APOV
It is Friday and today the father-son-bowling, that has been organized by Tommy's school, will take place. Ray steps in as a father and has been practicing with him on the weekend specially for this event – but I believe those lessons haven't been quite successful as he's constantly repeating the Olympic idea that it's the taking part that counts. Luckily I bought a Lego set as a consolation prize. Today it is difficult for me to concentrate on the manuscripts and when Mr. Roach orders me to his office I become scared. I enter the office and see Jack already standing there smiling at me so I calm down, hoping that he wouldn't be smiling if the news was bad.
"Mrs. Steele, Mr. Hyde, there will be a fiction book-symposium in New York next week and I want the two of you to go there to represent our publishing house. Would that be alright?" Mr. Roach asks. Wow, I've already heard about it and it would be a once-in-a-lifetime possibility and he wants me to go there!
"That's great! Thank you very much for this possibility, Mr. Roach!" I reply excitedly.
"This is absolutely no problem for us!" says Jack.
"Very good! Please book the hotel by yourself and confirm your participation at the symposium. And contact the accounting department!" Mr. Roach orders us before he dismisses us.
"Have you ever been to a symposium? It is going to be fantastic! You need to take some flat shoes with you as we'll be having quite a lot of free time!" Jack tells me enthusiastically.
"No! I've never been on a business trip! And I've also never been to New York City! I am already very excited and I will do my best to find a babysitter as soon as possible!" I say motivated.
"Do that. Meanwhile I will book us a room. I've already been to New York more than once and therefore know a good hotel. Come on, I'll show you their homepage!" Jack tells me and pulls me with him.
Some hours later I'm rushing directly from my work - which I left sooner than usual - to the bowling alley. Even though I am still in time I need to park rather far away as it is already quite busy. Ray is waiting with Tommy and Andy at the place by the entrance – just like many other pupils. I hurry over to my men and kiss each one of them. I bend down to Tommy.
"Well, big boy, how are you?" I ask him.
"Grandpa and I will make history today!" he beams, looking gratefully to his grandfather who's making his hair a mess.
"We'll score one strike after another!" Ray confirms.
"That's right. We can always count on grandpa!" I say with a huge smile.
"Come on, let's go inside. First come, first served!" Ray orders us and we follow him inside.
We go to the registration desk and wait. Some minutes later a little boy who seems to be accompanied by his father gets in line behind us. His father leaves to get the bowling shoes and the boy starts saying rude things – things especially rude for his age. I turn around and stare at him with my eyes wide open as I cannot believe how badly behaved he seems to be. He looks back at me and licks his lips.
"Hey sweety, you've got beautiful legs. I'll call one Christmas, the other one New Years Eve. Can I get in between the holidays?" he asks me totally full of himself.
I can't believe what I'm hearing. "Can you do me a favor? Please count to ten as I need half an hour of peace," I reply before I can stop myself. "What?", he asks me disbelievingly. "You should remember my name: Alexander. You'll be screaming it all night. So what do you say?".
"Nothing, as I'm not able to laugh and talk at the same time," I tell him coolly and turn away.
As soon as we are registered we go to the next counter to borrow some shoes where we queue behind a red-haired woman with two children. Ray lowers his head and at first I don't even realize what he is doing but then I realize he's staring at her ass. They leave and as soon as they walk past us Ray turns around to get a better look at her. Wow, that's a side of him I never knew. He blushes when he sees me watching him and asks me about my shoe size. I stare at him disbelievingly and ask: "Do I need shoes even though I am no contestant?"
"Oh… no, of course not. Excuse me, I've been miles away….," he answers quite confused. I grin.
"Oh, I know exactly where you've been!" I giggle. Ray simply shakes his head sheepishly.
As soon as Ray and Tommy both have fitting shoes we go to our alley. To each bowling alley four father-son-pairs are assigned and only the pair with the most points gets into the next round to play against the winners of the other alleys. Ray is joking around with the kids, showing of an exuberant warm-up routine while Tommy and Andy hold onto their stomachs laughing. I watch them amused and see that we are not the only ones laughing about Ray's behavior as the red-haired woman from the shoe rental queue has the alley right beside ours and is grinning. I smile and go over to the buffet to get some refreshments for my men. When I come back my boys' eyes are sparkling and I smile back to them. Seems like they are already hungry and thirsty. I wrinkle my forehead as soon as I realize that they aren't looking at me.
Let me tell you one thing: I'm so freaking tired right now, I'll answer the reviews for the last chapter and for this chapter in the next chapter, ok? ;) Goodnight!