UNDERLYING AGENDA
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
It was still dark when Sally called him with strict instructions to report for duty first thing in the morning. With Agent Yuy on temporary leave to assist the Vice Foreign Minister with the prevention talks in South Africa, Lady Une was becoming increasingly suspicious and she was running out of viable explanations to justify the absence of his Second in Command. Quickly, he dressed and tidied up the kitchen before fetching the bottle of anti-nausea tablets Sally had left in Zechs's deposit box. Alongside them and an unopened bottle of water, he also left a note briefly detailing the night's events and apologizing for the shampoo. He added his phone number as an afterthought, signed it, and strolled home in the beauty of the vanishing night. He arrived back at the bungalow with just enough time to shower, change, and grab something to eat before he was out the door all over again.
"This is Maxwell." Despite the changes in the management lineup, the office was as busy and as monotonous as ever. Evidently, all the hullaballoo Lady Une made was simply for the hell of it because Duo was back to paper pushing the moment he settled into his cubicle. Duo found himself wishing and a praying and a hoping she'd march up to him and thrown down a challenge because at this point this officious rut was becoming counterproductive. Transferring the call, Duo dropped the phone and resisted the urge to hang himself from the rafters with his own braid.
The damn thing never stopped ringing, and after three consecutive weeks of this it continued rattling his brain even after five o'clock. "Honey, I'm home!" Kicking off his boots, Duo tossed his uniform over the back of the couch and sighed heavily at the following silence. "That's the sound of bloody singlehood; fucking deafening." After the initial week of talks, Relena had extended their trip an additional two weeks by conducting impromptu follow ups in the UK and Ireland, and without Heero around reality trickled into nearly every aspect of Duo's life; he was as single as they come with no potential matches and a job that fucking sucked! "Oh Christ, and I'm living with a straight man who babysits me with baked goods." He sighed again, snatched the basket of chocolate muffins off the counter, and annihilated them without mercy in front of the TV, letting up only long enough to dig for his phone lost between the seat cushions. By the time he found it a call was missed from an unknown number. "Damn telemarketers," he cursed, tossing the phone off to the side and planting back down in the ass dent he'd formed over the last several days. "Now, where was I-...?"
ONE NEW MESSAGE(S)
The jingle was a hundred times familiar, but this time it was enough to cut right through the sloth. Cupping the phone with both hands, Duo accessed his voicemail box and put it on speaker.
"Hello Mr. Maxwell, this is Troy Hardenberg calling on behalf of Mr. Merquise. He would very much like it if you'd join him for lunch at L'Amitie this coming Saturday at 12:30PM. If this proposition is a possibility for you, please return my call at your earliest convenience…"