Bianca was disappointed to discover when she returned to her bedroom that Marissa was engrossed in her computer once again.
"I'm back." she called.
Marissa barely looked up from the screen.
"One more minute." she said quickly. "I'm almost done."
"In that case you can have five." said Bianca, wearily parking the wheelchair beside the bed. "And after that the computer is banned from this room. If Chandler have any more problems with the grammar or the phrasing or anything else in that contract they can have their own lawyers look it over. You are supposed to be resting."
"This is important." said Marissa.
"Not as important as you." insisted Bianca.
Bianca looked over Marissa's shoulder for a moment to see precisely what she was doing.
"So are you finishing or are you fussing." she asked as she watched Marissa change the word 'choose' to 'decide' and then after a moment change it back again.
Marissa should have been annoyed by Bianca's slightly patronising tone, only Bianca was right. She'd finished the technical side of the contract a while ago and was now scanning for spelling mistakes. Chandler's lawyers were quite capable of fixing any other issues. The contract was ready. The future of two companies now rested on this one computer file.
"It's finished." said Marissa, pressing save and closing the file. "I just need to send it to Adam and Scott and my work is done."
"Excellent and then we can get on with our resting."
Marissa opened up her e-mail, while at the same time she looked at Bianca with a sly smile.
"What did you have in mind?"
"I thought we could spend the next few hours in the den. We could watch movies, have a snuggle and my mom can wait on us hand a foot!"
Bianca seemed particularly gleeful about that last part.
Marissa grinned but then wrinkled her nose as she leant in for a kiss.
"Although a shower first might be in order?" she suggested.
"Yeah," said Bianca, conscious about how sweaty she was after her physio work-out. "Martin was a hard task master. He was worse than AJ!"
Marissa grinned at the joke just as she stabbed the send button. The ball was in the Chandler court now she had other things to look forward to.
Marissa noticed a new message at the same time from Opal.
"Oh," she exclaimed. "I have an invite for your moms Hen Night here. The theme is eighties and we are to dress for the period."
Bianca just gave her a look.
"Oh come on." said Marissa playfully copying her frowny face. "It might be fun!"
…
Ben, who was now working under the name of Martin, climbed into the car and made sure that Erica was no longer watching him from the drive way. He'd not expected her to be there, but she didn't call the cops, so it would seem he was safe for now.
He fastened his seatbelt and drove off, relief washing over him. But he didn't go far.
He pulled in at the parking lot in the park. It was his favourite spot, with a view through he trees to some of the ponds. It was the perfect spot to write his report. He grabbed his tablet from his bag in the back seat and got to work.
He'd made notes during Bianca work out but he padded them out with a full assessment that judged and graded her flexibility, stamina and strength. He added his observations on her left leg; the degree of paralysis, and nerve damage and some of his recommendations.
It wasn't a long report but it was all they asked for.
He attached a file to an email and sent it to his employers, his work done.
A few moments later there was a blip in his email account. It was from his bank. The second half of the thirty grand Mr Campbell and his associate Mr Salt had promised him was now in his account.
Easy money!
Times had been hard after the collapse of the Orpheus facility. When Mr Campbell, the self-styled fixer, had approached him with their job offer he'd taken it gratefully. They gave him the false history that allowed him to get the Physiotherapy job with the added sweetener of thirty thousand dollars and all he had to do was a little light spying. He'd done a lot worse for a lot less. One quick report had brought him the security he'd craved.
Almost as soon as he'd confirmed the payment there was another email alert.
Ben opened the file cautiously.
His employers had another request. This time they were promising to add another zero to his pay check.
Ben frowned, he wasn't sure how deep he wanted to go with this.
He closed the email and tried to pretend he hadn't read it.
There was a blip as a second email appeared.
Ben deleted it.
A third email came through.
Ben deleted that on too.
Suddenly there was a tap on the window.
"Mr Rigby, are you avoiding us?"
Mr Salt was there staring right at him. Were they following him?
"I think you have failed to grasp what it means to be in our employ." said the big man menacingly.
A fourth email alert sounded.
"I think you had better reply this time, don't you?"
Ben swallowed and opened the e-mail.
…
Adam had been sat in a board meeting. It was Scott's first day back after the incident in New York and Adam wanted to get him up to speed with the sale negations that were coming up with Courtland. All of which depended on the deal with Joossen. They were getting worryingly close to the deadline.
Adam and Scott's phone's chirped at exactly the same moment. Adam let her young nephew read his message first, he was finding it harder to get grips with the fast pace of technology. In the good old days a phone was a phone and computer was a computer.
"It's the contract." said Scott, giving his uncle a grin. "Marissa's finished it! She said to get our lawyers to review it, but she done all the amendments requested.
"She's a dedicated woman." said Adam, impressed. "Smart too. It's a shame to see all that business sense ending up going to waste in the courtroom."
"I don't think she sees it as a waste. She's a good lawyer."
Adam got a thoughtful expression on his face.
"But she could be so much more." he sighed.
…
That's all for this week. Depending on my internet connection, my unreliable lap top and my demanding nephew - I'll try and add a few updates next week but I can't make any promises. Normal service resumes Wednesday 11th.
:o)