Chapter 3: The Truth
Mary walked into the news room and hung up her coat. She had been feeling better. A week had passed since she had found out about the baby. "Good morning Murray," she greeted as she walked over to her desk and set her purse down in the drawer.
"Morning," Murray said.
Mary sat down and looked over to him. "Something wrong?" she asked.
Murray sighed. "Ted came to me this morning complaining because one of his 'fan letters' stated that he did not sound smart enough. he wants me to start using bigger words on the cards."
Mary laughed. "Easy, write the letters bigger for him."
"One word per card," Murray said.
Lou walked in as the two were laughing. "Morning," Lou grunted as he walked past them and into his office. Within seconds of entering his office, the door flew open. "Out Ted!"
Ted started walking out. He stopped and turned towards the door. "Now Lou," he started, but the door was closed in his face. Ted turned and saw that Mary and Murray had been watching. "All right Lou, maybe some other time," he said and then walked back towards his dressing room.
Another then entered the news room. He was in his early thirties, light brown hair and bright green eyes. Little did Mary know, but those green eyes had admired her the last time that he was there. "Hello Mary," he said walking up to her.
Mary turned and looked at him for a second. She recognized his face, but his name was not coming to her. "David!" she said finally remembering. "David, how are you?"
"Good," he said. "How about you?"
"I'm doing good."
"That's good. Do you think I can go in and see Mr. Grant? Greg and I are coming back here for a few weeks. I just thought I would let him know that we're here now."
"Sure, just be careful. Remember last time you were here? Its Monday and I think he's a little hungover."
David nodded. "Thanks for the warning," he said. He thought back to the first time he was there. His first attempt to ask her out.
David showed up early. He was the only person in the news room so far. Setting the bouquet of roses on the desk, he took out a small notecard and wrote on it:
"From your secret admirer. Before you, I had thought that perfection didn't exist, but of course you have proven me wrong. I wish that I wasn't such a coward, because then I would be able to ask you out in person. Please, please meet me downstairs after work, that way I can hopefully be able to ask you out to dinner."
Quickly, he set the note down in the flowers and then left the room. It was later on while he was going through the files that Mary walked in and saw the flowers on her desk. He could hear her, but didn't dare to turn back and look.
"Murray, do you know who sent these?"
"No they were here this morning when I got here."
"How about you David?"
David turned turned around as he grabbed a couple of files. "What?" he asked pretending to have not been paying attention to what they were talking about.
"Do you know who put these flowers here?"
"I'm sorry, I don't."
Later that day, after work, he got off the elevator. His heart was racing. There was a small stuffed bear in his hand that he was going to give her. He froze though as he spotted her with Greg.
"So, you're the one who gave me those flowers?" she asked. She was facing him, slowly closing the space between them.
"Yeah," Greg said. "And um I was wondering," he started.
"Dinner?" she asked trying to help him.
"Yeah, yeah that," Greg said. "Um, what time should I pick you up?"
Mary laughed. She pulled out a piece of paper from her purse and wrote down her address. "Here, you can meet me here at eight." she handed it to him. "If that time works for you of course."
"Perfect," he said.
David just stood there and watched them each walk in different directions. He was too late. He had gotten there too late and Greg got her. After that had happened, he had decided to only talk to Greg when absolutely necessary.
There was nothing that he could do now. He knew that Mary and Greg were dating. He wasn't sure yet as to whether or not they had stayed together or what happened. All he knew was that he and Greg both left the station at the same time and were now coming back.
David got to the door, and was about to knock, but turned back to look at Mary, she was already back to work. "Hey, Mary," he said. "Do you think you're free for lunch today?"
Mary looked up. She hesitated to answer. She wanted to say yes, David was a sweet man, but she couldn't. First, she was pregnant, and second, it was harder for her to trust a man asking her out. "Actually," she started. "I'm busy today." She could see the drop in his face. "But I think Wednesday we could."
