Monday, Monday

Never before had Angela regretted her responsibility to delve into the intricacies of the office; so it took her by surprise that this Monday she was reluctant to leave Tony and return to the mundane activities of work. It shouldn't have been so much of a surprise, after all she'd spent the weekend basking in the bliss of romance, how could the cold statistics of advertising compare with Tony?

They couldn't.

Angela sighed as she tried to pick out an outfit for the day. She was having a difficult time trying to accomplish this single task, how was she ever going to make it through the day? How would she focus on her work? She'd miss him so. Angela pulled out a suit and tried to clear her head. This was silly, really. She was a grown woman, a successful business owner; thinking like a lovesick teenager. She'd go to work, Tony would go to class. They'd see each other when the day's tasks were over.

It was no use. No matter how much Angela tried to be an adult all she could think about were the far too many hours between now and when she and Tony would be together again. Hours and hours of no contact with Tony. The day seemed rather bleak, even though the sun was shining.

Angela threw on the suit she had picked out, not really caring if it was becoming to her or not as Tony wouldn't see her in it. He was already off to class, she wouldn't see him until she arrived home from work. Never before had a Monday seemed so long.

Oh, she hoped he'd call her at lunchtime.

Monday mornings at The Bower Agency always started with a staff meeting. This Monday was no different; donuts, fruit, coffee, tea; the banal trappings of corporate America. Angela walked into the meeting room and saw it all through changed eyes. Everyone around the table looked the same as they did on Friday, she felt a little sorry for them. No matter what their activities had been over the weekend, she was sure none of them could compare with the other worldly relationship she and Tony had established.

Angela's business sense reluctantly kicked in as she looked around the table, she called the meeting to order. Everyone sat down to review last week's business and set the goals for today and the rest of the week. Fifteen minutes into the meeting the phone rang, Mona left the room to answer it. Angela's heart skipped a beat hoping it was Tony calling. Then she secretly hoped it wasn't Tony calling, how would it look to the rest of the staff if Tony called her here? Then she remembered that Tony had called the office in the past from time to time so it wouldn't be unusual for him to call. She had to remind herself that no one else would view a phone call from Tony as being out of place. They had no reason to suspect anything; except of course, her mother and she was quite certain her mother expected Tony to call today too.

It was after all this back and forth in Angela's mind that Mona returned to tell Angela that Mr. Anderson was on the line. Angela excused herself from the meeting to take the call. She wasn't gone long before Jack made the following observation, "does Angela seem a little out of it this morning or is it just my imagination?"

Mona, looking like the cat that had eaten several canaries answered, "she does, doesn't she?"

"You don't think?" Jack asked cautiously. He'd been observing Tony and Angela for years; their attraction had been obvious to him from the moment he met them. Their decision to stay apart was one he never completely understood.

The members of Angela's office team were shocked into silence. They waited in hushed anticipation for Mona to confirm what they had all long ago taken for eventual granted. Mona smiled, lapping up the attention, "she hasn't said anything," then her smile grew a little more wicked, "but she doesn't have to, I can see right through her, and she is very happy."

"And Tony?" Jack prompted.

"Also, very happy. They are being so cute, acting as though nothing happened, when it is so obvious it did. The pretense around the house is amusing. Jonathan, Sam and I pretend we don't know anything happened while Tony and Angela pretend they don't know that we know. If they want to play their little games, that's fine with us. It beats the former pretense of them ignoring their real feelings for each other."

The meeting room was quiet for a moment or two while the news sank in. Finally Marjorie ventured, "do you mean, that after all this time, someone can finally be awarded the money in the office pool?"

"Yes," Mona said, grinning triumphantly.

"Quick," Marjorie continued, "before Angela comes back, who had last night?"

"No, not last night," Mona corrected, "the night before. They were both 'very happy' yesterday, not that we saw much of them. Jonathan and I left the house after speaking to Angela through her bedroom door. Strange that she didn't want to show her face to me. They're so cute, trying to hide the obvious," Mona was delighting in dropping all the details she could. She crafted her next sentence to sound as though it mystified her, "Tony was missing from the house. His door was shut. Where; oh where, could he have been? Angela tried to dismiss his absence by saying he was out for a run," and here Mona had another chance to use her favorite joke from the past couple of days, she changed her tone of voice to one dropping the hottest gossip, "I'm sure Angela made sure Tony got his morning exercise without him ever leaving the house."

