Disclaimer: I own no rights to anything I may mention here…except Nancy!
A/N: If you'll remember from the last chapter, there was a gasp from the kitchen after/during Perry and Della's hug. Now you'll see who gasped, but I suppose that's not a huge deal. There will be a little flashback and some other things. Enjoy!
"Wow, I'm missing something huge," Nancy said.
Eve turned around to see what Nancy was looking at and smiled when she saw Perry and Della staring at each other. From their vantage point, they could really only see Perry's eyes and they were burning with intensity. Eve almost laughed when Perry and Della hugged. It was definitely unexpected, but Nancy's gasp was what spawned the laugh.
"What am I missing?" Nancy asked. "Mr. Mason told me they were best friends, but to stimulate that kind of reaction, that couldn't have been all they were."
Eve laughed. "They were definitely more than best friends. They were involved."
"Involved? Like together? Dating?" Nancy asked, trying to understand the complicated relationship between the two.
"Yes," Eve confirmed. "But it was a little more than that. We all thought they were going to end up married."
"Wow!" Nancy exclaimed. "What happened?"
"He moved out here and she didn't come with him," Eve said.
"He just left her?" Nancy asked. The only reason she asked was because it took Perry so long to invite Della out here in the first place. Nancy knew he wouldn't be too eager to ask Della to visit if he just left.
Eve chuckled and explained everything that Perry told her and Paul. "When Della tells you to do something it's best if you don't argue," Eve finished.
"Della?" Nancy asked, remembering a phone call she had gotten a few months back. "What's her last name?"
"Street," Eve answered. "Della Street."
"She called me!" Nancy cried. "Well, she called the office. It was about a week or two after I had taken the job."
Eve nodded. "She probably wanted to check up on this new secretary Perry had gotten. Also, she probably had realized she should've moved out here. She wouldn't come though unless she had a good reason to. If his secretary was horrible, she could justify coming out here. I'm sure she wasn't going to let him know she called though if his secretary was good, because she wasn't about to get a good secretary fired. You should be flattered. Della must've thought you were really good."
"But she called on such a bad day," Nancy moaned. "Well, I guess you could classify it as a good day, but a bad day for her purposes."
"What happened?" Eve asked.
As Nancy explained, she went back to that day herself.
Nancy sighed walking into the office. It was so early. Well, she supposed it wasn't super early, but she usually didn't get here until much later, since Mr. Mason got to the office on most days at 9. Today though, Mr. Mason was going to be in court all day, so she had decided she was going to get there late. Then, she remembered all the work she had been putting off, so she made herself get up and got to the office at 7:30 that morning.
She had barely sat down in her chair when the phone started ringing. "Mr. Perry Mason's office. This is his secretary, Nancy Swift. How may I help you?"
"Hello, my name is Della Street," said the voice on the other end of the phone. "Could I please speak to Mr. Mason."
"I'm sorry, Ms. Street," Nancy apologized. "Mr. Mason isn't in right now. He's going to be in court all day, until at least 5. He is planning to come back to the office for a bit after that though, because he has some important meetings. You could call back sometime after five. Did you need to schedule some type of appointment?"
"Possibly," Della said evasively.
"Well, I can't pencil you in for sure, since Mr. Mason has the book with him in court today, but I can tentatively set a meeting for you. He's free all day on Wednesday. He's also free all day on—no wait, he's got two pre-trial meetings in the morning—but he's free all afternoon on Friday," Nancy mused. "Would you like to set a tentative date and time?"
Della shook her head, almost sadly, then realized Nancy couldn't see her. "No, not yet. I'd rather be sure."
"Okay," Nancy agreed, not seeing anything too unusual about that. "If you would like I can leave him a message that you called, then he can get back to you before his meetings tonight."
"No!" Della cried, then realized how ridiculous she sounded. "No. I'll just call back later."
Nancy frowned, hearing the panic in Della's voice and wondered if something serious was wrong. "If you're sure."
