized a few of the letters in the caller ID frame. There was a B! And that one was a T! And CH, that one was easy! He couldn't read what the word was, but maybe Mom would help him if he brought into her.
He ran over to the conference room where Pam was giving her presentation, ignoring the pleas of his mother's mean assistant, Becky, to stay out of the area, and ran through the doors and up to his Mom. She was in the middle of talking, but Kade had never been the type of child that was interested in not interrupting. "MOM!" She looked down at him, giving him a look that told him clearly not to bother her. "Your phone is buzzing," he said, handing it to her.
She put a finger up to the three men in the room with her, excusing herself as she bent down to talk to Kade. "Thank you honey," she said, straightening his t-shirt. "Baby, I really need you to go outside and wait for me, okay? I've got to finish this presentation."
He nodded, leaned into her ear and whispered in a voice that wasn't really a whisper, "When you're done with your prespitation, can we go to ChuckE's?"
She smiled. "Yes, but you have to be a good boy," He nodded vigorously and left the room, apologizing to the men as she straightened up.
"I'm sorry about that," she said softly, looking back to her charts. "So, as you can see, this museum has seen a steady growth not only in funds, but visitors," She turned to Paul, smiling, "Should you choose to allow us to showcase your exhibition, we'll provide you your own wing. There will be multiple staff members assigned specifically to your exhibition, and –"
She was interrupted by a hand waving in the air, "Miss Beesly."
"Yes?" She stopped.
"We're going to want to meet with you tonight at five PM at the Café Cabernet on 5th. It will be imperative that you bring a model of our wing, as well as the specific demographics of your recent growth. In addition, please bring any paperwork you think we may need upon reviewing your work." The three men got up, offered their hands, and she shook them, numbly
"I'll see you at five," she confirmed as they walked out of the room. She leaned back against the wall, grinning. She had to nail this dinner tonight, which brought up a whole new slew of problems. What could she do with Kade?
She gathered her presentation tools and walked outside, straight over to where Becky sat at her desk. She set her graphs and charts on the chair next to where she stood, grabbed a pen from Becky's pencil cup, and started sketching. "Becky, I need you to take this and get an actual replica model made of it. It needs to be big enough that we can see the details and it should be about as big as a dinner table. It needs to have these ramifications," she pointed at the drawing. "And, I need you to make finger sized model paintings of these," she handed a three-page collection of various artworks of Paul's, "and I need you to make four copies of our demographics of visitors, how each demographic has contributed fiscally, and the necessary paperwork to add an exhibition to our branch."
Becky nodded, writing it all down. "Okay, what should I do with all of this?"
"I need it in my hands by five at the Café Cabernet. You'll need to leave here by 4:10 to make it there in plenty of time, and I'll meet you there around 4:45. It needs to be perfect," she looked up, staring at her assistant.
Becky nodded again, making eye contact, "No problem ma'am. Oh, and I'm sorry about Kade, I didn't realize until he'd opened the door…." She trailed off, but Pam waved her off, smiling.
"Thanks Becky. You're the best assistant ever," she said, hurrying out of her office and down the hall to find Kade.
She noticed her purse was knocked over at the table and she ran over to it, quickly stuffing everything back into it as quickly as she could, noticing she had three missed calls already, all within the past twenty minutes. Her eyes darted around the room for Kade, and she gasped when she finally saw him in the corner of the exhibit, coloring on the walls.
"KADE THOMAS ANDERSON!" She hollered, running toward him and yanking at his arm. "You know better than to color on the walls!" She took all of the crayons out from his hands as he sat there staring at her, tears forming in his eyes. "BECKY!" she yelled down the hall, turning her attention to Kade and helping him up on his feet. Her assistant came running, her black heels clanking against the tile floors of the museum.
"Yes?"
"Can you get this taken care of?" Pam asked apologetically pointing at the crayon marks. Becky nodded and smiled lightly. Pam turned her attention back to her son as Becky took off down the corridors to get maintenance.
"Kade, why would you color on the walls?" She asked, crouching down to his level and trying her hardest not to sound angry.
