Author's note: I always felt that on TV Mona showed her true feelings for Angela only very seldom, so I thought it was about time to go below the surface of Mona's teasing and try to figure out what sort of emotions could be hiding there. Thank you, VioletStella, for working on Mona with me in this chapter.

Chapter 8

Angela was looking forward to the upcoming weekend. She had recovered completely but it had taken almost two weeks until overprotective Tony thought she was finally strong enough to leave the sickbed. She wasn't sure what had upset her more; her nagging personal physician or the horrible flu. She loved Tony with all her heart and had enjoyed being the center of his attention lasting longer than only a weekend but he had tried too hard, always hovering, as if he wanted to compensate for all the times he had neglected her in the past.

Eventually, Angela was grateful to have Timothy stopping by again. They had almost finished his marketing paper and Angela expected no less than a surefire A. His scholarship was secured which took a lot of weight off everybody's mind. The only thing left to do was the Jane Austen paper. Tony had been somewhat surprised that Timothy hadn't managed to get enrolled in the tutoring program but hadn't yet had a chance to confront him about it.

Mona had declared she was coming for a visit this weekend. She would come as managing director of The Bower Agency, reporting to her president, but it would also be a family visit. She was looking forward to seeing her daughter just as much as Angela was looking forward to seeing her. She missed her, even if she would never express it out loud. Mona felt like half of a comedy duo who had lost her longtime partner. The two of them had always been a dream team with Mona as the teaser and Angela as the foil. Onlookers had often mistaken Mona's way to get laughs at her daughter's expense as a sign of nastiness; but they were wrong, on the contrary, it was a sign of her affection. Since Robert, the head of their little family of three, had passed away so unexpectedly, turning their world upside down, they had clung to each other for emotional support, both realizing one wouldn't be able to go on without the other. Angela was well aware that her mother's teasing was a sign of love and she also knew she could always count on her if necessary. Mona could be the loving, supportive and encouraging mother Angela needed when life got rough, at all other times she was her mother's favorite target for her snide remarks. When Angela had moved to Iowa, their formidable team had lost its star player and not only life at the agency was out of balance, but Mona's personal life was as well.

It was late Friday night, almost 10 o'clock. Mona had taken a flight from La Guardia after the end of the work day and had arrived twenty minutes earlier. She had picked up her luggage at the baggage claim and was dragging her trolley through the arrivals hall. The little municipal airport wasn't comparable to the huge airports of New York; the arrivals hall was already empty and lifeless, her flight had been the last one for the day. She stepped through the automatic door and instantly spotted Angela sitting on an orange plastic seat, buried in deep thought. She hadn't even noticed her mother's arrival.

"Aren't you going to take this heavy bag off your old mother's shoulder?" Mona greeted her.

Angela lifted her head and her face lit up instantly, she beamed at Mona and flung her arms around her neck. "Mother, so good to see you. I missed you!"

"For heaven's sake, Angela. What's gotten into you?" She wasn't used to intimate hugs such as this, "I'm not planning to change my will, so you can abstain from proving your love and affection for me." There it was, her first barbed remark. Mona rejoiced inwardly.

Angela smiled at her, "truly your old self again, Mother!" Angela had felt similar, she had missed her mother's little sarcastic taunts and the ironic way she commented on her life.

"Where's Tony? Hasn't he come with you?" Mona asked surprised.

"No, he had a long practice before tomorrow's tournament, completed with a tactical briefing; but he will be cooking a lasagna for us. Dinner will be ready as soon as we're home."

"Thank you, dear Lord! I was afraid I'd have to rely on your culinary skills", the elder woman exclaimed relieved.

"Very funny, Mother. You'd be surprised about what I'm able to do in the kitchen by now", Angela replied reproachfully. She linked one arm with Mona and used the other to grab the handle of her trolley and prompted, "let's go, Mother!"

On their 50-minute ride to Branford, Angela was drilling Mona with questions about the agency she only reluctantly answered, preferring to be left alone about work after a tough week. When they arrived at the apartment, Tony welcomed them. He had already set the table, had uncorked a bottle of red wine and there was a delicious smell coming out of the kitchen. The three of them enjoyed dinner and remembered the countless family dinners in Fairfield with Sam and Jonathan or even Mrs. Rossini and Al joining them.

