by Aiden Frost
“Yeah?”
“This is Max.”
Amanda’s heart sunk down into her toes. She’d psyched herself up to call Shandra, not to make a fool of herself to Max Avery. “I’m sorry,” said Amanda. “I was trying to call Shandra. I thought she was the last number in my phone. I’m sorry to have bothered you.”
Amanda was about to hang up, when Max said, “Wait.”
Amanda paused, uncertain.
“Could we talk for a minute?” asked Max.
Amanda held back a sigh. She did not want to talk if she was to be honest. She had zero interest in discussing what happened between them at the party last night. She planned on erasing the memory completely. As soon as she could get him out of her head.
Amanda could hear what sounded like a door slide, and then a woman’s voice. Amanda caught no more than the word lunch.
“Who’s that?” she asked before her brain gave her a moment to think about it. Max could have an entire harem of women at his house and she had no right to question it.
Max mumbled something she couldn’t hear, then he came back on the line. “Sorry,” he said, “my mom didn’t realize I was on the phone.”
Amanda didn’t know a lot about the Avery’s but she thought she’d heard that Mr Avery’s wife passed away many years before. But how do you say to someone you didn’t think they had a mother?
“Oh,” said Amanda instead. Silence was heavy over both sides of the phone. She walked outside, leaving the door open behind her, looking for some sort of distraction. The newest radish seeds had sprouted, so she removed their cover and started thinning out the crop. It was a mundane task really, but it was quite soothing.
“What are you doing?” asked Max for he could hear her shuffling about through the phone.
“Umm...” Amanda looked around, trying to think of something even slightly interesting that should could be involved in. There was nothing. She could either tell him she was gardening or tell him she was playing outside with her bunny. “I’m gardening,” she said.
There was a long pause, then, “Do you live on a farm?”
Amanda laughed at his naivety. “You can grow vegetables anywhere. I just have a raised box next to my house.”
“You can garden in the cold?”
Amanda tucked the phone under her chin, as she grabbed her small watering can. “Yeah,” she said. “Certain things grow better in the cooler temperatures. You just need to keep an eye on the weather and protect the crops with sheeting if it gets too cold. I have carrots, radishes, and a bunch of lettuces growing—” Amanda stopped abruptly. Max Avery did not need to hear about her gardening adventures.
“You could supply fresh vegetables to people?”
“Umm, yeah,” said Amanda. “I supply salads year-round to some of the office staff.”
“That’s you that does that?” asked Max. “I’ve seen them stacked up in the fridge.”
“Yeah. It gives me something to do.” Amanda shrugged to herself.
“Do you grow things like spinach and beets?”
“I’m growing spinach right now. I’ve never grown beets but after our dinner last night, I’d really like to.”
“How much space do you have?” asked Max.
This conversation with Max was strange and getting stranger by the minute. “What’s with all these questions?”
She could hear nothing but Max’s breath through the phone. “My dad is sick,” Max finally said. “He’s going through treatments. That’s where I’ve been. That’s where I am now. But we’ve also started seeing a nutritionist. While Ana’s cooking is delicious, it’s not the healthiest for my dad. The doctor recommended a list of highly nutritious vegetables to add in with his meals. He said we needed to start slow, to not change his lifestyle all at once.” Max stopped talking.
“Who’s Ana?” asked Amanda.
“Oh, she’s my dad’s wife.”
“So your mom then... she’s your step-mom?”
“Yeah,” he said. Then, “Did you think I had a woman at my house and was lying to you?”
Amanda knew she had no business caring if he had a woman there with him. It burned a hot jealously within her though, and she hated it.
“I don’t have much space to garden,” she said, steering them away from this unsafe topic. “But I’d like to talk with you about an idea I have.”
The line was silent a moment. “Go on,” he said.
Amanda started laying out the basic details she’d put together of a rooftop garden. That not only would it be a place for employees to relax, but they could turn a profit with supplying the kitchen downstairs, and eventually other outlets with fresh vegetables.
“We could rent out the space too,” interrupted Max. “I mean, doing the vegetables could be a great source of income, and a great supply of healthy foods for my father, but we’re relying on the weather, so many other factors that could effect a harvest, right?”
“Umm, yes,” admitted Amanda.
“We’d need a steady stream of income to offset the cost of upkeep of such a thing. Plus bring revenue into the business.” Max was talking fast now, excited. “This is the kind of thing I need. The business needs to diversify. If I’m going to bring in the sort of income I need this next year, I’ve got to think further than I have before... I’ve got to go,” said Max hurriedly, and hung up.
Amanda deflated. While Max seemed to love her idea, it took him exactly two minutes to steal it away from her. She slid her silent phone from her shoulder and into her outstretched hand. The phone reached her fingers but kept right on going—down into the saturated soil in her garden box.
She heaved a sigh, pulling her phone from an especially large puddle. She watched as the water receded into the soil. “Yeah,” she mumbled. “Great timing.” She shook out her phone, then opened it to find water surrounding the battery. “Well,” she said to herself, “this is one way to purge out your old life.”
