Chapter 7

Angela woke up early on this cloudy Sunday morning. It was only a few minutes past seven when she stood in the bathroom preparing to face the day. The night had been long and sleepless for her. She had tried to conceive a strategy to put Jim Peterson in his place, but was unable to come up with any plans. After taking a short shower Angela went downstairs and entered the kitchen where not a sound was heard. The children were still asleep.

It felt odd when Tony stayed away from the house overnight and apparently he wasn't back from Brooklyn. Suddenly she felt lonely in her own place. Strange feelings came over her when Tony left yesterday. Usually he kept her company when she was in trouble, but obviously he didn't care about her in these difficult days. Possibly the money had changed him or maybe he was over-stressed with his duties, college, her trouble and their slowly changing relationship.

As if he had telepathic abilities Tony came through the back door. He looked tired, but was clearly in a good mood. Seemingly, he had enjoyed last night immensely.

"Hi, Angela, if I had known you were up this early I would have been back to make you a big breakfast." Tony took out the fixings for pancakes and started making coffee.

"You don't need to be here, it's Sunday and it's your day off. I can do it on my own."

"I know you can, but I like our Sunday breakfast and I like to do this for our family; not because it's my work." Tony wondered if Angela had slept at all last night and immediately regretted driving out to Brooklyn. He blamed himself for not staying with her. No one knew better than him that she wasn't able to switch off her brain from all the dark thoughts. The good thing was: his trip wasn't for nothing.

"Angela, when I was with the guys last night we went to Marty's Melody Room. Frankie came in, too. She came up with suggestions for what to do with Peterson." Tony told her carefully, avoiding eye contact. Intuitively he knew she didn't like him seeing Frankie again and he didn't want to upset her even more than she already was. "She said you have to make sure that he never gets his foot in the door of the advertising world again after you beat him. Angela, I couldn't enjoy last night and couldn't get you out of my head,… I mean your problem. Frankie is a lawyer, you remember, and she gave me some ideas on how to convict Peterson. In my opinion none of them would probably work, but while she was talking something came into my mind. You still have a connection with Geneviève Pechet, haven't you?"

"I do, but what has she got to do with this?"

"Nothing, but she could help you to trap the rat Peterson." Tony uttered slowly, not sure if she was going along with that idea.

"You talked to Frankie about that?" Angela couldn't believe that Tony discussed her difficulties with his old Brooklyn friend; the one who once proposed to him. Even though Tony told her he didn't love Frankie, a small piece of her knew, Tony was attracted to this beautiful Italian girl.

"Geneviève is the same kind of woman as you, Angela, a successful woman just like you; she would help another woman who was being bullied by a shithead like Peterson. She could pretend to have a new account and was looking for advertising pitches. Not in reality, of course. You could develop a campaign and I'll try to date our lovely Ms. Sutton again. We let her steal your work; again, then confront Peterson and Amber in the presence of Geneviève. I know you can't get back the already lost accounts, but you can prevent worse things in the future and that's what counts."

Angela bit her bottom lip. This wasn't a bad idea and she knew for sure that Geneviève would help her because she had already made the acquaintance of Peterson's bad business methods when she was in NY the last time. Speedy decisions were one of Angela's specialties in business and she decided in a moment that Tony's plan would work to apprehend the slime ball Jim.

"I'll call her, Tony, thank you for helping me. You're right about everything. I'm sorry I was a little bitchy to you. I didn't sleep a wink last night and you… hm, you were out and I couldn't talk to anyone." Angela rose from her chair and crossed the kitchen. She wanted to know something more about his night. She felt guilty thinking she spoiled Tony's good mood. Despite all her trouble she had almost forgotten his life changing experience. One more worry she had to deal with. The undefined position of where she stood in his life. Her fear of losing him. Not that anything had changed so far, but Tony hadn't told her anything about his plans as yet. He hadn't brought it up and she was too afraid to ask him.

"There was something else I talked about with Frankie later. It concerned my plans with the kids of Pitkin High. They have a game next Wednesday and I can have a first look at them, "Tony told her about his upcoming plans. He paused shortly only to look in her eyes. "Would you like to come with me and watch the game, Angela?" Tony asked her hopefully. Most of the time when he started new things it happened with Angela's support. Becoming the president of the Parents Association was, without any doubt, due to her skills. Going back to college would not have occurred without her initial impetus. He wanted her at his side when starting his social work for Pitkin High.

"You want to have me there?" Angela asked, surprised by his offer to accompany him, "I guess, I can take the afternoon off but only if you really want me to be there."

"You bet I do. I will always want you by my side… I mean, you always support me and I like spending time with you. Besides, I want to look at what stuff they need for sports and I have to do some errands."

Tony was excited by all the new options given to him. After a few days he almost got used having money any time he needed it, but yesterday he did something crazy and this was the errand he had to do. He bought a new car. Well, not a new one but a cool one he always wanted to call his own. Not that Fiat Spyder that came into his mind first after he had won the money. What he dreamed of was a crazy car, an absolutely extraordinary, in principle totally impractical car. He saw it in that movie "Back to the future". A silver DeLorean in brushed stainless steel with wing doors. It was love at first sight when he saw his dream in a showroom of a car dealer on his drive home from Brooklyn the day he met Philly. It would be ready to pick up on Wednesday. He had paid big bucks for it and he wanted to surprise Angela by having her be the first person to drive with him in that awesome car. Due to the fact Mrs. Rossini needed a second car for her fish store, he decided to give her his old van. It was a good feeling leaving the van in the native district where it belonged.

"Tony, are you in there? You seem distracted," Angela wagged her hands in front of his face when Tony didn't say a word for minutes, "what are you thinking?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I was thinking of Mrs. Rossini. I went over to her place yesterday after a few beers and she told me she needs new refrigerators for her store. I decided to buy her some. We studied catalogues and it took her the whole night choosing the best. Thank god, Frankie helped her make a decision." Tony shook his head in memory of the indecisive Mrs. Rossini.

"Frankie was there, too? Angela wanted to know with a lump in her stomach. Seemingly Tony spent hours with her last night.

"Yep, Mrs. Rossini invited us to a late dinner."

"I bet there was more than enough lasagna for an army." Angela remembered Mrs. Rossini's attempt to set Tony up with Frankie a few months ago at the street fair. Her fears came back in one moment. Mrs. Rossini had always made fun of her because of her "skinny bones". In her opinion there was no American girl who could hold a candle to an Italian girl.

"Yes, she cooked for three weeks, I guess. I brought home some leftovers. We could eat them for lunch, and dinner if anyone is here." Tony sighed, thinking about the masses of Italian cooking from Mrs. Rossini.

"So it's a deal. I'll come with you to your first practice game. There is nothing I would rather do." Angela straightened her back not willing to leave him alone with Frankie again. She was a fighter and no fight was more worthwhile than a fight for Tony.

"Really? I'm glad you want to come with me." Tony, as every other man, had no clue about the real causes of Angela's consent in accompanying him to Brooklyn. Her intention was completely lost on him. He was just happy!