That settled it, everyone grinned; some laughed at Mona's joke. Jack hurriedly pulled out the well worn notebook containing the pertinent information. They'd long ago stopped taking new bets. The pool started as a lark, obviously Mona's idea. Each month, new bets, each month slipping by with no winner. Eventually they filled in every day on the calendar; from that point on they kept the same bets, there were people still holding bets who stopped working for Angela ages ago.

"I hope Tony calls her some time today so we can all connect on the extension and listen to her lamenting how much she misses him and making nauseating kissing noises," Mona schemed. A couple of other people around the table looked eager to join her in that activity.

Jack quelled all of them with a, 'hell, no' look.

Mona pouted.

"So, who wins?" Steve asked, hoping for an early pay day this week.

Jack shook his head, "inevitable...Mona."

She grinned smugly, "as it should be; hand over the access to the money, Jack; momma needs a new pair of shoes, and a purse, and coat."

"With the interest that's been accruing on this money, you could go on a cruise around the world."

"Good idea," Mona agreed.

"Great idea, but how do you tell Angela where you got the money to go on a cruise?" Marjorie pointed out.

"Who cares," Steve interrupted, "what I want to know is, how did you guess the correct day?"

"Simple; these two are such sentimental saps I knew that if they ever did manage to...fully explore their true feelings for each other, it would be somewhere around a significant date for them. What's more significant to them than their anniversary? Which brings up the obvious question, 'who do they think they have been kidding all these years?' Who celebrates the anniversary of the day they met without it being a romantic date? Yet for years those two kept trying to pass it off as a family activity. Denial, denial, denial." She rolled her eyes, remembering how she tried to point out the obvious to Angela years ago, but she would have none of it. She'd left them alone, tried to give them a virtual shove in the proper direction, yet still they resisted. In her opinion they'd lost years of happiness because of their baseless fears.

The sound of Angela's office door opening was their cue to end this conversation. Angela would be back in the meeting soon and now that the everyone was in on the secret, they had to pretend that they were not in on the secret. It really wasn't much of a secret at this point. Jack actually managed to get them back on an advertising topic; but in their hearts everyone felt just a little let down that the large sum of money had been awarded; to Mona, not them. Mona was of course happy as a lark; for many reasons. Angela was very happy, Tony was very happy; and now that she had enough money to indulge in some personal whims, she was very happy.

"Ok, everyone; back to the Phillips account, what did you come up with while I was gone?" Angela looked around the table, but saw no one offering a suggestion. In fact they seemed to be avoiding looking at her at all. She made a mental note that her mother had a big mouth; not that this was news, and she shouldn't have been surprised that her mother dropped this bit of gossip the first thing on a Monday morning, but she now had to come up with a way of dealing with it. She was still the boss, no matter what was happening in her personal life. It didn't take her long, she consulted the file for the account and outlined the steps they were going to take to achieve their goals. She noted with some satisfaction that everyone was busy scribbling away on their legal pads. She hoped it was actual work they were writing about and not childish doodles commenting on the new status of her relationship with Tony.

When Angela was finally done talking she dismissed the staff and returned to her private office; it was the safest place for her to be today. There hadn't been enough time for everyone to thoroughly discuss her news while she had been on the phone and she knew they still had more to talk about. She decided it was best for her to stay isolated for a while and let them get all the twittering out of their systems. And, as much as she hated the idea, she hoped Tony wouldn't call her at work today; it would just incite more gossip. Angela settled into her work, glad for the distraction it gave her at the moment.

Around 11:30am the phone rang, Angela didn't pay much attention to it, she had succeeded in becoming engrossed in her work.

Mona, however, had been answering the phone today with such alacrity it would have shocked Angela if she had noticed it. It certainly wasn't the business that accounted for Mona's promptness today; each time the phone rang she picked it up hoping it was Tony calling. She knew he'd call; or at least he'd better call if he knew what was good for him, if he didn't call she'd ignore him forever for not calling her little girl.

