Chapter 5

Tony had already made breakfast for everyone when Angela and Mona came into the kitchen loudly discussing a seemingly very important topic.

"Angela, you have to do something, there is no way to simply let this go. You can't ignore this. We have to check every single employee again," Mona talked to her urgently, "if you don't stop it you'll lose more accounts. There is a rat in the agency."

"I'm not comfortable with checking out everyone. I trust them all. They are good people, professional and well educated, and most of them were working for me right from the beginning," Angela was unrelenting," I don't want to spy on them and by the way what should I do? Hire a private investigator?"

"This isn't a bad idea, dear, an unobtrusive man who doesn't catch peoples eyes. Maybe mine but I can keep my mouth shut."

"Mother, it isn't about you and you can never keep your mouth shut," Angela rolled her eyes.

"She may well be right, Angela, all things considered… you should do that," Tony gave her a reasoned answer," we aren't talking about stealing hubcaps; we are talking about a kind of industrial espionage here. It's a serious crime."

"Stop it, both of you. There must be another way to find out what's going on. I'll check my planner again from the day the damn crap started. There is no other possibility than that I overlooked something important."

"Angela, we should all sit together and think about it. Six eyes could see more than two." Tony suggested.

"Tony, I don't want to insult you but you don't know much about my work in the office, how do you think you can find out anything? You have already enough to deal with anyway, between the money and the its resulting problems."

"I don't have problems with the money and I'm down-to-earth. At least, most of the time," Tony looked at her empty plate, "please, Angela, have some pancakes. You shouldn't go to the office with only that disgusting juice and coffee mix in your stomach. You need a good breakfast when you have stress like that."

Seeing the truth to Tony's reasoning Angela sat down .Tony put a pancake on her plate and set the whipped cream on the table. He was always trying to change her awful breakfast habits; which in his opinion ranged from unhealthy to disgusting. He had plans for the afternoon and if she didn't want his help he wouldn't pester her.

"Where are the children, Tony?"

"Angela, they are long gone. It's past eight. You missed the first train while you were fighting with your mother. I must leave now, too, I have a class in half an hour. "Tony started to run through the kitchen and put everything in order.

"What are you going to do after class?"

"I'm meeting Philly. He called earlier this morning. His car broke down somewhere and he couldn't get it restarted. I need to pick him up this afternoon and we'll tow his car to a garage."

"For that you have to drive all the way to Brooklyn? Can't he call a towing service?" Angela asked in disbelief. To her that would be the clear course of action if something like that happened.

"He can't, because he will get a bill. The bill will be send to the joint home of him and his girlfriend who works as a nurse on night shift. At the bill is listed from where the car is towed and to what place they towed it. His girlfriend might see that he didn't spend the night at his apartment."

"Where did he spend the night?" Angela asked naively.

"Aaangela, …!" Tony looked at her. It was hardly conceivable how anyone could be that clueless.

"Ooooh, I see… it's a friendship service among men. I guess he would do the same thing for you."

"He would but he doesn't need to because I wouldn't do what he has done… eehm if I had a girlfriend." Tony looked to the floor unable to meet her penetrating gaze. For her, of course, it wasn't understandable that "Brooklyn guys" watched each other's backs.

"Brooklyn has different rules, Angela and I'm not going to break them just because I live in Fairfield for now."

"For now? Sounds like you have already plans to change that. What was it that you were saying yesterday?"

"Angela, you're twisting my words. That's not fair; besides you have to go now or you're going to miss the next train, too."

"Yes Angela, it's not fair. I wish I had a "Brooklyn friend" that saved me two months ago when I was out with Chester and I met up with Jeff later the same evening and I…" Mona tried to end the sentence but Angela interrupted her angrily.

"Stop it mother, let's go. Tony, this is not the end of the discussion. We'll talk later." Angela hurried through the backdoor with her mother in tow. Tony shrugged his shoulders. If Angela was in that kind of mood nothing he could say would be acceptable to her. He chucked the towel on the chair and scatted out of the door as well.

Tony came home very late again what hadn't been his intention. He was mad at himself. Angela would think he tried to avoid the pending discussion. One dim light disseminated a cozy atmosphere in the living room. Had she left the light on for him? He peeked into the kitchen but it was dark. Certainly everyone was asleep. Tony glanced through the room and it made him warm all over. How could she think about the possibility he could ever leave this house of his own free will? Tony took his shoes off and went upstairs quietly. He noticed a small light under her door and was about to knock then decided to change into his PJ's first.

