Toronto Collection Volume 3 (Toronto Series #10-13)

by Heather Wardell

  It was sweet seeing how my honesty earlier in the week had brought them to be more honest too. I had lost readers, definitely; some of my usually most active commenters weren't present any more. I felt bad about that, but pleased about the new ones and especially about the ones who told me they'd been lurkers for ages but were now finally standing up and telling me what mattered to them.

  Several brought tears to my eyes with how they hadn't listened to themselves for so long and were now realizing they wanted things they'd never expected. Some were funny, too, and one poor girl's visit to the same male-staff-only nail salon I'd attended, which ended abruptly when she was so busy staring at her technician's rippling biceps that she knocked the freshly brewed coffee he'd given her into his lap, made me giggle so hard Sasha and Percy came over to see what was up and Patricia muttered and made it clear she was raising the volume on her headphones even further.

  Percy and Sasha laughed with me then returned to their desks, Percy after a pat on my head and Sasha with a strangely shy smile, and I kept working my way through the comments. They were all lovely to read, even the ones that didn't make me lose control, and I replied to them all and thoroughly enjoyed them, especially the last one that was posted while I was reading.

  My husband and I never go anywhere alone. The kids are always there. And I mean always. We even went on our last anniversary dinner with the kids. He'd rather it just be us, sometimes, and so would I. I love the kids, but I love time with him too. But I've always been told that good mothers spend all their time with their kids, and the few times I've tried not to I've taken such grief from my so-called friends that I couldn't bring myself to do it again.

  But last night I did! I hired my son's swimming teacher to babysit and my husband and I went out for dinner even though our daughter cried when we left. I felt terrible at first but I told myself that keeping my marriage strong is important and that having fun with my husband is good for all of us. We had a great dinner and we talked more than we had in ages, and hardly mentioned the kids at all. Then we went to a movie. Then we snuck into our backyard and went to, of all places, my son's club house. It was cold in there, obviously, but we more than kept each other warm. I can't remember the last time we made love like that, and I definitely can't remember the last time I slept so well. Or, I have to admit, the last time we set an alarm so we could make love in the morning before the kids woke up. I feel great today!

  Not just physically, either. He and I are connected again. We were almost like roommates for a while, but now... If you hadn't encouraged me to do my own thing and be honest with myself, none of it would have happened, so thank you.

  It was signed only "S", but I had a feeling I could fill in the rest of her name myself. It touched me so much I wasn't sure I could speak, that she'd done something I knew was so hard for her because of what I'd written.

  I didn't want to embarrass her, but I did want her to know I'd seen what she'd posted, so once I'd calmed down I raised my head. "Hey, Sasha?"

  She looked up, her cheeks pink.

  "My cousin's been looking for a babysitter for a while," I said, lying through my teeth. I didn't even have a cousin. "Do you happen to know one?'

  The pink deepened. "Yeah. My son's swimming teacher babysits whenever she can to earn money for college."

  I smiled at her. "That's good to know. Very good."

  "Yes, it is." She grinned back, looking relaxed and happy.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  The next night, Catherine and her husband and kids sat on one side of my parents' long rectangular dinner table facing the rest of us. Catherine seemed even more tense than usual, and kept snapping at her kids to eat properly and at Marshall to discipline his children.

  In between her gripes, my parents told us how the house they'd tried to get had eluded them. "The other buyers were willing to postpone the closing for four months. We didn't want to wait that long." Dad shrugged, looking philosophical. "Just means there's something else out there for us."

  Mom smiled at him. "And with any luck we'll find it this weekend."

  "You're looking again?" Catherine said, then reached out and rapped my younger nephew's knuckles. "Washington, do not shovel food into your mouth. You eat like a pig."

  "Aunt Lydia smells like a pig," he said.

  "I thought it was a monkey."

  He grinned at me. "Before it was a monkey. Now it's a pig."

  "Oh, yeah? Well, you smell like... umm... Paddington when he's wet."

