The Room, Unslept in
A/N: Time for Chapter 20! These two need to talk before getting married. I originally thought this was going to be one chapter, but realized they needed more than a superficial conversation, so you are getting a third part of this conversation because it was important to cover all these topics.
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 also don't own the dialogue I sometimes use in the chapters. I've tried to pick songs that remind me of Tony & Angela and their relationship. If you'd like to hear them, check out YouTube – you can find just about everything there.
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Chapter 20: The Room, Unslept In: An Evening on the Beach, Part III
July 2, 1993 (Continued)
"Tony, you were just as jealous of the men I dated as I was of you and the girls you dated, if we're being completely honest, and we are. But I'll start." Tony wanted Angela to talk this out since it wasn't something they'd ever done before to such depths. She had so much more to reckon with than he had with her. Sure, they'd talked through some of their toughest moments as a couple as all couples do, but they'd never done such a comprehensive lookback at their issues like they were doing tonight.
They both took positions sitting across from each other with their legs crossed. Angela was glad she was wearing a loose-fitting dress.
"If we go back to the beginning, I'd say it started the night of Sam's 13th birthday party sleepover when you asked me if I'd be out all night with my date. I was taken aback by that question and couldn't figure out where it was coming from," Angela thought back to that night. "Tony, I didn't know if it was jealousy or if you were unhappy that I wouldn't be at home for Sam's sleepover. It certainly came across as jealousy the way it sounded."
Tony tried to clarify what Angela had caught him doing, not able to deny she was right about what she suspected. "Angela, we'd gotten back from Jonathan's camp a little while before then. I was still having a difficult time learning we'd been each other's first kiss. Especially after what happened the night of your birthday. Okay – I hafta give you that I might've been slightly jealous of you dating and staying out all night with said date. I shouldn't have been, obviously, since you were my boss, but …" Tony stopped and took her hands. "Angela, we almost crossed a line that night at the motel at Jonathan's camp… so close," he whispered to her.
After a few silent moments between them, Tony cleared his throat and picked up the subject giving it right back to her. "Angela, I could tell you were jealous, too. Remember Gina and Tonya? You tried to keep me from taking time off that Thanksgiving weekend to spend it with Gina. And when you were attempting to go away with Geoffrey with a "G," that snowy weekend, you didn't exactly act very adult when you found Tonya and me together at the house."
"Okay, I'll give you those times and agree they weren't my best moments," Angela conceded. "I was starting to become very confused about my feelings for you by then, and it came out like that," she explained.
"Frankie," Tony started.
"Tony, as jealous of Frankie as I was, I need to acknowledge that she triggered my visit to Dr. Bellows, and that visit brought a confidence to understanding my feelings for you, even though I still felt inadequate to you. By then I couldn't help how I felt, but I was still the one who didn't tell you my feelings. But as suddenly as Frankie appeared, she disappeared even quicker," Angela noted.
"Angela, I still don't know why I gave any consideration to her proposal, especially after I had told you that you felt these things, you didn't think them. I didn't love her. Then he looked down at the blanket and twiddled with some of the blanket they were sitting on and added, "she wasn't you."
"Ange, you were mighty jealous of Betty, as I recall," Tony volleyed back to Angela.
"Tony, you told your friends I was your wife, and then you went off dirty-dancing with her in front of me and your friends. It was embarrassing to me, and should've been to you, too, since those were your teammates!" Angela exclaimed knowing she was absolutely right about this.
"Angela, you're right. I screwed up with her, and I hurt you doing it. I know I've apologized for this in the past, but I'm saying it again. I'm so sorry for putting you in that awkward position when I was the one who started the lies."
"The only good thing to come out of that weekend was you teaching me that dance you did with Betty. I wish the kids hadn't walked in …," Angela expressed regretfully. Then she placed the memory in the back of her mind and said, "Jack…"
"Oh-oh," uttered Tony, knowing he couldn't get out of this one.
"Yes, Tony, oh-oh," Angela repeated mimicking Tony's voice. "Tony, why in the world were you jealous of Jack? You were the one who told me to hire someone because the Agency was getting so busy. I was lucky to get someone like Jack who was so enthusiastic to work for the Agency," Angela opined.
"Angela, you were spending so much time with him and talking about how much he 'stimulated' you. I let my imagination run away with me, especially when I went to the floor of the hotel the both of you were on. I heard sounds coming from his room, and thought you needed …." Tony stopped in his tracks.
