First Dates Part 10

After lunch Brendan and I retired to my den to get some work done. I know I wasn’t in the office but some work still had to be done. I knew that Brendan would have a lot of work piling up on him and I let him know that if he had to leave for a while that I would be fine in the house. “No V, I won’t leave you alone. If I need to leave I will have my boy come over and sit with you while I tend to work.” I appreciated the gesture and just went back to working on my laptop. I had some emails to reply to but things at work seemed to be going quite smoothly. Valerie had been placed on suspension while they investigated my case. Some parents had called for her resignation. I almost felt sorry for her. She tried to take me down and ended up hurting herself in the process. That crab mentality doesn’t help anyone involved. When you pull someone else down while you are down, it just leaves both of you at the bottom. If you succeed and excel, don’t forget where you come from. Reach back and give someone a hand. I had planned to give Valerie a hand, now I just wanted to give her the finger. They had replaced the head of the PTA and I am sure that did not set well with her. They don’t understand that what is done in the dark will come back to haunt you in the light. I was approving some budget items and all of a sudden my system went down. I couldn’t get back in. I called the school and asked if we were having any problems. “None that I can see boss lady”, my secretary replied. “I was working fine and then just nothing, it won’t let me on.” Well that is one way to get me to take a break. I’ll just try again later on tonight.

I needed to go out for a bit and Brendan needed to go to the office. I had to run some errands and also finish this work by the deadline. I can’t imagine actually being ill right now and not being able to get all this work done. Illness doesn’t stop the show at all. Brendan said that he would send his friend Jefferson to hang out with me at the mall. I didn’t feel it was necessary as it was going to be a very public place but I couldn’t voice any objection. Brendan was in the protector mode and I must admit, I was loving it all. I left for the mall with Brendan behind me most of the way. He pointed to the left at a red truck and I could see a man tip his hat at me and I figured this was Jefferson. Even though he was across the intersection I could see his bright smile from here. I nodded my head and continued on through the light. I guess fine brothers ran in packs. I got to the mall and he was already inside the door. We walked and laughed and shopped and laughed some more. I felt almost as safe with him as I did with Brendan. Things were going fine and then the phone rang. His son was sick and he had to get to the school. I told him to just go ahead and I would be fine. He wouldn’t leave until he spoke to Brendan or had another friend come be with me. I assured him I would be okay. I called Brendan and left him a message that Jefferson had to leave and that I was going to tie up a little school business and then see him later. I knew he had a meeting to take care of and I didn’t want to seem completely helpless. I went to my car and took off, careful to survey the area for any suspicious cars in my area. Seeing none I continued on my way, even humming to the love song on the radio.

About an hour later, in the principal’s office the computer woke up and started its faithful hum. The screen glowed like it had missed being used on a daily basis. Veronica’s ID and password danced across the screen and the systems started to load as normal. No system problems now. Outlook opened and the unread emails from earlier in the day appeared. After glancing through some unimportant ones a new message was started. In the subject line, My resignation. The keys were being hit in a fast and furious manner so when the door opened slowly it wasn’t even heard.

“You don’t have your bodyguard with you now do you V?!” Eric yelled. “Now you will pay for the last time!” Three shots rang out from the shiny gun that he held in his hand. Only one scream had time to escape her lips before she went limp in the chair. He moved closer to the chair. He wanted to savor the last look on the face of the woman that had taken eight years of his life. “All you had to do was love me V, I didn’t want to do this to you.” He pulled back and paced the floor as he tried to think of what to do next. “All you needed to do was what I told you to do V! Now look at you.” He spun the chair around to see the dying gaze and froze. “What the….” He was confused. This woman in the chair wasn’t Veronica. It was that nosey girlfriend of hers from college that never had a man. What was her name? Mallory, no, Valerie! What was she doing here in Veronica’s office?