  "Ew! Paddington!"

  Paddington, lying half-on-half-off the blanket my parents kept for him in the dining room, wagged his tail so it thumped against the hardwood.

  "Anyhow," Catherine said. "This weekend? We'll be away. Another tournament for Jefferson, in Niagara Falls this time."

  A little shiver ran over me. Felix. He would be at that tournament, and by then he'd have told me whether I had won the job of my dreams. I'd put everything I had into my site and now I had only a few more days to impress him and Kelvin. I didn't know what else I could do but I hoped I'd find something.

  "That's okay." Mom offered mashed potatoes to the room at large. "We're mature enough to go on our own."

  "Speak for yourself," Dad said, and Mom put down the bowl and gave a little laugh.

  "Lydia can go with you," Catherine said as if they hadn't spoken.

  I blinked. "Lydia might have plans."

  "Come to the tournament," Wash said. "I get bored."

  "I would, dog-stink, but I actually do have plans. Sunday night, anyhow." I turned to Mom. "I could go Saturday, if you'd like."

  She shook her head. "We're just fine. What are you doing Sunday?"

  "Dinner with Percy."

  She tipped her head to the side. "Do I know him?"

  It seemed like she must, since I saw him constantly now. But when I thought about it... "No, I guess not. Went to school with him and he works with me now."

  Marshall pushed back his chair to go make coffee, his assigned duty whenever he came over since Dad said he made the best coffee he'd ever tasted. "Boyfriend?"

  "I think he's too nice for that," I said without thinking, then realized I meant it.

  Marshall smiled and left, and Catherine said, "Lydia, sooner or later you'll stop dating jerks. Someday you'll see a nice man is more important than..." She glanced at her kids, who didn't seem to be listening, but didn't finish her thought anyhow. She didn't need to: the word 'sex' seemed to hang in the air. "Well, anyhow. You'll stop dating jerks."

  So I could be aggravated and bitter with my nice husband like she was? "They weren't all jerks," I said. "Some of them were... um..." I gave my dad a mock grimace. "Maybe they were all jerks."

  He laughed. "Then it's time to find one who's not." He nudged Mom. "And get him to marry you and buy you a new house."

  She smiled at him. "So you're saying you're not a jerk?"

  Dad looked shocked and Mom patted him on the head then went to get dessert, taking him with her to help Marshall with the coffee.

  I watched them leave and figured I was seeing what I'd have if somehow I did marry Percy: a nice sweet stable relationship in such a deep rut it would make Niagara Falls look like water dripping into a sink.

  If there'd ever been any passion between my parents it was long gone. Sasha had said she and her husband were like roommates sometimes, and my parents were definitely there too. Unlike Sasha and her husband, though, my parents seemed fine with it.

  I wouldn't be.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  I arrived at work Thursday morning to a company in chaos. The forum managers, who usually stayed clustered together in their own big working room, were seated around the conference room table which was for some reason in the middle of the main office area. Envelopes and labels and small plastic packets littered the table and the floor around it, and they were so busy with whatever they were doing that they didn't look up when I arrived.

  Percy and Sasha and Patricia did, though, with looks
of amusement and annoyance and fury respectively.

  "You're finally here." Patricia was at her desk instead of with the others at the table. "It's about time."

  I glanced at my watch, sure I wasn't late, but as I took a breath to point out it was only ten to nine Felix came out of his office and said, "Ah, good. Have you told her yet?"

  Patricia raised her chin but didn't look at him. "I was about to."

  I stood waiting, confused, and she said, "Well, put your stuff down. We have work to do."

  I did indeed have work to do, but I knew she'd be happier if I didn't get it done. What was this 'we' stuff? "I'll put it down," I said, moving toward my desk, "but you have to tell me what's going on."

  Her chin went higher, but she stared past me at the wall. "Well, I've been doing freebie stuff on my web site. Linking to giveaways and that sort of thing."

  I nodded, hanging my coat over my chair. I'd noticed that, and hadn't been impressed with the way her site had become basically a clearinghouse for online bargains.

