Chapter 7

Thirty minutes later, Agnes and Bert walked back into the office after lunch. "Angela you can go to lunch," Agnes said to the redhead behind the desk.

"Agnes, something weird happened while you were at lunch. Some tall guy came in asking for someone named Madolyn Hayes. I don't know who that is. I told him he must have the wrong office because we don't have anyone here by that name."

"Angela, Madolyn Hayes is our boss," Agnes said.

"I thought Mr. Addison was our boss."

"He is. He and Madolyn Hayes run the agency," Bert said.

"Ooooooooh. Is she the one who married Mr. Addison in Chicago?"

"Yes," Agnes and Bert said in unison.

"I'm an idiot. I've never met them. And I only talked to Mr. Addison on the phone. But wait, the tall man said he was the boyfriend of Madolyn Hayes."

"He did?" Bert asked confused.

"No couldn't be. She'd never do that to Mr. Addison," Agnes said.

"That's what he said. He left his name and number," Angela said handing Agnes the paper. When Agnes saw the name, her eyes went as wide as they could possibly go.

"I'll be right back," Agnes said quickly walking into Maddie's office. She took out the paper with the list of names and numbers. She quickly dialed a number.

"Hello?"

"Hi. May I'm please speak to Maddie Hayes? This is Agnes Dispesto."

"Oh hello. She isn't here. She and David checked into a hotel. I'll give you the number," Mrs. Hayes said.

"Thank you so much," Agnes said as she wrote down the number. She hung up and immediately dialed the number. "Please be there. Please, please be there," Agnes said anxiously.

"Hello?" Maddie answered.

"Hi Ms. Hayes. Or should I could you Mrs. Addison?"

"Ms. Hayes works to avoid confusion around the office."

"Ms. Hayes, we have a problem."

"What's wrong?"

"The space man has landed," Agnes said using David's nickname for him.

"Oh no." Maddie said.

"He showed up at the office while Bert and I were at lunch. The new girl Angela was at the desk. He asked for you. She didn't realize he was asking for you. He told her he's your boyfriend."

"Ugh!" Maddie groaned in frustration.

"He left a number."

"Give me the number. This needs to stop," Maddie said in frustration.

"I didn't know he was back Ms. Hayes."

"Unfortunately, he has been for a while. Thank you, Agnes."

"No problem Ms. Hayes."

Maddie hangs up the phone. And angrily dials the number given to her by Agnes.

"Hello?" Sam answers.

"You need to stop this now!"

"Maddie come on don't be like that. I love you. I want to be with you."

"Oh, really? Which woman kicked you out on your ass to send you back to LA for me?"

"What do you mean?" Sam said trying to hide his nervousness.

"I had a nice chat with Katie. You know, the woman who you loved and wanted to spend the rest of your life with before you came to LA to see me two years ago. She told me all about your little checklist and your rounds. And how you've been feeding the same lines to all of us for the last two years to keep your family off your ass."

"But Maddie, you're just not another name of my checklist. I do really want to spend the rest of my life with you."

"Sorry Sam. That spot is already taken. David and I are married now."

"You are huh? Well, you can divorce him as easily as you divorced Walter," Sam said with an ominous tone.

Maddie's eyes went big. "How did you know about that?"

"Don't worry about it. I'll back off. For now. But you'll be hearing from me again. I know you. I know him. You'll get tired of David real soon. And that spot will be open again."

"Don't bet on it," Maddie said before she hung up. "Ugh I feel like I need to shower to get rid of the slime after that phone call," Maddie said to the empty room. She gets undressed and takes her shower. As she's getting out of the shower, she hears David returned with their late lunch. She walks out of the bathroom to greet him, wrapped in just a towel. "Woah. That's a nice sight to come back to," David said as he walked over to kiss her.

"While you were out, Agnes called."

"Oh? How are the kids holding down the fort? How's that new girl, Angela?" David asked as he walked across the room to put the bags of food on the table.

"Everything is running smoothly. Mr. Viola is handling clients and things rather well. Although there was one issue. I guess Sam is back in LA and trying to reach me. I'm assuming he called the house not knowing that I've been away. When he couldn't reach me, I guess he stopped by the office. He told Angela that he's my boyfriend. When Agnes found out, she got concerned and called me. And I called Sam."

"What did you call him?" David asked.

"David…"

"You called him David?"

"David I'm serious," Maddie said with annoyance.

"Ok, I'm sorry. What did he say?"

"He said that he still wants to be with me. I told him that we're married now. He said he'll back off and come back around when I get tired of you. Which will never happen. He makes me so mad," Maddie said as she paced the room.

"Hey that's my job," David said.

"Normally it is. But Sam has been superseding you."

"Well, maybe there is something we could do to relax you," David said as he walked up to her using his seductive tone.

"Oh yeah? Like what?" Maddie asked using her seductive tone.