Mona told some funny stories about the agency and shared the latest gossip of New York, Tony spoke of his classes and his team and Angela ... well, Angela listened. She didn't have to tell much herself, in fact she didn't have anything to tell. What could she tell? That she had baked an apple pie last week? Or rather that she had read "Sense and Sensibility" once again? That she had bowled two strikes the week before her flu? Stories like these couldn't live up to Mona's nor to Tony's. Angela felt like a small, dumb hayseed who was listening to the stirring tales of the great, wide world. The more the other two spoke, the less she participated in the conversation until she had fallen completely silent, finally only picking at her food apathetically.

Angela's change of mood hadn't gone unnoticed by Mona and she intended to talk with her about it as the weekend progressed. She had been sensing for quite some time that Angela's inital overflowing joy about her move to Iowa had gradually changed into disillusion, but now it seemed as if her daughter was dissatisfied, maybe even unhappy. She would get to the bottom of things. Tony would be occupied with his tournament for the next two days, so she would find an opportunity to get Angela to speak.

Confirming what had just gone through Mona's mind, Angela put aside her fork and declared, "I'm going to bed now, I'm tired. Since we don't have a guest room, Mother, Tony's going to sleep on the couch and the two of us share a bed. Please, try not to wake me later." With this she stood up, murmured a hardly audible "good night everybody", turned around and vanished into the bedroom.

"What was that?" Mona asked, looking at Tony.

"I don't know", Tony replied. "I think, she's still struggling a bit with the aftermath of her flu. She had been running a very high fever for an entire week and was confined to bed for another week." He had been surprised about how she had obeyed the doctor's orders without any argument for he had never seen her lying in bed so inactively for such a long time in Fairfield. It had seemed as if she never wanted to get up again.

"And that's all?" Mona looked at Tony insistently, her piercing glance giving him the feeling of being cross-examined.

"That's all", Tony said with a lot more conviction in his voice than he actually felt.

Mona, Angela and Tony only had a short breakfast the following morning, then they drove together in Tony's car to the baseball stadium where the tournament was supposed to take place. Tony's college team was one of four teams which took part, others were Branford's highschool team, the team of the local baseball club and one from a village nearby. Angela and Mona had decided to watch the first round until early afternoon, then they would leave and use the rest of the day to talk about business. Angela would've preferred to question her mother about the agency earlier, but as she had been working in the office all week, Mona deserved at least half a day off, even if it was difficult for her to tame her curious mind. She ached for information about the office and could hardly wait to be filled in on every detail about what was going on in the advertising industry.

Tony was just finishing locking the Jeep when Timothy approached the trio.

"Hello Angela", he greeted her cheerfully.

Tony had asked Timothy to support his teammates during the tournament despite still being barred from the team. Much to Tony's astonishment, Timothy hadn't turned in the Jane Austen paper yet, and so the professor in him had not given in; the expulsion was still in force. First, Tony had thought that Angela's flu and his marketing paper was the reason for the delay but recently his speculations went into other directions. Was it possible he did this on purpose? Didn't he want to return to the team?

Timothy had gladly accepted Tony's request to attend the games at the weekend. He had expected to meet Angela as she had always been there to cheer them on. He was so delighted to see her that he almost forgot to say hello to Tony for he had only eyes for Angela. "Uhm, hi Coach", he managed to say not a moment too soon.

"Hello Timothy, nice of you to come out here", Angela said amicably. "Your teammates will highly appreciate it, I believe!"

"If he had taken care of his literature paper, he would've been a part of the team", Tony grunted silently through clenched teeth but Mona had heard it nonetheless. She had also noticed Tony's frosty look as well as the way Timothy was beaming at Angela as if she was a goddess. Only Angela seemed to be unaware of what was going on around her. Mona frowned. Something went terribly wrong here!

"Come on Timothy, let's join the others." Tony laid his arm on Timothy's shoulder and tried to drag him away from the two women.

"Angela, don't you want to introduce us?" Mona asked reproachfully. "I never knew you had such handsome guys out here." She just couldn't help it.

Angela ignored her mother being her mother and introduced them anyway, "Mother, this is Timothy, one of Tony's students and ball players. I'm helping him with a paper about Jane Austen and a thesis in marketing. ... Timothy, meet my mother, Mona Robinson."

Mona shook his hand, "nice to meet you, Timothy. Why aren't you playing today?" She wanted to know what Tony's mumbled remark had been about.

"Uhmm, the Coach has barred me from the team because I failed a literature exam", Timothy admitted ruefully. "I'm pleased to meet you too, Mrs. Robinson."

"Call me Mona, please. Mrs. Robinson sounds so old." Mona winked at him. "I knew Tony could be stern, but so stern?"

