The Room, Unslept in
A/N: Thank you for following along with this story. I still can't imagine what it was like for Angela to leave Tony in Iowa and go back home alone. This was a very angsty two months she had to have experienced. I hope I'm doing this time period justice.
PS – I don't own any of the characters from Who's the Boss? I also don't own the song(s) I use in this story. I've tried to pick songs that remind me of Tony & Angela and their relationship. If you'd like to hear it, check out YouTube – you can find just about everything there.
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Chapter 5: Day 3
The alarm went off and woke Angela up to begin Day 3 of being back in Connecticut without the love of her life. Despite wanting to crawl under the pillows and blanket, she quickly got up and fluffed the pillows on the couch in her office. She folded the blanket she had taken from her room. She hurried out of her office and dragged the bedding up the stairs before anyone else got up. She looked out the window to see the sun shining. She sighed as she went up the stairs. The sun might be shining outside, but it sure wasn't shining in her mind, she reflected gloomily.
On this first weekday since coming home, it was back to work and back to her life as the ever-present owner of The Bower Agency. As much as she was looking forward to going back into the office, she worried what her employees were going to think or say to her. She wasn't looking forward to the awkwardness she knew was about to face her. They knew she wasn't expected back until mid-June. She had not called Jack to let him know she was going to be back in the office this day. She just didn't want to deal with it – yet.
Once in her own bathroom, she showered and dried herself off. Then she started to get a little dizzy and sick to her stomach again. Being alone was not being kind to her. She didn't know how much longer this nausea was going to last. She grabbed a little water cup, sat down on the edge of the tub, and drank some water from the sink. Once she felt a little better, she dressed in her business attire, ready to own the advertising world again. She was glad that she was going in on the train with her mother. That would be distracting for the entire ride in.
After a few minutes, she was finally ready to go downstairs. She knocked on Jonathan's door to make sure he was up and ready to go to school. She then went back downstairs to the kitchen. She made some coffee and then poured some juice for herself. Mona and Jonathan soon walked in to join her.
"Hi, Mom." Jonathan looked at her cautiously.
"Good morning, Jonathan. Do you have everything you need for school"? Angela asked becoming the high school student mom again.
'Sure, Mom." Jonathan said while getting up, grabbing some bread to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and then exiting the kitchen door to go to school after saying good-bye and wishing his Mom a good day back in the office.
"Thanks, sweetheart," Angela told him back. She was so proud of the young man he was becoming and couldn't believe he'd be graduating from high school so soon.
"Angela, are you okay to go to work today?" Mona asked not knowing if Angela should go into the office today so soon after getting back.
"Mother, of course, why would you ask that"? Angela asked innocently.
Mona had been putting together a breakfast sandwich knowing that nothing hot would be coming her way this morning. She stopped smoothing butter onto her bread and turned around to look directly at Angela. "Angela, I think you already know the answer to that question," she said matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, I'll be ready to go in a few minutes," Angela stated while walking out of the kitchen to grab her briefcase.
Angela drove them to the train station, parked the car, and they both boarded the train to go into the city. It was a quiet ride as Angela rode with her eyes closed and her head leaning against the window almost the entire time. Her stomach still felt unsettled, a combination of nerves and sadness. She had a hard time not bursting into tears the closer to Manhattan they got.
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Angela and Mona walked into The Bower Agency. Mona took her place at the receptionist's desk and plopped herself down while Angela opened her office door and walked in putting her briefcase on the couch. She sat at her desk and started looking at the files she'd brought in from her brief visit into the office on Saturday.
Slowly, the Agency's employees started walking in and settling themselves. When Angela walked out of her office to talk to her mother, she noticed no one was acting awkward around her nor really talking to her. She got the feeling her mother had spoken to the staff at some point over the weekend and told them not to say anything to Angela to make her feel uncomfortable. That in turn made Angela feel more awkward. She walked over to the refrigerator to grab a ginger ale and quickly walked back into her office shutting the door.
After a few hours, she gathered her leadership team around the conference table in her office. Mona came in to take meeting minutes. The team welcomed her back and told her they were glad to see her. Throughout the meeting, the team covertly looked around the room and saw the photos of Tony still sitting on Angela's desk. They also became privy to watching Angela glide her engagement ring up and down her finger while she was talking to them. It was a challenge for them to stop watching her. Angela finally realized what she was doing and parted her hands and put them to her side, trying not to bring notice to what she had realized she was doing.
Jack filled her in on a potential new client – a company introducing salads in bags to the consumer. It was an organic company, and they were looking for a boutique firm to help them launch their new product. The pitch needed to be ready in a few weeks, he continued.
Angela was briefed on the client and what they were trying to accomplish and when they wanted to launch the new product. She started proposing some ideas to the team to think about and for her creative team to start storyboarding. She started to lose herself in her work, and she was glad to take her mind off of her loneliness for a little while. Mona was relieved to see Angela back to her old work self, but knew that it was all a façade. The sad Angela was going to rear its head on the way home again. After Angela went back out to her desk, Mona sat down shaking her head, 'Damn, Tony," she thought; "Damn, Angela," she added to her frustrated thoughts.