"I just…" he looked away, but she reached up and touched his chin, turning it back towards her. He sighed. "I just thought since you really wanted the new paintings from that bald man to fill up this empty space I would help." She smiled softly and patted his head.
"Well, thank you, but no more coloring on the walls, you hear?" She said, and Kade nodded. "You're my little artist, I know." She turned and looked at the crayon markings and pointed at one, "That horse looks amazing."
He smiled up at her. "His name is Roger. After Mr. Rogers. From the neighborhood." She laughed and took his hand, grabbing his backpack and putting it on his back as she led him out to the streets of New York City. They walked toward the Chuck E. Cheese, Kade chattering the entire time.
After getting glow in the dark stamps on their hands for entrance, Kade piped up. "Mommy, what does B-I-T-C-H spell?"
She whirled around to face him. "Where did you see that word?"
"It's calling you," he said, reaching his hand inside her purse and handing it to her. "It's been calling you all morning." She groaned and patted his butt toward the playground, going to sit down in one of the booths.
"Hello?" she sputtered, trimming her nails against the wooden table. Who did I save as 'bitch' in my phone? She wondered.
"Listen up you little—Who is this?" A snotty voice screeched.
"Um, Pam… Who is this?"
"Veronica," the voice replied stiffly. "Who are you and what are you doing with my ex-husband's phone?"
"Uhh…" Pam sputtered, unsure how to handle the difficult woman. "We must have switched phones by accident in the cab. I can tell him you called…" she trailed off.
"You shared a cab ride with him?" She sneered. "How long have you been screwing him?"
Pam gasped. "I'm not "screwing" him," she whispered, looking around to make sure no kids were within earshot. "We met at school this morning. It was Records Day and neither of us realized it."
She scoffed. "He wouldn't." Pam pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at it, sticking her tongue out at the nasty woman, knowing why Jim had programmed her in the way he had.
"Anyway, would you please remind Jim that Rib and I will be unavailable this week," the voice continued. Who is Ribeye? Pam opened her mouth to ask, but Veronica continued. "I forgot to write on his papers that Charlie is not to have dessert, any sort of nuts or legumes, and she can only drink soy milk. We don't want her drinking anything that isn't organic."
Pam nodded, "Okay, I can tell him."
"Oh, and please tell him that I don't want Charlie around any strange women while she is staying with him this week," Pam could hear the disgust dripping from her voice, and as she was about to come back with a retort, a click sounded on the other end. She pulled the phone away from her ear and stuck her middle finger up against it, before setting it down on the table and going up to the counter to order a medium cheese pizza and two drinks for her and Kade.
She looked over at the playground, spotted her son, bought some tokens, and went back to the table, picking up the cell phone and dialing her own number by heart.
"Uh hey," his voice came in by the third ring and she could hear Charlotte—Charlie?—squealing in the background.
"I have your phone," she stated, and she could hear him laughing. "And I hope you haven't been feeding that child anything non-organic or Veronica will have my ass," she said, adding an extra level of snootiness at his ex-wife's name.
He sobered up immediately. "She called you? I am so sorry…." She laughed lightly. "Okay, so I guess we need to switch phones. Where are you?"
"I'm at the Chuck E Cheese on 5th," she replied, and she heard him call out at Charlotte not to do whatever it was she was doing.
"How long will you be there," he asked, and she heard a lot of ruffling in the background.
"For a while. I have another presentation at five on this side of town anyway, so we'll stay until I can figure out what to do with Kade."
"Okay, I'll see you in twenty minutes," he said, and she could hear the rush in his voice. She imagined him pulling Charlotte off the monkey bars and lifting her into his arms, carrying her down the road.
"Okay, I've got lunch for everyone if you guys want it," he smiled and said thank you before hanging up. At that moment, Kade came running up.
"Mommy! When's the pizza gonna be here?" He asked. She laughed.
"Soon, baby, but we're not going to eat it until your friend Charlotte gets here." Kade grinned and clapped happily, hugging his mother and running back to the playground. The pizza came to the table three minutes before Jim and Charlotte did. Kade ran up as soon as he saw Charlotte and they shared a quick hug before sitting down to the table and eating. Pam blotted at her pizza, trying to soak up all of the grease into her napkin before sending it down her body. Jim stared at her for a moment, stuffing the pizza in his mouth, grease and all.