"Oh, I don't know. Will think of something," David said, with a smile as he removed her towel and kissed her.

After a few rounds of thrashing, Maddie and David sit cuddled up on the bed, just a sheet covering them, eating their cheeseburgers as they watch tv. "I get it now," David said.

"Get what?"

"I get what you meant about wanting to just sit and eat cheeseburgers. I understand now the simplicity of it all now, Maddie."

"David, that's what I've wanted. That type of relationship. Almost all of my dates wanted just sex. Not the actual relationship part. I never had the real relationship part with anyone."

"Neither have I. Not even when I was married. My relationships, if you could even call them that, were about sex. Why do you think the only furniture I had was bedroom furniture? I didn't think there was a need for anything else. After sex, we didn't sit, talk, watch tv, get ready for the day or eat like you and I do. A lot of them I never talked to again after we had our fun," David said. He noticed Maddie got really quiet. "Maddie, is that what you thought what you thought would happen back then? Did you think our relationship was all about sex because I just wanted you as another notch on my belt?"

"Maybe…"

"Maddie why would you ever think that? I loved you and wanted to grow old with you, even back then. I was ready to tell you several times back then, but Buck Rogers kept getting in the way."

"And after he left?" Maddie said looking at David.

"I guess I was afraid to bring it up. We had just started the physical side of our relationship. I didn't want you to think I was only saying it to keep you in my bed."

"But I thought that."

"Yeah."

"Ugh I'm an idiot. David, we can't keep looking back at the past. We can't undo any of that. But we can prevent it from happening again," Maddie said as she leaned in to kiss him.

"Mmmm. A beautiful woman who smells like meat. I love it," David said smiling.

"You're disgusting," Maddie said laughing.

"Yeah. And you love it."

"Most days," Maddie said smiling.

The next day, Maddie and David are in a cab in Los Angeles as it pulls up to their house. They're both to really start their lives together at home as husband and wife. The driver helps David pull the luggage out of the trunk. Maddie opens the front door and they put the luggage just inside the door. Maddie starts to walk in but David grabs her arm to stop her. "David what are you doing?" Maddie's asks as the eh stand on the front step.

"This," David said picking up Maddie bridal style.

"Seriously? That's so cliche," Maddie said smiling as David carried her into the house and closed the door with his foot.

"Well at least something in this relationship should be traditional."

They spend the rest of the day, unpacking, sorting mail, and just relaxing. The next day they go into the office. As they arrive, they're greeted with hugs and congratulations from the staff.

"Thank you everyone. We both greatly appreciate this. Now I want to set something straight. I will be hyphenating my name to include Addison. But to avoid confusion around the office, I will still go by Hayes."

"And don't assume that there is some marital boinking happening every time we're behind closed doors. There will be sometimes.." David started to say.

"…ok that's all. Back to work everyone," Maddie said. "Mr. Addison. My office. Now," Maddie said putting on her usual annoyed tone as she pulled David by his tie.

"Ow," David said as she let her when the door to her office closed.

"Really? You had to say that?" She asked annoyed standing next to her desk.

"Oh come on. I don't want them to think that they can't knock on the door because we're testing out the durability of the office furniture."

Maddie just glared at him.

"Maddie, can you honestly tell me you haven't thought about us having some unprofessional fun in here or in my office from time to time?" David asked as he walked over to Maddie.

"Oh I have. But not during office hours when other people are here," Maddie whispered to David.

"So you have. What types of fun have you thought about?"

"Something like those little sex games we used to play."

"Really?"

"Yes, David really. But we can discuss that at a more private time. We have a lot of work to catch up on," Maddie said as she walked over to her desk chair and sat.

"Yes, we do. Partner," David said sitting on the edge of her desk.

As Maddie and David settle into their new happy life, a woman sits in her living room reading a magazine. The phones rings. "Hello?" The woman answers.

"Hey. It's me. You alone?" the man on the other end of the phone said.

"Yeah he's not home from work yet," the woman replied.

"This is harder than I thought it would be,"

"I told you it would be. But you didn't listen to me. You said it would be easy," The woman said.

"Yeah. So I was wrong. I did think it would be easy."

"You have to keep trying. You're the only one of us who can make this work."

"I just don't get it. What's up with this guy that everyone is after?" The man asked.

"I'm not after him. It's not about him specifically. I want out of here. And to tear her down. Knock her off that pedestal finally. This is the best way. I thought she was finally knocked down five years ago. But not only did she land safely. But she landed in the arms of him. Into a life better than she had before. Better than I've ever had. I'm tired of looking up to her majesty on her pedestal for all these years." As the woman said this, she heard a car pull up to her driveway. "He's home."

"You're still coming out this weekend?" The man asked.

"I'll be there. I have my ticket. I'll see you then, Sam," the woman said as she hung up. She looked down at her airline ticket.

"Annie? I'm home!" Mark called as he walked in the front door.