Amanda gave her phone one last shake and then wandered her way inside. Her mood was crappy. She cursed her phone for allowing her to call Max Avery. This is why she didn’t get close to people, they just ended up disappointing you. She ripped open a bag of rice, and pulling her phone apart further, she tossed it into the bag. She looked around her empty house. No one to call. Nothing to do. She plopped down on the couch, then stood back up, pacing. “No,” she said into the empty space. She would not let Max Avery get the best of her. He may be her boss, and he may distract her with his body, but she was not going to sit by while he took advantage of her. She sat again, flipping open her computer. She was going to learn more than him by Monday. She was going to tell him that she was going to be in charge of this.
MAX TRIED AMANDA’S number again. Straight to voicemail. He paced through his father’s backyard. Even here, Christmas was splattered throughout the landscaping. It was a harsh reminder that this may be his father’s last Christmas. He’d asked Ana about the sudden display of decorations. She knew it was Andrew Avery’s favorite time of year, even if he hadn’t celebrated it properly in the last fifteen years. But Ana didn’t really understand. She came from a stuffy family whose idea of Christmas was to sit around a too big table with people you didn’t see any time of the year besides Christmas and talk about things no else cared about.
He needed to get his father the Christmas party he’d always loved. He needed to save the business too. And make sure his father got healthy. He also wondered why Amanda’s phone was shut off since she talked to him. He wasn’t sure if he’d done something wrong. Certainly he couldn’t have done something wrong enough to cause her to shut off her phone. He knew she didn’t live in the city, that she lived alone in the outskirts. A woman shouldn’t live alone. Something could happen to her and no one would know. Max continued pacing. When he turned back around, Ana stood there, watching him.
She moved to him, a plate of sandwiches in her hand. “It’s cold outside,” she commented as her breath came out in burst of fog. Max had his shirt
collar open, trying to dispel the heat within him. “You can’t take on the weight of the world, Max,” she said as he looked down at the awaiting food with disdain. “And you need to eat.” She pressed the plate into his hands and walked away.
Max didn’t know what to do. His father always seemed to be able to solve everything, Max knew, he’d need to do this on his own.
Chapter Twenty
AMANDA STORMED INTO Max’s office. She flung the door shut behind her. He looked up at her, startled, but it suddenly turned to relief that she was in fact okay. “I worried about you,” said Max, standing and moving toward her.
She stopped abruptly. She had her entire argument planned, yet those words disarmed her. “It’s not your job to worry about me,” she said.
“You didn’t answer your phone,” he countered. “A woman shouldn’t live by herself and have no other way to communicate—”
“Stop,” she said, holding up her hand. “I don’t know what your plan is with this ‘I was worried about you’ routine, but it’s not going to work. I came here to speak to you as an employee and I expect you to hear me out.”
Max nodded, moving back behind his desk and sitting. His nonchalance infuriated her even more.
“That rooftop garden was my idea,” Amanda said. “I don’t appreciate that you took my idea as your own. I understand that an engineer will need to be hired, but I want to design it. I want to be the one who personally gardens it, and I want to be the one who schedules and runs any events held there.” She clutched her folder for dear life. She wasn’t sure how far she’d need to argue with him. She’d spent the entire weekend making a plan down to every last detail. “What are you staring at?” she finally asked.
“You,” he said, rising from his chair. “You’re different.”
“You know nothing about me,” she said. “I want this. I deserve this.”
“You’re right,” he said.
Amanda opened her mouth to speak, then closed it.
“Amanda, I fully planned on giving this project to you.”
“Then why did you hang up on me the other day?”
“My father’s nurse was calling for me. She needed assistance in moving him.”
“Oh.” Amanda suddenly felt like a really huge piece of crap. She’d just yelled at a man who got off the phone so he could help his ailing father. “I’m... my phone died,” she said. “Well, not died more than, I killed it. I dropped it into a puddle when I hung up with you.”
“Were you that angry with me?” he asked, moving toward her.
He was baiting her. She could feel it.
“When do you think you could hire an engineer?” Amanda asked.
He chuckled at her excitement. “There’s a lot of details to go into before we get to that step.”
“When can we discuss it then?”
“Give me the week,” Max said. “I have some... things I need to take care of first.”
Amanda looked at him, her anger softened. “Your dad?”
“Yeah,” he said, quietly.
Amanda reached forward, grasping his fingers in hers. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I hope he gets well fast.”
“Me too,” said Max, squeezing her hand and smiling at her. But his smile was sad.
Amanda turned and walked away. She shut the door silently behind her.
She didn’t go back to her desk. She wound her way through the halls, and to the elevator. She stood outside the open doors of the building. The wind whipped hard across the streets today. She hadn’t brought her coat but she wore a cowl neck sweater. She pulled the collar up and over her ears. She wandered through the streets, being bumped along by the noonday crowd. She reached Regions Realty, the building with the rooftop retreat. She realigned her sweater and brushed her hair from her face. She breathed in deep. She wished she’d brought Shandra with her, but she knew if this project was going to be hers, she needed to own this.