Timothy cleared his throat, "well, it wasn't the first exam I failed."

"It's only a question of time until he'll be able to play again, Mother. Next week, we're going to finish the paper and it's going to be great, right Timothy? Then Tony will take him back on the team. He is the best player and actually vital to their success." Angela nudged Timothy with her elbow and smiled at him

An ear-to-ear grin lit up the smitten young man's face. "Thanks to your help Angela, you're just wonderful!" he gushed.

"I understand ... ", Mona commented on what was happening right in front of her eyes, but she didn't mean Timothy's scholastic troubles. Angela might believe that she was simply tutoring this boy but she had read something different in the lad's eyes. And given Tony's reaction, he had also perceived something similar. 'It obviously was about time I showed up here', came to Mona's mind.

"Come on Timothy, the others are already waiting for us!" Tony prompted grumpily. "See you later, Ladies", he said, then he turned around without another word and was about to leave when Timothy offered, "how about I stay with Angela and Mona as an escort and explain the game to them?"

Tony didn't like the idea at all. Who did he think he was? He was a member of the team, a barred member that is, but still a teammate. He belonged on the bench with the other players and not in the stands like some kind of guest. And he definitely didn't belong at Angela's side.

"I'm pretty sure the ladies can take care of themselves, Timothy. And everything Angela needs to know about baseball, she has learned from me!" Tony knew he was being a bit possessive, quashing Timothy's intentions like this; but he had somehow felt the need to mark his territory. He now grabbed the boy's arm and dragged him along.

Mona was surprised once again; no goodnight kiss from Angela last night, no farewell kiss from Tony today. What was wrong with these two? The last time she had seen them, they could hardly keep their hands off each other, they used every opportunity to exchange kisses and were flirting all the time. They had been so sappy that Mona hadn't been able to stand it any longer; but the atmosphere between them know was totally different. They acted as if they were an old couple who had lost interest in each other and only lived beside one another instead of together. Mona was marvelling about what might have happened during these last few weeks to change a couple so much in love into two people hardly touching each other. Mona was determined to pounce on Angela about this as soon as there was an opportunity.

This occasion would come Mona's way only a few hours later. Sitting on the stands, in-between all the yelling and screaming of the fans, she could hardly involve Angela in a personal conversation but even there Mona was surprised about how withdrawn into herself her daughter was. She wasn't cheering on Tony's team as enthusiastically as she used to, her attendance seemed to be rather an obligation. At some point, Mona had seen enough and proposed to head home to which Angela had gladly agreed, thinking she would finally have the chance to discuss her agency.

Tony had given Angela the keys to his Jeep. He would look for a ride home and join them in the evening after the last game of the day. They were planning on having dinner at a little restaurant in the center of Branford where they served traditional home cooked meals. Tony and Angela had been there a few times and had always enjoyed the food.

Angela had been suppressing the businesswoman in her all day but couldn't control her impatience any longer. She had been so eager to get home, she had driven much faster than she usually did and had almost ignored a red light. As soon as she opened the apartment door, she assumed a presidential attitude and started to boss her mother around.

"Put the papers on the table, Mother, I'll make coffee for us. I need to know everything about the Hendersen account and what Jack came up with for Mr. Goldstein's campaign."

"We'll deal with this in a second, Angela, but first you're going to tell me what this 'tutoring Timothy' is all about", Mona demanded.

"What?"

Angela looked at her mother flabbergasted only to see Mona shaking her head disapprovingly. Unconsciously, Angela had provided a perfect opportunity for anther one of Mona's legendary taunts. She sighed over-dramatically.

"Didn't they teach you any manners at the ridiculously expensive Swiss boarding school your father an I had sent you or is this the kind of tone people use when talking to each other in this wasteland here?"

"Huh?"

What did her mother want from her?

"Once again! Well, I guess it's because you've been living outside the civilized world for a few months now and have forgotten how sophisticated people talk to each other."

"I beg your pardon?" Angela shook her head. "What are you talking about, Mother?"

"There you are. I'd almost lost all hope and was afraid you'd regressed to the stage of one-word-sentences due to lack of practice." Mona smiled complacently, how she missed teasing her daughter like this.

"Mother!"

Angela was completely confused now.

"See! That's what I mean. Are you lacking adequate conversational partners?" Mona was approaching the topic which had been preying on her mind ... the handsome, well-trained twenty-something-year-old who had looked at Angela with sparkling eyes.

"Could you please be a bit more precise! You're speaking in riddles", Angela demanded.