David smiled. "Okay, that could work."
Mary didn't need to go out on a date right now, but the more she thought about it, the better. David and Greg weren't supposed to be there that long, and it would get her out of having to talk to Greg at all.
Murray waited until Lou let David into his office before he said anything. "Why didn't you go out with him today?"
Mary shrugged. "Just can't. I have a doctor's appoinment over lunch and then tomorrow I promised Rhoda I would go with her."
"Oh," Murray said.
Mary sighed. This wasn't one of those secrets that a person could keep for long. Her shoulders slumped as she turned to him. "As soon as David gets out of there, come with me. I have something to tell you and Lou about."
Murray sensed the seriousness in her voice. "Okay, sure," he said.
They both worked in silence for the next few minutes. Mary had to tell them, there was no getting out of it. She trusted these two people, but it just wasn't something that you enjoyed telling people. The longer she spent waiting though, the more she thought about backing out and making up something to tell them. The second she heard the door open, she jumped.
"Bye Mary, I'll see you tomorrow," David said as he walked passed her.
Mary turned to him. "Bye," she said. As soon as he was out the door, she got up and headed towards Lou's office with Murray following her.
"Mr. Grant," she said as she knocked at the door. "May I come in? I have something important to talk to you about."
"Come in!" Lou called out from behind his desk. He kept his head down as he looked over a few of the papers scattered on his desk. "Make it quick," he said without looking up as Mary and Murray stepped into the small office.
Mary closed the door behind her and sat down in the chair before his desk. "Do you remember Greg?" she asked. She hadn't really talked much about him, but everyone at the station knew that they dated a little. No one, however, knew why they had broken up. It was all too embarressing for Mary to tell.
Lou looked up. "Yeah?" he asked, trying to speed this up.
Mary sighed as she looked down and played with the bottom of her skirt. "And you are aware that we dated?"
Lou sighed. "Look Mary, if the next couple of weeks are going to be a little awkward for you because you two used to have thing then you're just going to have to get used to it. We can't decide which employees to keep here based on office romances."
Mary didn't quite know why, but she really wanted to cry. She knew it was the hormones finally kicking in, but this was a bit ridiculous. His comment was not all that harsh. Now all she wanted to do was blurt out her problem and leave as quickly as possible. "He was using me to cheat on his wife," she said holding back tears. "And now I'm gonna have his baby." The tears finally fell. As quickly as she could, she stood up and went for the door.
Murray, who was standing right next to the door, stopped her. "Wait Mary, you might wanna try and collect yourself in here. You'll have a lot of questions if you go out there crying." He wanted to make things just a tiny bit easier on her, and having a bunch of people asking her questions was not going to help.
Lou set everything aside and sighed. "Look, I'm sorry about what I said. I didn't know."
Mary stood there and tried to calm herself down. "I'm sorry, I just had to tell you that. I figured some people would get suspicious if I just walked in here eight months pregnant ready to pop." Mary sat back down. "I also didn't want you asking any questions if you noticed me trying to avoid him."
"I won't," Lou said. He was still in a daze. The girl that had become like a daughter to him, was sitting here, hurt and betrayed, and there wasn't much that he could do about it. "Anything you need?" It was all he could do.
Mary just shook her head.
Murray looked over to her. "You know Mare, I think Marie and I have saved a few things from when our kids were babies. If you need any of it," he suggested.
Mary smiled up to him. "Thank you."
"You need some time alone in here?" Lou asked.
Mary again shook her head. "I think I'm going to be fine," she said and then stood up. "Although, there is one thing I would like you both to do."
"What's that?" Murray asked.
"Don't mention any of this to Greg, please. I don't want him to know about the baby. Appearently he already has his own family to worry about."
Both Murray and Lou agreed to keep the secret between them. As soon as they agreed, Mary went back out to her seat. "I can't see why anyone would put a girl like that in that type of situation," Lou said.