Feeling the warmth of the house on this early September night he took a short shower and put on his PJ bottoms. He crossed the hallway and knocked at the door. At the same time he knocked the door flew open. Angela came in sight and the sight was just beautiful. She wore a silky knee length turquoise nightgown which indeed covered the most of her, but left a lot open to his imagination and his power of imagination was enormous. His mouth got dry and the blood washed from his head in… well, other areas. He cleared his throat and tried to speak but only a sort of blubbering came out of his mouth.

"Uuh, it's you Tony, I thought it was Jonathan, what did you say? I didn't understand…, "Angela looked at his flushed face and found herself in a déjà vu. Finding themselves in the same situation as his first night in her house quickened her heart beat. Tony meanwhile regained his power of speech.

"Angela, do you want to continue our morning conversation or is too late?" Tony managed to ask her, "did you found out anything new today?"

"Nothing, Tony, absolutely nothing but please come in. You're going to wake up the kids; Angela drew him in her room and closed the door, "I'll go out of my mind if I don't find a solution soon but I don't want to talk about it anymore because then I won't be able to sleep. Tony, I'm sorry I mocked you because of Philly and his manners." Angela sat down at the edge of her bed and gestured him to take a seat beside her.

"Angela, you should cover yourself with… whatever. I'm a little distracted." Tony couldn't take his eyes from her. She must really think he was a monk.

"Tony, I'm more covered than you," she said starring at his shirtless upper body, "but you're right, I'll put my robe on."

"Take the pink," came out of Tony's mouth before even thinking, "it's my favorite."

"This old thing?" Angela wondered how this plushy unsexy thing could be his favorite, "tell me about Philly."

"Well, we brought his car to the garage and the mechanic told him the motor could not be saved. Off course, Philly is cash-strapped like always. He considered a bank robbery but I put him off doing something stupid."

"Tony, that isn't true, you're joking. Philly isn't that bad, he is a very sensitive man." Angela remembered a night not long after Tony moved into Mona's apartment for a while when Philly sat in her kitchen asking her about the "horizontal mambo". She smiled while the memory ran through her mind. She never talked to Tony about it. No one ever mentioned his short move-out again.

"A sensitive man? Philly? Are we talking about the same man?" Tony laughed inwardly, "I bought him a new car, Angela, well not a new one, a used one."

"You bought him a car? You didn't even buy a new car for yourself and it's more than necessary," Angela shook her head.

"He needs it more than me. In a pinch I can use the Jaguar but he'll be fired when he doesn't show up at work. Besides, he used the car for delivery service. His father owns a shop and Philly is helping there. I don't want him to become delinquent again." Tony sighed agonized, "after all we went to Marty's Melody Room and ran into Frankie."

"You… met Frankie?" Angela's heart stopped beating for a second, "that's why you came home late."

"No, Angela, it was a coincidence. We talked about our old high school where she leads a project for kids with criminal backgrounds. I decided to support her with this project in terms of doing some baseball training with the kids. They need to get off the street. We decided that Wednesday afternoons are the right time for both of us. She has counseling interviews at school and I don't have any classes. They had a teacher from the school work with the kids last year, but he took sick and is not expected to be back until January. It's a good practice for me even though my graduation is in the distant future. The school urgently needs new sports equipment and now that I'm able to spend some money, I'll do this."

The only thing Angela really heard was that he would see Frankie again probably every Wednesday for months. Yes, he told her once that he didn't love Frankie, but this could change when he was going to see her every week. Frankie was anything but a quitter and she wanted Tony, that much was clear. When Angela said nothing, Tony noticed her distraction and the shade that cast over her face.

"Angela, do you want to say something? Did you hear anything I said? How does it grab you?" Tony touched her arm lightly. She looked up to him but only saw delight and joy in his eyes. She tried to hide her nervousness with a smile but he knew her too well. Reading her eyes like an open book was one of Tony's specialties. He took her hands in his stroked them with his thumbs, "we talked about it already, Angela, you know I'm not going anywhere?"

"You told me but… ."

"No but, Angela," he interrupted her," I mean it and tomorrow we'll figure out what's going on with your spy. I'll be home early, I promise. He gave her a peck on the cheek which lasted a moment too long for friends. But who was he kidding? He hadn't felt only friendship for her for ages.

"Good night, Ang, and I really like this pink old thing on you." He stood up and turned to the door.

"Good night, Tony." Angela looked after him wondering if things were really as secure as he had assured her.