  A shiver ran over me. What she was doing didn't fit at all with what would be needed to replace Cassandra as the site's top columnist, but she'd almost certainly raised her web traffic with her new direction and Felix cared a lot about that. He hadn't decided to pick her already, had he?

  Before I could worry more, though, she cleared her throat. "But I did one that wasn't just a link. A friend of mine works for Lexi Nails." She frowned at me as if I'd done something wrong. "You know them, right?"

  "The sheets of dry nail polish you rub onto your nails?"

  She nodded, and cleared her throat again, and I realized I'd never seen Patricia this awkward and uncomfortable. What had she done?

  "Feel like sticking three thousand packages of the stuff into envelopes?"

  I turned to Percy, shocked. "What?"

  He winked, and a spark shot through me.

  Confused even more by my own reaction to such an innocent gesture from my friend, I said, "Would someone tell me what is going on?"

  "Patricia let people sign up to get a sample package on her site, and got three thousand responses," Felix said. "We need to mail them all."

  I stared at my perfectly glossy boss, as always impeccably dressed and groomed. I'd thought it was hot before but now he seemed more primping than powerful. "We do? Why doesn't Lexi Nails do it?"

  "God, do I have to explain this again?" Patricia said. "We just have to do it. And by the end of today. So let's go."

  She dropped her head and went back to focusing on her desk, which I now realized was covered in envelopes and little plastic packets of fingernail covers like those on the conference table.

  Felix smiled at me and turned to go back to his office.

  "Um, Felix?"

  He turned back and I said, "So I'm clear, you do want me to take today, the last day before you announce the Cassandra decision, to deal with Patricia's giveaway? I had planned to work on my site. I assume this loss of time will be taken into account?"

  Patricia muttered something I couldn't hear but I didn't look away from Felix. I was willing to help. I had helped Sasha. But I didn't want to do this unless I was sure it wouldn't hurt me since Patricia had never once done anything to help me or anyone else on staff.

  He held my gaze, a faint smile curving his lips. "Yes to stuffing the envelopes, and yes, we will consider everything before making the decision."

  I still didn't want to spend my time rescuing Patricia from her mess but I didn't feel I had much choice. "Okay. Thank you."

  He turned slightly, so his back was to Sasha and Percy, then shot me a wink that didn't give me even the hint of a spark because I knew he knew I didn't want to do it and I also knew he didn't care. Then he walked into his office and closed the door. Apparently he didn't need to help.

  Percy cleared his throat and I turned to face him. He smiled at me, clearly aware I was frustrated. "Sasha and I have a bit of an assembly line going here. Do you want to join us?"

  "Just don't talk," Patricia said sharply, her head still down. "It's annoying enough without that."

  I made an agonized grimace at Percy, trying to convey, "Whose fault is it that it's annoying?" without saying it, and he imitated me then said, "Room here beside me."

  Patricia made a show of finding her headphones in her desk and plugging them in.

  When I sat next to Percy, Sasha leaned across him and mouthed, "Can you believe this?"

  "Nope," I mouthed back. "Brutal."

  "Patricia?" Percy's voice was quiet but definitely loud enough for her to hear ordinarily. She didn't flinch. "Hey, Patricia, I had a great idea for finishing this faster." Again no response.

  He turned and smiled at me. "Now we can talk. She's cranked up her tunes."

  "Grumping to the oldies," Sasha murmured and we chuckled.

  As we fell into a rhythm of me applying an address label to an envelope then Percy stuffing in the nail polish package and Sasha sealing the envelope, the other two quietly filled me in on the situation.

  Patricia had actually posted the giveaway a good week ago, then went off to an extended lunch. On her return, she'd been horrified by the number of entries so she'd pulled the offer from her site. She'd been lucky that Lexi Nails had been willing to give away that many packages, but they didn't want any part of the mailing process. Her earlier request that Percy help her learn to organize her Christmas card addresses now made sense, as she'd taken what he taught her and printed out the three thousand address labels by herself. But stuffing and sealing them all had become overwhelming, and the Lexi Nails boss had called her Wednesday afternoon to tell her the giveaway had to be done by the end of the week, and she'd been forced to ask for, demand, our help.