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Finally, the long day of work ended. Angela was exhausted from her first day back. She and Mona rode the train silently back out to Fairfield. They needed to be back because the new housekeeper was coming to get situated at the house. The employment agency had found Angela someone they thought she'd like. Little did that employment agency know!
Hannah arrived right on time at 6:30 pm. She introduced herself to Angela – and to Mona who happened to be hanging around to see how Angela interacted with this new person to enter their household.
Angela was glad to hear that Hannah lived in Westport, which was a close drive to Fairfield. She was in her 50s, Angela concluded by hearing that she had several grown kids. They agreed that Hannah would start her day at their house at 7:00 am with breakfast and end the day after dinner at 8pm. She'd stay later in case Angela had clients coming over to entertain, it was agreed. Then Angela walked her around the house and talked about her expectations for the new housekeeper.
Angela felt like she was in a hazy daze doing this walk-through. She hadn't interviewed a housekeeper in almost a decade! As she reviewed all the duties the housekeeper had, she was reminded how she'd never be able to replace Tony and what he had done for their family. Tears almost gathered in her eyes as she showed Hannah Tony's old room but she managed to hold them back as she talked to her. Angela told Hannah that this room wasn't currently being used, so only dusting and vacuuming was necessary.
When they got to Angela's room, Hannah had a weird feeling that no one was actually sleeping in this room by how perfectly made the bed looked, but she didn't say anything. When Angela got to her clothes hamper she was reminded at how uncomfortable Tony was originally to even touch her clothes. She remembered how he didn't hesitate to suggest that she was wasting time getting dressed and that she should move her clothes around to different drawers to be more efficient in the morning. But he sure was uncomfortable about having to hand wash her unmentionables. Angela almost giggled out loud at the memories. Then the melancholy returned when she realized Tony wasn't here anymore. Hannah nodded as she was told what was what.
Then they moved along to Jonathan's room knocking first before going in. Angela introduced Hannah to Jonathan and let Jonathan tell Hannah what needed to be done in his room. He was no child anymore, and Angela let Jonathan lead the conversation with Hannah.
Angela and Hannah returned downstairs and said good night to each other. Hannah would be back the next morning.
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Once Hannah had left, Angela called Jonathan down for dinner. Mona joined them in the kitchen. Samantha and Hank had decided to take their leftover Chinese food and cook it in their apartment. They were both exhausted after the chaotic events of the past week.
"I think I'm going to skip any more Chinese food for now," Angela told her mother and Jonathan with a look of sickness on her face.
"Mom, are you okay?" Jonathan asked with a worried look on his face and noticing his mother was a slight shade of green.
"Yes, I'm a little tired after going into the office today for the first time after so many months," Angela said trying to alleviate any concerns about her that Jonathan might have.
Jonathan heated up the leftovers for his grandmother and himself. Angela got up from her chair and walked over to the cabinet. She took out the box of Pastina Tony kept on hand for when the kids got sick. She didn't eat it very often, but when she had, she remembered it soothed upset tummies, so she decided to make some for herself. Once Angela moved over to the sink with the water to put on the stove, Mona and Jonathan gave each other a raised eyebrows look. They were both worried about her. They both shook their heads in concern for her.
After dinner, Jonathan went up to study for some tests he had coming up that week. That left Mona and Angela in the living room sitting on the couch.
"Angela, do you want to watch some TV, maybe a movie?" Mona asked hoping to keep taking Angela's mind off her loneliness.
"Sure, Mother, here's the remote." Angela told her mother giving her the remote from behind her.
The TV went on to a news program. They both watched for a while listening to the weather forecast for the next few days – sunny, mild, and low humidity. Then Angela picked up the remote and started flicking channels to find something else. Bored and restless, Angela got up and told her mother she was going up to shower and change for bed.
"Okay, Angela. I'll probably go upstairs soon myself. I'll turn the TV off when I do and leave the lights on for you," Mona announced.
When Angela got back downstairs, the TV was off and Mona had gone back to her own room. Angela was relieved that her mother was living with her right now. She didn't know what she'd do being back without Tony and with her mother living in her apartment. She was comforted to know that her mother was just a room away. She sat back down on the couch and waited until she was sure her mother and Jonathan were fast asleep.
She quietly went back upstairs to grab her blanket. She was glad her stomach had settled down for the moment. She went into her office and laid down on her couch for the night.
She turned the radio on to see if there was any music that would help her to fall asleep faster. That's when It Had to Be You came on. Angela hurried to turn the radio off totally bereft. That was one song that would not be kept on to listen to.
Angela realized that there was one advantage to sleeping on these couches the past few nights. She was having such a difficult time sleeping without being in Tony's arms. And she had gotten used to being spooned by Tony. But laying against the back of the couch made her feel like something was "holding" on to her during the night so she wasn't just hanging out in the middle of a bed all alone. ALONE. Angela sighed loudly as she drifted off to sleep.
The End – Chapter 5 of The Room, Unslept In – Day 3
Chapter 6 coming soon….
