"MONA!"
"Hey everybody!" Mona yelled back as she and Claire walked down the stairs and entered The Down Beat.
"So Red, what's your pleasure?" Leo the bartender asked.
"Jean-Claude Van Damme, Denzil Washington, and Brad Pitt. But until that happens I'll take an apple martini."
"And for you?" Leo asked Claire.
"I'll have a gin and tonic. Thank you."
"Coming right up!"
Mona and Claire grabbed a table and sat down.
"So you must come here a lot. I swear I thought I was in an episode of Cheers."
"Well everybody knows my name!"
"Please don't start singing." Claire rolled her eyes.
"Oh no, that's Angela's department." Mindy one of the waitresses said as she came over to their table.
"Angela?!" Claire asked in shock.
"Oh yeah, one time years ago." Mona waved her hand in a dismissive gesture.
"Yeah, but she brought down the house." Mindy reminded her.
"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah."
"So did you want anything to eat?"
"Yeah, bring us one of those appetizer samplers."
"You got it!" Mindy walked off. As soon as she was out of earshot Claire peppered her with questions.
"Angela sang here? What did she sing? Was it some kind of bet?"
"Hey! One question at a time!"
"Sorry. I guess I'm just shocked that Angela would get up in front of all these people and sing."
"We were too."
"Who's we?"
"Tony and me."
"Okay so what happened?"
Mona sighed. "Well it was the time Tony was dating Kathleen and Angela had been dating a man named Peter. But Angela had cooled things down with Peter but Tony didn't know that."
"So?"
"So, when he found out that Angela wasn't going out he asked me to take her here. "
"It sounds like he was being a good friend."
"Oh please! He was only doing it because he felt guilty."
"Why would he feel guilty?"
"Because he was dating Kathleen after everything they had been through. "
"Like what?"
"Jamaica."
"Jamaica? What about Jamaica?"
Mindy came to the table with their drinks and appetizers.
"Enjoy Ladies!"
Thank you." Mona smiled at her.
"Yes, thank you." Claire echoed.
"Okay so tell me about Jamaica." Claire begged and took a fried mushroom off the plate and popped it in her mouth.
Mona grabbed a mozzarella stick and dunked it in the marina sauce. She took a bite and took a long swallow of her drink.
"Well one of Angela's clients offered Angela a weekend trip to Jamaica. We all ended up going of course. We were all having a good time except for Tony."
"Why not?"
"Because he wanted it to be a family trip but the rest of us had other ideas. Sam was hanging around with some boy, Jonathan with some girl, I was being my usual charming self, and even Angela was having fun."
"But Tony wasn't."
"No, he was so miserable. But then later on he and Angela got into a huge fight."
"They did? What about?"
Mona chuckled. "You're not going to believe this. But Angela went skinny dipping. Well partly. She only took off her top."
"Angela?!"
"Yeah, and Tony was so shocked that he started yelling at her. And this was after she had to be rescued because she almost drowned."
Oh, wow."
"Yeah, so anyway they got into this huge fight in front of a bunch of people and said that they were having more fun without each other. And then they set out to do just that."
"I'm almost afraid to ask."
"Well let's see. Angela took a human cannonball lesson and Tony rode in some big wheel thing that spun around."
Claire shook her head and took a barbeque wing off the plate.
"And then they had a dance contest that they both entered. "
"Who won?"
"I think Tony did. But that's not the important part. "
"What is then?"
"Well that's where Tony's guilt comes in. You see Angela confided in me about something Tony had said and asked her while we were there."
"Okay! Don't keep me in suspense!"
Mona sighed. "It was about a week after Tony started dating Kathleen….
FLASHBACK: ABOUT A WEEK AFTER TONY MADE THE STUPID ASS DECISION TO DATE KATHLEEN:
Mona arrived home after one of the worst dates of her life. "Thank goddess that is over." she mumbled to herself and let herself in the front door with her house key. To her surprise she found Angela sitting in front of the T.V. surrounded by tons of food.
"Angela? What in the hell is going on here?!"
"I'm having a little snack." Angela said and shoved a handful of potato chips in her mouth.
"A little snack?! Angela, you have two bags of potato chips, four packages of Oreo cookies, and an empty gallon of butter brickle ice cream. This is not a little snack!" She sat down beside her
Angela shrugged. "Okay I'm having a big snack! Happy?"
Mona rolled her eyes. She reached behind her and grabbed the remote off the table behind the couch and shut the T.V. off.
"HEY! I was watching that!"
'Well you're not anymore. Now put that down and talk to me."
"Okay fine. What do you want to talk about?"
"Don't play dumb with me Angela! You know exactly what I am talking about. Or should I say who."
Angela sighed and leaned back against the couch.
"Okay Tony has a new girlfriend. Good for him!"
"No, it is not good for him or for you. Look Angela ever since Tony started dating her you have been moping around the house and it needs to stop right now!"
"Mother I…"
"What? You what? Come on, talk to me!"