"Rescuing? Tony, what would I have needed rescuing from? I'm a grown woman, and if I had decided to have a relationship with someone, that was my decision. You already knew I never would've done anything to risk my business by having a relationship with someone I worked with …. present company exempted," she added with a slight grin. "But then again, you didn't work at the Agency. Admit it, you were jealous of him."
There was no use denying this now, she knew him like a book. "Okay, Angela, yeah, I was jealous of the possibility of you being interested in Jack." He was different than the time I went to find you with Jake the Snake. You were so vulnerable back then after you and Geoffrey with a "G" broke up. Your mother was worried about you, too, over that one. But Jack was someone you were seeing every single day. Part of me also worried he wanted to take over your Agency, which I know was ridiculous."
There were other incidents after Jack and Betty, but Angela wanted to move on. They talked about heralready. Tony followed her lead, but Angela wasn't quite done yet with that depressing time period.
"Christopher. Tony, you described Gina and Tonya not being my finest moments, but I can say for sure that Christopher surely wasn't one of yours," Angela brought up to Tony not letting him off the hook on this one.
Tony turned a bright shed of red at the mere mention of Christopher. He thought that Angela was unquestionably right about what happened with him. He recalled making a complete fool of himself. "Angela, there's nothing I can say that will change what happened with him and how I acted like a complete idiot!"
"Tony, you made the decision to go out with her. I was free to date whomever I wanted at that point. I still can't believe you followed me to that restaurant," Angela said shaking her head at Tony. "Tony, you know you can't have your cake and eat it, too. You stuck me with a sewing needle right before I went out with Andy, too," Angela pointed at Tony remembering how that needle pinched her back. "You didn't have any right to do that. I wasn't going to dump Andy just because you dumped 'her.' All of this came across as jealousy – you acted as if you could date anyone you wanted to, but I couldn't."
"Angela, I won't say you're wrong, because you're not. Those were some of the worst months in our friendship ever, and I knew I was the one responsible for it. In the end I didn't want to lose you either," referring to what she had said earlier about feeling like he was slipping away from her.
"As if, 'she' wasn't enough, then you took up with Christine in Washington, D.C. How could you do that to me?" Angela questioned because she still didn't quite know what had happened on that trip.
"Angela, she didn't mean anything to me, she was someone I partnered with to help the cause we'd gone to Washington for. Angela, we had just slept in that tiny bed together and you told me how special that was to you. It meant so much to me after not sleeping that entire night… and after everything else we had been through over that year. I lost my head in the politics. I thought by being nice to her, we'd get the Senate not to make the cuts for the Senior Citizens we were trying to help. I know I went too far, acted like a jerk, and hurt you again. I'm so, so sorry, Angela. You brought clarity to me when you came to talk to me at the TV station. I knew you wanted more from me after that conversation."
"Tony, I accept all the apologies, I don't want to ever talk about heror Christine again. This conversation is the last time I ever want us to talk about or mention 'her.' We've talked about everything we could possibly talk about. It was all part of our journey, but now that trip has ended."
"Agreed," Tony told Angela relieved that all their jealousies were being talked about honestly and without judgment.
"Tony, so much of what we experienced happened because both of us were so apprehensive about changing our relationship, maybe losing our friendship, or losing the relationships we had with the kids. We let our fears get the best of us and wound up jealous of what we were doing because we weren't a couple but in the back of our minds wanted to be one. Think about what we talked about the morning after my birthday all those years ago. We were already talking about losing ourselves as friends. That isn't a conversation an employer would have with her employee. It was already in our minds that we were becoming more than that to each other," Angela whispered to Tony.
"Angela, you're not wrong. Just like I said before, I started having feelings for you our first Christmas together after you helped me with my father's apartment."
"We still have more to talk about before we leave, and I wanted to be sure you were comfortable before we started our next topic. Let's lay back down on our sand pillows," Tony suggested. Angela was getting tired sitting up with her legs crossed, so she gratefully took Tony's suggestion and laid back down again. The next part of their conversation started unexpectedly.
"Angela, why did you leave Iowa so quickly – you didn't even give us a chance to talk before you left. You left me in my office stunned."
The End – Chapter 20 of The Room, Unslept In – An Evening on the Beach, Part III
Chapter 21 coming soon – Tony & Angela's conversation concludes.