"Moi?" Mona raised one eyebrow and played dumb.

She knew she was going way overboard but she just couldn't help it. She had been deserted, for half a year her ironic punch lines had played to a vacuum now. Angela was irreplaceable as her straight man, that applied to her private life as well as the Bower Agency. Although Mona did her best every day to rally the troops and align the staff to a common goal, she could sense the unease in the office for her leadership style was completely different from her daughter's. Without Angela, who could always soothe the waves Mona might cause with her acerbic style and laissez-faire attention to work, the agency was lacking the lighthouse needed to keep everything in balance.

Angela as president of the Bower Agency was like a juggler keeping six balls in the air at a time. Her staff hadn't realized it until she was gone; not even Mona. And they wished for nothing else but her fast return; especially Mona. She wanted Angela to come home, snap her fingers and fix everything miraculously; but how could she begrudge Angela wanting to be in Iowa with Tony? She simply couldn't. She'd waited long enough for those two to get together, intervening now and tearing them apart once again, even if only by distance, would upset everything she'd hoped for all those years. Moreover, it would be selfish and ruthless, two personal traits Mona usually didn't have problems with, but if her daughter was involved, she indeed behaved, although she would always try to hide it.

When Angela let herself slump into the chair beside her mother in a helpless gesture, two brimful coffee mugs in her hand, Mona understood that it was time to terminate her little game and to come clean.

"This boy has a terrible crush on you! Are you even aware of that?"

Silence.

Mona could practically hear the bombshell dropping. It was obvious that Angela wasn't aware. She looked at her doubtfully, still holding the two coffee mugs in her hand.

"Give me these mugs, Dear, before you start spilling the coffee", Mona told her and put the two yellow mugs with a red "W" imprint on the table. They would remain untouched for the rest of the conversation.

"I guess I haven't understood properly, Mother. What did you say?" Angela couldn't believe what she had just heard.

"If you think Timothy comes here for the tutoring, you're mistaken, Angela. The boy adores you!" Mona had always clearly expressed her thoughts, especially when it came to love matters; she never minced her words.

"Don't be silly. He's a student, I'm at least ten years older than him!" Angela replied indignantly.

"Make that fifteen, Dear!" Another teasing Mona couldn't bite back.

"If you say so ..." Angela wasn't in the mood for subtleties as such, she was concerned about other things. Was her mother correct? And if she was, how come it had slipped her attention?

"Angela, don't tell me you haven't noticed anything. Even Tony is suspicious."

"Tony? Have you talked to him about this?" Angela asked aghast.

"I didn't have to, I saw it in is face while Timothy was with us." Mona simply had a sixth sense when it came to interpersonal tension, and when they had been standing together on that parking lot, the tension was palpable.

"I can't believe this, Mother. I'm sure he's just grateful because I'm helping him with his papers. We've developed a great campaign for his marketing project and he's going to get a fantastic grade and keep his scholarship. And when we're through with his Jane Austen paper, he'll be allowed to play baseball again. That's all there is to it, Mother. Really!"

That couldn't be true, could it? Was it really possible that a twenty-three-year-old had fallen in love with a woman who was about to celebrate her 40th birthday, a woman who was the fiancée of this young man's baseball coach? Maybe he had a little crush on her, okay. Maybe he admired her professional success a little. But her mother definitely read too much into a harmless issue; she sensed a saucy affair everywhere. It couldn't be any other way!

"Whatever you say, Angela. Just be cautious and don't encourage this young man any more. Maybe you've sent out wrong signals with your enthusiasm about this marketing paper of his? Might that be possible? I think you've become so involved in his work because you miss your own work. Am I right, Dear?" Mona touched her daughter's chin and turned her head towards her to be able to look deeply into her eyes.

Angela couldn't hold her mother's gaze for very long. She had never been able to do that. As a child her penetrating look had always elicited her deepest secrets and worries. She withdraw from her grip but gladly accepted the offer to talk about how difficult it was for her to let go of her business.

"Maybe you aren't so wrong after all, Mother. I'm really having a lot of fun with this soap commercial. Sometimes I even forget that I'm working on a scholastic project and not on a real client's account. I've missed the thrill of excitement when a campaign takes shape in front of my eyes. It's good for me to deal with issues other than 'what's for dinner' or 'what has Tony planned for the weekend'.

"Speaking of Tony ... what does he have to say about all this?" Mona wanted to know.