  "Wow," I said softly. "Bet she hated doing that."

  Percy nodded. "She was crying in Felix's office before you got here."

  Though I'd never thought it would, my heart softened a little toward Patricia. Her extra bitchiness over the last little while had infuriated me, but she must have been trying so hard to get it all done without anyone knowing.

  Sasha said, "I do feel bad for her. But I feel bad for us too. I had some big posting ideas for today."

  "Me too." I looked at the address labels awaiting my attention. "Well, maybe it'll only take us the morning. Let's hope."

  "Don't look at those."

  I raised my eyebrows, and Percy pointed at the printer. "Look at those."

  The stack of stickers there was easily ten times what I had before me. "Oh, hell."

  "Exactly. We'll be lucky if we're done by the end of the day, never mind lunch."

  *****

  By twelve-thirty, the stack of stickers atop the printer had been cut down by maybe a third and my stomach was growling.

  I wasn't the only one, apparently, since one of the forum managers got to his feet and said, "I'll just run down and pick up a sandwich. Anyone need anything?"

  He got a chorus of responses but Patricia's harsh voice cut through. "No. You can eat when we're done. Can't risk making a mess of the envelopes."

  "But--"

  "No," she said again, nearly snapped. "It has to be done today. Just keep working."

  She went back to stuffing envelopes and we all made horrified faces at each other for a moment then gave in and did as commanded.

  I pondered as I continued mechanically slapping labels onto envelopes. Felix wasn't the kind of boss who made people skip meals; he much preferred soaking up appreciation from his employees for being generous. I didn't think he'd approve of this, but since he'd gone out an hour ago for a meeting with his business group we wouldn't see him again for hours and somehow I doubted he'd ordered us anything to eat.

  But I could. Having cut down on my shopping, my bank account was far healthier than it had been before, and pizza for ten people wouldn't cost that much.

  The mere thought of a hot cheesy slice made my stomach growl louder, so I decided to go for it.

  But how to do it anonymously? I like
d the idea of being the group's unknown benefactor, and also liked that it would prevent Patricia from murdering me.

  I gave a pretend start in case she happened to be looking at me then said, "I haven't checked my email today. Or my site comments." I looked over at the forum managers. "Have you guys checked for bad posts in the last few hours?"

  I knew full well they hadn't since they'd been sitting stuffing envelopes, and we all knew that Felix didn't like flame wars and spam posts to stay online for long, so once they'd admitted they hadn't I said, "Maybe we should take five minutes to check that stuff."

  Patricia looked up at me, her expression showing she was struggling to decide between not wanting to let me control things and knowing I was right. Eventually, she said, "Three minutes."

  I nodded, not wanting to look victorious because I knew she'd be furious, and went back to my desk as Sasha got up to do the same.

  I did skim through my mail and site, just in case, but spent most of the three minutes placing the fastest pizza order ever, asking the delivery person not to give the name of the person who'd ordered. Then I returned to the table.

  Sasha arrived at the same time, and Percy looked back and forth between us and said, "I'm a thorn between roses."

  We laughed and Sasha said, "No, you're not that bad. You're more like the decorative plant stuff they pack in with roses. You know, the little white flowers?"

  I bit my lip, knowing the name of the stuff she meant and also knowing that Percy had worked at a florist in college. He didn't disappoint me. "Baby's breath? You think I'm like baby's breath?"

  She giggled. "Could be worse. Could be the other end. Ever smelled a poopy diaper?"

  He laid a hand dramatically across his forehead. "Once, and it's haunted me ever--"

  "Three minutes are up," Patricia said pointedly.

  "Since," Percy whispered.

  Patricia rolled her eyes at us and we set back to work.