Stork

by Mardria Portuondo

  “That’s because I work hard to stay your size. You don’t have to do anything but eat.”

  “Well, you are perfect to me...and with ten more pounds you would be a little more perfect,” she laughed.

  “It’s not funny.”

  “I’m sorry, babe,” she said and kissed my lips. “Let me get you some water.”

  When Susan and the gang returned, a new set of people accompanied her. I was starting to get a little uneasy when I did not see my baby return after a while, but Susan returned with her in the same position she left, which meant she gave her to no one. Her poor husband was just looking on because she hogged Kaci for herself.

  “Everyone, this is Vicky’s wife, Lea. Isn’t she beautiful?” my mother-in-law said with immense pride on her face.

  “What a catch! You lucky girl!” an elderly man said.

  “How come we weren’t invited to the fancy wedding? We are not good enough?” another woman asked.

  “It was sudden,” I explained. “I didn’t want her to get away.”

  “Hah! Or she didn’t want you to get away?” somebody asked.

  “We didn’t want each other to get away, alright?” Victoria said. “Anyway, we have to leave now because we can’t have the baby out for too long and it is a two-hour drive back.”

  “Yes, you need to get her home. But bring her back soon,” Trevor said, wishing he had more time with his granddaughter.

  “We will invite you guys for a visit soon,” Victoria said. “Babe, bathroom is that way. We need to get going.”

  Everyone had questions for Victoria and I saw that she was getting overwhelmed. I handed her the baby, went to the bathroom, then took Kaci so she could go, gave them the groceries from the trunk of the car, and before you know it, we were on our way home. Five minutes into the drive, Victoria went to the back of the car to feed and change Kaci when I stopped at the first mall we saw. The plan was to feed and change her at her parents’ but Victoria wanted to leave as soon as possible.

  “I know you think it is funny, Lea, but more people were going to come and an argument was going to develop...actually several arguments. I had to get out of there so you do not divorce me when we return home...or drive away and leave me there.”

  I laughed at how silly she was being. Soon Kaci was done eating and asleep, so we continued our journey back home, stopping once to get a wrap and a drink. I enjoyed going on long trips with Victoria because she was so full of life and always had something to say. I was so grateful to have her in my life, and just spending time with her family made me miss my mother. I wished she was here to enjoy it all with me, but I knew she had not completely left me because she was there watching over us, and possibly had a hand in all of this.

  I noticed a long line of cars from our neighbors to outside our yard and thought they were having a party. Victoria and I wondered if there was a holiday which we forgot. I drove into the garage and we gently removed the car seat with the sleeping baby inside. I opened the door for Victoria to enter, suddenly bodies were jumping from behind things.

  “Surprise!” they shouted.

  Jill had rounded up the gang and suddenly there was a party in my living room. Victoria didn’t seem too surprised which told me she, Stewart and Jill were the masterminds behind this.

  “I see you all broke into our house,” I greeted them and they ignored me and flocked Kaci. “Everyone, let me introduce you to my gorgeous wife, Victoria, and our beautiful daughter, Kaci.”

  “Your wife is so pretty.”

  “I much prefer her to the other one.”

  “I can’t believe you kept this a secret from us.”

  “I heard about Rachel.”

  “What a beautiful baby.”

  “I love your family.”

  “Congratulations, to Lea and Victoria.”

  The questions and comments were worse than with my in-laws. Victoria and I were just dying for the day to end so we could just lay in the hot tub together, just the two of us; no family, no friends. All the party did was unleash the others on us, which had them turning up at my doorstep a lot, asking to see Kaci. The gifts kept coming, and we were running out of room to put them. There was a time when we started to pretend that we were not home and just did not get the door.

  My once very boring life got really exciting because I had the two loves of my life and they were a bundle of energy and fun. I was absolutely sure I was the happiest woman alive. I thought I had it good with Rachel, who by the way, texted me after receiving the pictures to say how sorry she was, but she really did loved me. I deleted the text and her number because she was not even in my rearview mirror. Even she had to admit that I did marry the right girl.

  +++

  I was dressed in a white silk blouse and a pair of black pants while Victoria was dressed in a grey jacket suit with a pink shirt. Her long black hair and amazingly beautiful blue eyes completed the intoxicating look. I had asked Olga to arrange a meeting of everyone in administration because I needed to introduce them to their new boss. Victoria was worried about her new post. She believed they would not like her because she was my eyes and ears in the place, but I reassured her that she was not there to be liked; she was there to learn as much about the business as possible and come up with ways to make it better for the large family we were planning to have. If they happened to like her in the process, then that would definitely be a plus.