"Hiya, Mona," Tony said.

Yes, finally; hallelujah! He called, now she didn't have to be mad at him.

"Hello, Tony; how are you today?" Mona asked, trying to make that sound like an innocent question when it was of course anything but.

Tony wasn't taking the bait, "Fine, Mona, and yourself?"

"Just fine here, thanks."

"Is Angela available?"

Of course Tony meant that as, 'is Angela free to take a call, as in not on another line or in a meeting,' but Mona's mind raced. She had to bite her lip to keep from saying something close to, "I think you've changed Angela's status to most definitely unavailable to all but one," how she kept from saying that she never really knew, but she only answered, "I'll check," trying to make it sound like Angela wouldn't drop everything for Tony's call and that today was just another day in their normal relationship.

Mona put Tony on hold and buzzed in to Angela, "Angela, Mr. Micelli is on line one."

"Mr. Micelli?" Angela mouthed, confused as to why her mother was being so formal in relation to Tony. Probably a thinly veiled comment on their new relationship she decided.

Mona's motives weren't that needling, she was just giddy at her daughter's finally confessed love and that happiness manifested in being a little silly.

Angela picked up the phone, she hoped she didn't pick up so quickly that her mother would have more ammunition for the gossip mill.

Poor Mona, she now had a dilemma: hang up or listen in. She hated herself for the decision, and she couldn't believe she was making this choice even as she did it; but she dropped the handset onto the phone, making sure Angela heard her disconnect. Then she jumped up from her chair and immediately informed everyone else in the office that Tony was on the phone.

Angela was amazed, she would have bet the agency that her mother would have listened in on this conversation. Still, she couldn't be sure her mother wouldn't pick up the phone again, so they had to be circumspect in their conversation. But that was ok, it was another chance to indulge in dating under her mother's nose. Even if her mother knew; and approved...greatly.

"Hi," Tony said simply.

"Hi," Angela answered just as simply, but with a little touch of shyness as well. She wasn't sure how to have this conversation. They hadn't discussed office phone calls, somehow they were more preoccupied with far less mundane tasks over the weekend. She couldn't very well tell him not to say anything romantic over the phone just in case someone happened to be listening in. She wouldn't put it past her mother to have jumped up from her chair and run into one of the other offices and listen in with some of the other workers in there.

Tony seemed to understand this without Angela having to say anything. He knew Mona well also. "How's your morning?"

"Fine."

"Yours?"

"Fine."

It's a good thing Mona wasn't listening it, she'd have been bored out of her mind.

They were quiet; both wanting to say so much, but neither daring to cross the unspoken line they had created.

What did they really want to say? "I miss you and I can't wait to be in your arms again." But those words would have to wait until another time. For now they were left with Angela asking, "how was your class?"

Tony couldn't answer that class was almost a waste of time for him this morning because he couldn't concentrate on the lecture. His thoughts kept straying to Angela. And as much as he thought she'd like to hear that he had to limit his answer to, "it was fine, I have a lot of studying to do for it." This was true, he had to go back over everything he had missed in class.

"I can help you study," that came out in a far more sexy tone than Angela had intended and she immediately regretted it.

Tony regretted it too, but only because they were so far apart.

"I should let you get back to work, I'll see you later."

"Ok," Angela answered, she hoped he heard how much she didn't want to hang up the phone. They were both quiet, letting the silence say, "I miss you."

"Bye," Tony finally said in a tone that turned the word into code for, "I love you."

"Bye," Angela answered, invoking the same code.

They managed to hang up the phones without any juvenile, "you hang up," "no, you hang up," banter.

That didn't mean romance was dead, in fact, Tony took a moment or two to remove his hand from the phone. He pursed his lips together and looked at his watch. "Too long," he thought, too long until Angela would come home and he could hold her again.

Angela kept her hand on the phone as though it was a talismanic link to Tony. She whispered, "I love you" even though no one heard her. Then she reluctantly pulled her hand off the phone and looked at the clock. Too many hours, she decided, too many hours until she could be home and home was definitely where her heart was.