"I am just so angry! I mean how could he do this to me? To us?! I mean after our talk in Jamaica…."
"Now we're getting somewhere. What happened in Jamaica? Well beside your stupid "I'm going to have more fun than you." contest.
Angela blushed as she remembered what had taken place after the dance contest.
"AH I see you're remembering your little make out session." Mona winked at her.
Angela sighed. 'Yeah, Sam told me that you all saw us. But that isn't what I was talking about. Well not entirely."
"Okay then what?'
"Tony stopped and said we both know where this was leading to and I asked what was his point?"
"What did he say?"
'He said call him old fashioned but he doesn't think we can do this until we're married. And then he said unless we were married. Mother he told me that he thought about us getting married! That it has gone through his mind. But he wasn't ready to propose yet."
"And what did you say?'
"I told him that it was okay because I wasn't ready to accept. "
" I see."
"Yeah, but then he told me that when he saw his future I was in it. But he wasn't sure how. Do we get married? Do we date and he lives somewhere else? He said he won't know about us until he knows about him. "
"You mean what he wanted to be after he graduated?"
"Yes. I told him that I wouldn't care if he mowed lawns in Central Park. But he said that he would care. And I understood that. I did. I respected the fact that he wanted more for himself. After all that was why he decided to go to college in the first place. And when he told me that he decided to become a teacher I was so happy for him."
"And for yourself." Mona pointed out.
"Yeah, okay. I was happy for myself too. Because I figured okay Tony knows what he wants to do after he graduates. I thought finally we could, you know, be together as a couple. "
"Until you found out about Kathleen."
"Yeah. Kathleen." Angela wiped away the tears that had fallen down her face.
Mona reached behind her and grabbed the box of tissues and handed it to Angela.
"Thanks." Angela grabbed a few and wiped her eyes and blew her nose.
"I mean Tony basically asked me to wait for him until he figured out what he wanted to do with his life. And I gave that to him! I waited Mother! I waited all these damn months! No! All these damn years! And what does he do?! He screws another woman and when I try to give him an out by saying it was just an impulsive move and ask him if it were over with her do you know what he told me?"
Mona shook her head.
"I DON"T KNOW! He didn't know if it was over with her! He spent one stupid night with her and he didn't know if it was over with her! After our talk in Jamaica, hell after everything we had been through the past six years he decided to throw it all away on another woman." She sniffed loudly and grabbed some more Kleenex. "Oh Mother, what am I going to do?"
"You are going to stop this pity party and show Tony what he is missing!"
"What do you mean?"
"Do I have to spell it out for you?! First of all you are going to stop pigging out. And then you are going to go out and have some fun. Find some hot guy and make Tony jealous!"
"Well actually Peter did ask me out." Angela admitted.
"Well there you go! Call him up and invite him out. Let Tony see what he is missing and how stupid he was when he decided to date Kathleen. After all, what's good for the goose is good for the gander!"
"Mother!" Angela chuckled.
"Do it blondie!"
"Okay I will."
END OF FLASHBACK.
"Wow! So then Angela and Peter started dating?"
"Yeah, for a while. But it wasn't anything serious. But then she met Christopher."
"Christopher?"
"Yeah, and let me tell you he was a Greek God." Mona sighed wistfully.
"And I take it Tony was jealous?"
"Yeah, you could say that. Especially since he followed them on their date while he was on a date with Kathleen."
Claire's mouth dropped in shock. "Hold on! You mean Tony and Kathleen spied on Angela and Christopher?"
"No, only Tony did. Kathleen thought they were going out for a nice romantic dinner."
"I bet she wasn't happy when she found out the truth."
"No, she wasn't. And I didn't blame her. But it just proved to me that Tony had feelings for Angela that went far beyond friendship. And then a few weeks later Tony and Kathleen broke up but Angela was dating Andy…"
"I'm going to need a scorecard!"
'Yeah, but anyway it wasn't long after that Angela and Andy ended things too. And slowly but surely they started rebuilding their relationship, Of course taking care of Billy helped. And then finally… FINALLY they admitted that they loved one another. They were at long last a real couple. And yes they had their ups and downs and as you know they broke up and were apart for nearly five years."
"But now they're back together."
"Yes! And if that loud mouth Joanne Parker says anything about Tony and Renata well who knows what will happen?!"
"You're right. " Claire sighed and grabbed another stuffed mushroom. She was just about to take a bite when she gasped.
'Oh my God Mona!"
'What?"
"Renata!"
"What about her?"
"Does she know what is going on? Maybe we should warn her."
"Oh you're right. We need to go talk to her. Come on, let's go. Hopefully she is at work."
They stood up and grabbed their purses. Mindy walked over to them.
"Hey, could you put this on my tab?"
"You got it!" Mindy said and began clearing their table.
Mona and Claire left The Down Beat and got into Mona's car and drove over to The Country Club. They walked in and saw Renata pour a pot of coffee all over Joanne…
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A/N: Mindy was the name of the actress who played the waitress. Her character didn't have a name so I used hers. LOL