  She knew this day was coming so after her graduation, and her family and my friends had left the after-party, we sat and spoke about it. I knew she would do great because she was very smart and I just needed to get her settled in. Today was just introduction, and after this, she could take her time to integrate herself.

  “Thank you everyone for coming. I will try to make this brief because I know you are all very busy making this place the success it has been,” I said sitting at the head of the table with Victoria to my right. They were all so nervous because I rarely call these meetings. I might have done it once before. They are not very used to having me around so whenever I came by, they we usually very uneasy. “First I would like to introduce you to my wife and the newest member of our team. Her name is Victoria McGuire-Davis...I hope you are writing this down...and she will be another person to whom you report. She has a degree in Marketing and Finance and will most certainly bring fresh ideas to the table and be more effective in this area than I have been.”

  “Will she be taking over your office or…” Bryan, the senior accountant, wanted to know because his office is right next to mine and knew he would probably have to move.

  “My office stays and I would want her directly beside mine, so Bryan we would have to relocate you and put you beside Olga in Jenny’s office, then Jen we will move you to that empty office down the hall. Is everyone OK with that?”

  “Yes,” they all agreed even if they ended up complaining among themselves.

  “Olga, I am depending on you and Bryan to teach my wife everything. If she needs clarification she will come to me, but your job is to ensure that she is aware of everything including how many bricks make up this complex. Leave nothing out. She is very smart so it shouldn’t take long for her to get her footing around here. Mrs. McGuire-Davis has hiring and firing power. I am letting you aware so you do not take her position lightly. However, as a matter of our policy, nobody in administration is fired without my consent, and that goes for my wife as well. I don’t want you to start feeling insecure that she is going to come and get rid of you behind my back. She or Olga will have to present just cause, satisfying to me, before any of you are let go. They can hire whomever they want to keep this place running effectively, but it is a different process for letting you go. Right, Donald?”

  “Yes ma’am,” he smiled because he was one of the lucky ones I saved and he had not disappointed me. Olga did not present a strong enough reason why he should be fired. What he did required reprimanding but not enough to lose his job, so I reprimanded him with a suspension.

&nb
sp; “Olga, have the decorators come in and redo Bryan’s office. Ensure that Victoria signs off on the changes before they begin and Bryan and Jenny, since I am moving you around you get an upgrade as well. Just let Olga know the changes you want and she will decide if what you want is a go. As I said, this is a brief meeting so I will let you get back to your work, but before we go, does anyone have any questions?”

  They all said no, as I expected, but as long as I gave them the opportunity to speak, it didn’t matter.

  “Honey, would you like to say anything?”

  “Yes,” she said and turned to the eyes which were not sure of her angle, but soon they will know and respect her position around here. “As my wife explained, I am here initially to learn from all of you. Once I feel confident enough in my knowledge of the operation and protocols, I will meet with you all and see what, if necessary, we can do to make things better. I would like to hear your concerns and suggestions so you could work on that for whenever we meet like this again. I am looking forward to working with all of you, and will get to know you and the individual roles you play in the success of the business.”

  “Mrs. McGuire-Davis, on behalf of all of us, welcome aboard and we are excited to get to know you and to work with you,” Olga said and the others joined in on the sentiment.

  “Thank you,” Victoria responded.

  “OK, everyone, back to work and thank you all for coming.”

  I held Victoria’s hand and walked with her to my office. I locked the door and turned to her face my wife.

  “I am so proud of you, honey.”

  “I know, but they are so worried. Only when you told them you had a say in their termination that they started to relax a bit.”

  “They don’t know you. But they will. And when they do,” I said pulling her to me, “they will love you.”

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Unbuttoning your shirt. You think I am going to have such a hot, sexy, beautiful, wife beside me and not fuck her in my office? Get your ass on the desk.”

  “Baby, no. My first day and I’m having sex on the job? They are going to hate me.”

  “They know the power you wield,” I said in her neck.

  “They also know they have your protection.”

  “Protection? Please. They know that if you come to me with those pretty blue eyes...and pink lips...and soft, delicate skin, and tell me you want Olga gone, her ass is out.”

  Victoria laughed then suddenly her voice cuts off.

  “Babe, what’s that?”

  “What’s what?”

  She picked up a note that said I should call Stewart urgently.

  “What the fuck? When was this?”

  “I don’t know. Just call him.”

  I picked up the phone on my desk and called the only number I knew from memory. It rang without answer. I called Jill to find out if she knew where he was but I was not getting her either. I called home to see if Daisy was OK with Kaci; they were fine, so what could be the emergency. That means Stewart was in trouble. I was scorching mad.