"I am," Della said, sounding more normal now. "Don't tell him I called."
Nancy shrugged. "Okay. I'll talk to you later, Ms. Street."
"Good-bye," Della said.
Later that night, much later that night, Nancy glared at the clock. It was officially 10:30 and she was finally getting ready to leave. She had planned to leave early that night, since she had came in so early, but Mr. Mason had lots of opinions and things from his meetings for her to do. He had left and told her she could go too and leave most of those things for the morning. She had planned to do exactly that, but putting things off was what had made her come in so early that morning and she didn't want to have to do that again for a while.
Just as she was about to shut off the lights, the phone rang. She glared at it and considered not answering, but she couldn't bring herself to leave the other person hanging. She sighed and surrendered. "Mr. Perry Mason's office. This is his secretary, Nancy Swift. How may I help you?"
"Hello, this is Della Street again," Della said.
"Oh, Ms. Street!" Nancy exclaimed. "I'm so sorry. Mr. Mason left about an hour ago. I was going to tell him you called before he left, but I remembered your protests, so I didn't. Besides, even if I did tell him you called, you didn't leave a number, so I wouldn't have even known how to reach you."
Della smiled sadly. "It's fine. The issue I was going to meet with him about has been resolved. That's why it took me so long to call back."
Nancy frowned again. The woman almost sounded sad. "Are you sure?"
"Positive," Della said. "There is no reason to ever tell him I called."
Nancy raised her eyebrows. That seemed a bit drastic, but she wasn't about to disobey the woman's wishes. She seemed harmless enough and she supposed it wasn't that drastic of a thing, Nancy just thought it was strange she had to mention it. "Alright, Ms. Street. I'm glad you were able to get your issue resolved without having to use legal methods."
Della smiled again. Nancy was even sweet; she sounded very sincere. "So am I. Thank you for all your help."
"Not a problem," Nancy said, grinning. "Good-bye Ms. Street."
"Good-bye, Ms. Swift," Della said.
"I wish I hadn't answered the phone!" Nancy groaned.
Eve nodded. "That probably cinched the deal for her. You already seemed perfect enough. You came into the office very early, even when Perry wasn't going to be there. You also knew all his appointments for the week and apparently who they were with, without even having to look at the book. She probably would've done lots more checking if you hadn't stayed so late, even after Perry left. You seemed perfect though and almost exactly like her."
"But it was only by chance those things happened. I mean, I always come in before Mr. Mason, but I usually only beat him by ten or fifteen minutes. I had just looked at the appointment book the night before because I knew he was taking it with him. Also, he usually tells me to leave before he does and I usually obey. That day was a horrible day for her to do her checking!" Nancy explained.
Eve shrugged. "It didn't really matter. She was only going to check once and she wasn't going to belabor the point. If you seemed great, she was going to move on and try to forget. It was her fault all this happened anyway and you can bet she told herself that ten times a day."
Nancy bit her lip. "I just wish she had called another day. It would've worked out better for so many people. I mean, sure I would be out of a job, but it wouldn't be that bad. I'm sure I could find another one. It's so obvious she wants to be out here working for him and it's so obvious he wants her working for him."
"Obvious?" Eve asked.
"Well, I'm just guessing about her from what you told me," Nancy admitted. "But, I see it every day with Mr. Mason." Nancy suddenly got an idea. Her face lit up. "If you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go talk to her."
Eve watched her go. She then thought back to their conversation. She winced. She figured this was one of those times where Paul would tell her she talked too much. Nancy probably didn't need to know all that, if Nancy revealed Eve as her source, Della might kill her. Oh well. At least it might help something between Della and Perry change, and Eve knew something needed to change…for the better.
Hmmm…what is Nancy going to say? What will they talk about? Will it be good or bad? I hope you enjoyed the flashback and this chapter. Sorry there wasn't much Perry and Della. I suppose you could assume they are on their tour of the house! Please review and thanks for reading!