Angela shrugged her shoulders. "What do you think? He wants to have Timothy back in his team as fast as possible. I believe he's happy that I'm helping him."

"Happy. Are you sure?" Mona probed. She wasn't convinced at all that Tony was happy about the fact that Timothy and Angela were spending so much time together.

"Hmmm ..." Angela would've preferred to duck out of an answer but Mona sure enough didn't let her off the hook.

"Well?" It was important for Angela to see that she was jeopardizing her relationship to Tony if she went on like this, so Mona insisted on an answer.

"He wanted Timothy to enroll in the college tutoring program, but it was booked. I couldn't let him down, could I? If I let Timothy down, I would have let Tony down too," Angela defended herself.

"Oh, my dear little naive Angela", Mona shook her head gently, "are you sure that Timothy really tried to get enrolled?" How could anyone be so gullible? Mona, for sure, definitely knew all the tricks.

Angela massaged her temples. It was all a bit too much for her. She was in a poor emotional condition lately. The frequent little quarrels with Tony, her disappointment about him not accompanying her to the upcoming award ceremony in New York, the unnerving boredom and monotony dominating her days, all of this blazed its way and made her eyes fill with tears.

Seeing Angela like this broke Mona's heart. Why didn't life grant her daughter just a little bit of lightness and happiness? During her first marriage with Michael, the narcissistic and unreliable failure of a husband, she had put her needs behind his just because the guy couldn't handle a wife with professional ambitions of her own. Then, for years she had been yearning for the man of her dreams in secret just because he wasn't capable of being in a relationship with his successful boss. And now, that she was finally in the relationship she had always hoped for, she again felt being torn between her own needs and those of her fiancé.

"Aaangelaaa, it's me, your mother. You can talk to me about anything", Mona tried to get Angela to confide in her.

"Oh Mother", she sighed, "I had pictured all of this so beautifully. And the first weeks were indeed wonderful and promising. Tony and I became closer and he's a great ..." She bit her lips but it had been too late, Mona had already picked up the thread.

"Lover you were about to say, Dear?" she completed Angela's sentence, grinning at her.

Angela couldn't help it and started to laugh, "nobody can hide anything from you, can they?"

"Not when it comes to such matters!" Mona triumphed. "Don't be so prissy, Angela! You're adults, you're a couple, you're living here together just the two of you in an apartment with only one bedroom ... why shouldn't you have sex? It's the most natural thing in the world and one of the best gifts that love has in store for us." She gently pinched Angela's cheek. "I'm happy for you. After your marriage had failed I was hoping you would once again find someone to share you life with. And Tony and you are made for each other."

Mona, for once, had been trying to support Angela emotionally with her last remark; but to her complete surprise it had triggered the opposite effect. Angela burst out into tears and threw herself into her mother's arms. Mona squeezed her ever so gently, stroked her back and rocked her just like when she had been a little girl, crying over a mean classmate whom she adored but who would ignore her in return.

"Oh, my little one, what's the matter with you?" she asked compassionately.

Angela was crying uncontrollably now but it was a good cry, it took away a lot of the tension which had accumulated over the past few weeks. After the last sob had died away and her nose had been blown, she was ready and willing to tell her mother everything. About the dull afternoons which demoralized her, about the evenings Tony fell asleep on the couch, about the hopes their romantic weekends used to evoke in her and how these hopes were crushed every following work week. She told her how much she yearned for her work and finally that she was afraid that this relationship - like all her others - wouldn't withstand the rigors of everyday life.

Mona had to inhale deeply. She had sensed that Angela's life wasn't running smoothly in Iowa; but she had underestimated the depth of her daughter's misery. No wonder this boy has mistaken her enthusiasm for something else. She must have glowed with pleasure brainstorming about this soap commercial, not because of her love for Timothy but because of her love for advertising.

"Have you talked to Tony about all this? Does he know you're dissatisfied with your situation?" Mona suddenly became very worried when Angela only shook her head. "Shall I talk to him?" she offered.

"No, Mother", Angela refused categorically. "Don't do that! I don't want him to feel obliged to cut down on his work just because of me. He's really good at what he's doing and he loves it."

"But he also loves you!" Mona tried once again. "You have to confide in him. Where is this supposed to end? Do you want to persevere with this at all costs until you're so miserable you'll let out your frustration on Tony? Or do you want to come back to Fairfield and return to a weekend-only romance? Because I don't see any other option, do you? And both put your relationship in jeopardy."

Angela shook her head very slowly, staring at the sheets on the table, and her eyes started to fill with tears again.