Chapter three:: Meetings
Livia stared blankly at the computer screen on her desk at work. Ever since her late night visitor had left she had had trouble concentrating. Her desk was right beside a large window so the sun's afternoon rays hit her chair and desk leaving them slightly warm. The room had a shade of gold about it at this hour with the bright colors shining in from the high western sky.
The office was relatively quiet; everyone was doing their own work at this time. Livia took a sip of her third cup of coffee that day and continued to make appointments and schedule meetings for her boss.
"Excuse me, mam. Where is the Mrs. Russel?" A man ask.
Mrs. Russel, Livia's boss and the head wedding planner for the New Mexico based wedding planning firm, was on a conference call. Without looking up from her computer screen Livia answered the youthful voice.
"I am sorry sir; you must have a scheduled appointment to meet with Mrs. Russel. Would you like to come back another day?"
"No, I would like to meet with her now." The man answered in a still polite tone. Livia looked up to see a Man in his very early twenties, she guessed him to be about her own age. He has shaggy brown hair and piercing grey blue eyes. He wore a black suit and had a young women at his side.
"I'll tell her you're here if you'll give me a name, Sir."
"Boone Carlyle."
"And your friend?"
"Sam." The apparent girlfriend of the man answered with a smile. They each held a polite happy air about them.
Livia smiled their direction as she called her boss.
"You have a Mr. Boone Carlyle and Miss Sam her to see you, Mrs. Russel. Would you like me to let them in?... Ok" Livia hung up the phone and walked out from behind her desk.
"It will be just down this hall." Livia said cheerfully as she lead the two visitors to her bosses work room. The followed her while holding each other's hands in a sweet flirty way. She smiled god bye then shut the door behind them and went back to her desk. The day dragged on till five thirty. At that time Livia got up, grabbed her black jacket and walked out the doors onto the busy evening city sidewalk. The Clicking of her heels on the pavement formed a continuing pattern. She walked in a steady pace toward a city park a few blocks away from her office
The parks trees were nearly bare; next to all the leaves were blown off. By that time in fall the only leaves left were those orange and red ones that had not been picked up by the cities park gardeners. The parks gravel walkways were covered with deep oranges, dark reds, and bright yellows. Livia made her way through the crowded park to the center where there were many benches. The benches were made of metal and had been painted a glossy black color. Livia, being dressed in one of her nicer work suits, dusted off the bench than sat down to wait. The sun began to set early that time of year, a slight wind picked up the leaves off the park floor and twirled them in the air for a few seconds before bring them back down. Shadows created by the trees from the setting sun covered the ground. The crowd began to lessen at time passed. Livia after about twenty minutes began to ready herself to leave, till suddenly off in the distance she caught sight of a familiar figure. She then saw that they were preoccupied, so she then decided she would wait a little longer.
The man was talking to a women. She appeared to be of a tuff nature. She presented herself forcefully. Although they were to far away for Livia to understand what they were saying she could tell by their body language that it was something of a shady nature. Abruptly the young women turned away. She has wearing blue jeans, a dark jacket, a red scarf and light brown cowboy boots. Her brownish, blonde hair blew in the wind and framed her face as she walked away. Livia had been acting as if she was reading during this whole ordeal as not to act as if she had not been paying attention.
"Sorry bout the delay darling." The same husky southern voice that had been at her house the night before said. "I had some business to take care of with my partner Emmie over there for a min."
Livia smiled kindly to act as if she cared. James sat down on the same bench next to her.
"So what do ya think?" he asked in a rather solemn tone. Livia cut straight to the point and avoided all awkwardness. She handled the situation like she did everything else, in a business like manner.
"you understand this is a one-time-thing right?" Livia questioned with an air of superiority, despite the obvious age difference.
"Yeah, corse I do sugarplum. Whatcha think I was gonna sign up for a carpool shift?"
"I was just making sure." Livia said clearly "Cassidy has a meeting tomorrow. Clem is going to be at my house for a few hours; you can come over then."
A rush of relief and fear seemed to come over James as the idea of meeting his daughter. His facial expression remained the same but Livia could tell by his eyes. He looked out upon the park scene before him but he didn't see it. His mind was drifting in space. James' dark eyes seemed to be looking through time.
"See you tomorrow, Sawyer."
Livia walked out of the park, down the city sidewalks. It began to get dark and the street lights son came on. Livia knew she was playing an dangerous game; but she also knew tat in the end if it was played well they would all win. And Livia had never lost before, and she wasn't planning to this time.