  I marched out of my office with the note in hand and into Olga’s office, interrupting her meeting with another member of staff.

  “Olga what is this message? When did this call come in?”

  She looked confused and took the paper from me.

  “Where was this?” she asked.

  “On my desk. Were you told about this?”

  “No. I would have contacted you.”

  “Who the fuck wrote this?”

  “This has to be the receptionist,” she said and walked out the office to her. “Sheryl, when did this call come in?”

  “This morning. I gave it to Wilma to take to you,” the girl said, looking scared because she saw me standing there.

  “Barbara, take over from Sheryl, and you, come with me. Barbara, make an announcement for Wilma to come to my office right now,” I said and walked away, while everyone followed behind including Victoria.

  “Honey, please calm down. Maybe you should try calling his family…”

  “I can’t call them because maybe whatever it is, he does not want them to know.”

  “Sheryl, why did you give the message to Wilma. There are two of you at the switchboard. Why didn’t you take the message to me like you always did?” Olga asked.

  “Because it was an emergency and I was on another call so I asked…,” she was having a panic attack.

  Just then Wilma came rushing inside my office.

  “Did you put…,” Olga started to talk but I could not wait for her to soothe the answers out of her.

  “Wilma! Did Sheryl give you this message to deliver?”

  “Y-yes.”

  “What did she ask you to do with it?”

  “To take it to your office.”

  “That’s not what I said! I told you to take the message to Olga’s office! But you were on your phone and didn’t hear me, so stop lying!” Sheryl was crying.

  “I don’t think she is lying. She thought that was what you said,” Olga cooed sweetly to them while inside me was on fire.

  “I thought that was what you said and I looked on the message and saw Miss Davis’ name.”

  “Well, I don’t know where the fuck Stewart is or what could have happened to him! You find him or both of you are fired!”

  “Honey, please...we don’t need to get to that point yet because…”

  “Victoria, they got an urgent message from Stewart and it was their responsibility to get that message to me! Olga, deal with this personal call situation or I will.”

  I tried to calm down as both girls ran to see if they could locate Stewart. Olga was using the phone in my office to ask others if they had seen him. I was petrified and Victoria tried to calm me. We did not take our cellphone to the meeting, so now we were checking them and there were three missed call on my phone from him but none was made to Victoria. Whatever it is, he wanted my help. There were two calls from Jill but none on Victoria’s phone.

  “Baby, what has happened to Stewart?” I asked, tears burning my eyes.

  “Oh, honey, I’m sure he is OK,” Victoria tried to reassure me.

  “No, he is not! Fuck!” I pulled away from her and sat around my desk to reach out to my contacts at the police department and the hospitals, but first I check with security to find out when was the last time they saw him. “Hi. This is Lea Davis. Who am I speaking with?”

  “This is Claude.”

  “Oh hi, Claude. When was the last time you saw Stewart?”

  “He came in about two hours ago.”

  “What time did he leave?”

  “He hasn’t left, Miss Davis.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Positive.”

  “Thank you.”

  I put down the receiver and rushed out of the office.

  “Lea! Lea, where are you going?” I heard Victoria calling and running after me but I needed to get to Stewart.

  I ran down the hallway to his office and there he was with his head on the desk.

  “Stewart,” I said shaking his shoulder. “Stewart, wake up.”

  He held up his head and looked at me. I was so relieved to see him so I wrapped my arms around him, ignoring the bandage on his forehead. I wanted to cry, but I did not make a habit of my other employees seeing me cry.

  “Stewart...what happened to your face?” Victoria asked, very concerned.

  By this time, everyone was inside the roam, including the two women who were unsure about their position in this company. Stewart seemed to be a bit languid and I was very concerned about him.

  “Honey, what happened?” I asked caressing his face.

  “Victoria, I’m so sorry,” he said holding down his head. “I don’t know what happened.”

  “What are you sorrow for, Stew?” I asked him.

  “I was taking your car to get the alarm and tracking checked and I don’t know what happened...I just lost control of it and ended up in a tree. The
car is ruined. I’m sorry.”

  “Look at me,” I said. “Forget about the car. OK? Tell me how you’re feeling.”

  “I’m fine. The police came and they took me to the hospital. They fixed me up right away and I am fine.”

  “Why didn’t you call Victoria when you couldn’t reach me?”

  “I didn’t want to tell her what I did with her car. She loves it very much,” he explained sadly.

  “Stewart, how could you!” Victoria shouted. “How could you ruin my car? I am so upset!”