10 - Favors & Forgiveness

Marty had just sat down at his desk and booted up the laptop when somebody knocked on his office doorframe, immediately drawing his attention up to an attractive strawberry blonde standing in the doorway. He'd seen the girl around the office before, but Marty couldn't remember her name for the life of him. Clarissa, or something to that affect. She was his boss' new assistant, if memory served Marty correctly.

"Mr. Harrison?" She asked with an inquiring smile.

"Yeah?" Marty raised an eyebrow, still not quite used to being addressed in such a respectful manner, especially from somebody who couldn't be that much younger than himself. It made him feel old for some reason. "What's up?"

"Mr. Stevens wants to see you in his office," the girl informed him.

"Thank you," he nodded, then added as the girl was about to leave. "And call me Marty, please."

"Uh, okay, Mr. Harri-" she began, then corrected herself when he looked up at her. "I mean, Marty."

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" Marty asked absently, pressing in the password for his company e-mail account. "If you could tell him I'll be up as soon as I can, that would be great, Miss..."

"Forester," the girl supplied with another shy smile. "Clara Forester."

"Thank you, Clara," he politely smiled back, looking up at her. "I just have a few e-mails to check, so unless it's something dire, I'll be a few minutes. Please inform Rob?"

"Yes, sir," she chirped before taking off.

"Hmm, I wonder if she would've gotten me coffee if I asked her to?" Marty muttered to himself, then snorted. Then again, it's not like she's my assistant, now is she?

After he was done checking his e-mail and replying to the ones that required his immediate attention, Marty rose from his desk and headed out to meet with his boss. The girl from earlier was currently on the phone, but she smiled up at Marty and waved him inside while she was speaking.

"You wanted to talk to me, Rob?" Marty asked, peeking his head inside to find his boss seated behind his desk, looking all sorts annoyed with his computer. "Rob?"

"Oh, come in, Marty," Rob said, waving him inside without letting his gaze leave the moniter. "Have a seat."

Marty sat down in one of two chairs set in front of the large desk, wondering what this call up could be about.

"You're probably wondering why I had Clarise call you in here, right?" Rob asked distractedly, his eyes still on the screen in front of him.

"You mean, Clara," he corrected.

"Her name is Clara?" His boss asked, looking away from his computer finally. "Huh, and here I was calling her Clarise for the last two and a half weeks."

"Nice," Marty chuckled, rolling his eyes at his boss in amusement.

"Anyhow, I need you to do me a favor," Rob said, ignoring his subordinate's remark.

"What do you need?" He asked, intrigued because Rob wasn't the sort of guy who requested favors very often. As in, ever.

"I've got a couple of tickets to the Mayor's Inaugural Ball, but it falls on my wife's birthday and she can't stand the assclown because they went to school together," his middle aged boss snorted, then smiled at Marty. "So, I was thinking that maybe you and that beautiful girlfriend of yours could make an appearance for the firm..."

"It all depends on when this shindig is taking place, Rob, since Andrea is still on tour until next Friday," he answered, leaning forward in his seat.

"Well, if you can't do it-" Rob began.

"When is it?" Marty sighed.

"This Saturday," the older man said, adding. "And you'll need a date, so you can take my assistant."

"Thanks, but that won't be necessary," he shook his head. "I'll just take a friend instead."

"As long as your friend is a girl, Marty, that's fine," Rob teased, grinning at him. "Remember, you'll be representing the company, so..."

"I'm gonna go now," Marty pointed to the door, rising from his chair.

"Have Clarise give the tickets to you on the way out," Rob informed him with a laugh. "And thanks."

"No problem," he replied, shutting the door behind himself.

"Is he still calling me 'Clarise'?" Clara asked, looking up Marty.

"Afraid so," he shrugged.

"I've almost given up on him ever remembering my name," Clara sighed while pulling the drawer open and reaching in for an envelope, which she immediately handed to Marty. "Anyhow, here are the tickets. The event's black tie formal, by the way."

"Like prom," he deadpanned.

"Exactly," Clara chuckled, then suddenly frowned. "Wait, he didn't pimp me out as your date, did he?"

"No," Marty lied.

"Hmm, too bad," the strawberry blonde mumbled, sounding a little disappointed. "I like getting dressed up."

"Good to know," he said before leaving the girl to her work.

As soon as Marty had returned to his office, he grabbed the phone receiver and punched in a now familiar number. It had been a few days since their terrible argument outside of the Comet Club, so he was feeling a little bit of trepidation on calling her. Despite the fact that Rory had extended an olive branch to him that same night, Marty was afraid that she wouldn't be willing to speak with him so soon after the blowout.

"Hello?" Rory greeted, sounding distracted.

"Hey, it's me," Marty answered awkwardly.

"Uh, hi," she replied, surprised. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine, except that I feel like a complete asshole for blowing up on you," he apologized.

"You had every right to be pissed at me," Rory assured him, then added. "So I forgive you, but only if you can do this jerk the enormous favor of forgiving her in return?"

"Sounds like a good deal to me," he agreed, relieved to hear that.

"Now that that's out of the way," Rory chuckled, sounding relieved as well. "What do I owe the pleasure?"

"How would you like the chance to meet the newly elected Mayor of Chicago?" Marty asked, cutting to the chase.

Sooo...review? Thanks!