Two slices in, Kade and Charlotte ran off from the table to the ball pit, laughing as they threw balls at each other. "Oh, so here's your phone," Pam said, pulling it out of her purse and handing it to him.
"I am SO sorry," he said, taking it from her. "Nobody should have to deal with Veronica, especially not you."
Pam chewed on her crust thoughtfully. "Excuse me for being rude when I ask you this," she said, looking up as Jim dangled a piece of pizza over his mouth like a hyena. "But why did you marry her? I mean, she's obviously not a very…"
"Kind woman?" He asked, and she laughed, nodding lightly. "Well, Veronica and I met in college. I was her brother's best friend's roommate. And we hit it off senior year, and you know how college is…" She looked at him, bewildered.
"Oh!" she said, clasping her hands together. "You were one of those guys…"
He laughed. "Yeah, I was one of those guys. Anyway, Charlotte was an oops baby… We found out Veronica was pregnant two weeks before finals."
"Ah," Pam said, leaning back against the seat. "So you did the noble thing and married the B-I-T-C-H, --thanks for teaching my son that word, by the way—to help take care of Charlotte."
Jim's eyes widened. "Uh, sorry bout that… And yeah. We got married. When Charlotte was about two Veronica started going through her little midlife crisis and went out to bars at night and started hooking up with younger guys, where she met Rib," Jim said his name with such disdain that Pam actually moved back a bit.
"Oh! I thought she said Ribeye. She must have said Rib and I. Whoops," She laughed, and Jim joined in.
"Yeah, Rib," he said, giving her a lopsided grin and shrug. "I think he was….uh, the product of two people who were very high on life…" She giggled, taking a sip of her water with lemon, when he continued. "Anyway, she came home, decided she wanted to marry Rib, and unfortunately, the New York state laws don't allow polygamy, so here we are."
Pam reached out and touched his hand lightly, "Well, I would say I'm sorry, but I've met her, so…." Jim laughed and Pam smiled, when all of a sudden something struck her in the back of the head. Jim looked up quickly and she whipped her head around, looking for the pulpitrator.
And that was when she noticed him standing there, laughing. Oh God, can my day get any worse? She groaned, putting her head in her hands. Unfortunately, he saw her too, and he started walking toward her with such a fierceness that she scooted closer to the window without even thinking about it.
"Who is that?" Jim muttered, and Pam gave him a stare.
"My Veronica," she replied, and Jim lowered his gaze to the table as she turned and smiled sweetly at Roy.
"Pammy?" He asked, coming up next to her, gripping the shoulders of a child around Kade's age. She grimaced when she saw the young boy.
"Uh, I go by Pam now, thanks," she replied, looking at the little boy. "What's your name? How old are you?"
"I'm Roy Jr. I'm five," he said, holding up six fingers. The kid was obviously stupid. Pam smiled at this thought.
"Wow, a five year old. How'd that happen," she asked, staring at Roy. "We've only been divorced for two years." He stuttered and held on to the boy's shoulders, backing away slightly… "Uh, right, well, it was good to see you. Sorry about the uh, ball…" Roy said.
Pam looked up at him. "Your other son is in the ballpit. I would suggest you leave before he sees you, and I have to explain to him again why you're scum." Roy looked taken aback as Roy Jr.'s face popped up and questioned his father.
"Cmon kid, we're leaving." He said, dragging Roy Jr. by the hand outside and into the parking lot. Pam watched them out of the corner of her eye, tears gathering at the corners of them and she put her head in her hands, trying to wipe them away.
"I'm uh… sorry you had to witness that," she said, looking back up, past Jim to watch Kade and Charlotte playing in the ballpit. Jim reached out and touched her hand lightly, and when she looked up at him, she saw the concerned look on his face.
"Well, at least our kids know the difference between five and six," he said, shrugging. She laughed and took a sip of her lemon water.
Review, or chapter 6 stays on our computers... Thanks loves!!!