She strode up to the receptionist desk. When she caught sight of Amanda she waved her back, apparently expecting her to take another trip to their roof, but Amanda stood before her.
“Yes?” she asked tentatively, finally looking up at her.
“I need to speak with your boss, Mr Landry. Is he who oversaw your roof’s construction?”
The receptionist shook her head. And Amanda thought she would need to bring Shandra back to gain access to the boss. “Mr Landry... delegates. I doubt he knows much of anything about the roof construction.”
“Then who may I speak to?” said Amanda.
“If I recall correctly, there was a large staff of people here during the construction phase.”
“Okay,” said Amanda, starting to become exasperated. “Who was in charge of them? Someone from your office had to oversee it.”
The receptionist looked up at her, her eyes narrowed. “I don’t remember.”
Amanda leaned forward, invading the woman’s personal space. “Well, I highly suggest you find someone who does remember, because I will be back here tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that, until you do remember.”
Amanda straighten, casually looking around the room as a couple women strolled past the desk and out the front doors.
The receptionist picked up the phone, eyeing Amanda as it rang on the other line. “Charlie,” she said. “Who was in charge of our roof project?” She paused, listening. “Yeah, the original restoration. John Landin? Really?” She shook her head and hung up. She looked up at Amanda. “The person who was originally in charge isn’t working with us anymore.”
“Okay,” said Amanda. “Where is he working?”
“You know I can’t give you out that information.”
Amanda grabbed a pen off the desk. She started to write her cell number on the receptionist’s calendar, but then realized it was out of commission. She scratched it out. She hated to only leave her work number. If John Landin did call her, chances would be it would be after his work hours. She wrote down another number. “This is my WiFi number. It rings through my computer. Contact him. Have him call me anytime after six.” The receptionist nodded her head. And satisfied that she would in fact contact Mr Landin, Amanda thanked her and walked away.
Amanda spent the rest of the day helping sort through the paperwork that Carter had accumulated from Shandra. It seemed to be growing larger instead of smaller, but Shandra seemed determined to make some sort of monumental impact in her assistant position before Christmas. Not that Amanda blamed her. With Max out of the office more than he was in, most of them were left with finishing up old projects instead of starting any new. Shandra was trying to keep Janice’s lack of, well, accomplishments under wraps. Only Amanda and Carter were dealing with that paperwork.
“Jelly bean?” called Carter from his cubicle.
Amanda smiled. She stood and stretched before she peered over the divider. “Yes?” she purred.
Carter turned, startled. “Geez, girl. If that’s the lure you use on the men, they’re all doomed.”
Amanda laughed, moving around the divider and settling herself onto the corner of Carter’s desk. “What’s up?” she asked.
Carter spun around in his chair, leaning back and assessing her. “I did my dare,” he said.
“Oh?”
“Yeah. I told my wife last night that I didn’t like going to gallery openings.”
“How did that go?”
“It was...weird. I’m not sure she was all that surprised. She was still mad at me for lying to her though.”
“What now?” she said. “Are you banished to the couch for a week or something?”
Carter shook his head. “No. Worse. She wants me to plan our next date.”
“Well that’s not so hard. Take her to dinner, take her to the movies. What does she like?”
Carter was shaking his head. “No. She said I had to plan something different. I had to plan something that I would like.”
“Oh. What do you like?”
Carter looked up a
t her with a furrowed brow. “I’m not just going to pick something I like. First, I need to figure out what I like, then I need to figure out how to turn that into something my wife also likes.”
“Huh,” said Amanda. “Okay, we’ll figure this out together.”
“We will?”
“Sure, your wife deserves a nice night.”
“But if it’s something I like, and it’s not the theatre...”
Amanda waved off his negativity. “Just because you guys have been together for fifty years doesn’t mean we can’t think of something new.”
Carter chuckled. “Thirty years. We’ve been together for thirty years.”
Amanda laughed. “It may as well be a million.”
Carter smiled in amusement. “Okay,” her said. “If you were going to take me out to impress me, where would it be?”
Amanda thought a moment. “I’d need to know more about you first. Tell me where you grew up and if you liked it there or not, what your favorite hobby is, and if I handed you five-hundred-dollars right now, what would you do with it?”
“I grew up in Mandeville City. I loved it, but I enjoy things a little more quiet now that I’m older and have a family. My favorite hobby is building models—”
“What specifically?” asked Amanda.
“Right now I’m working on this miniature train set. I’m hoping to have it complete for Christmas, to run it under the tree.”
Amanda smiled. “That sounds nice. Okay, last question.”
“If you gave me five-hundred dollars... I’d take my whole family out somewhere really nice. My wife and I have been making a point to go out with just the two of us, and now that the kids are older, it’s hard to find things that we all enjoy. It’s been a long time since we all went out and had fun together.”
“Okay...” Amanda tilted her head back, squinting her eyes closed and thinking. She opened her eyes, looking down at Carter. “Well, what did you think of?”
“Me?” he asked. “You were the one thinking.”
Amanda waved her hand at him. “No, I was thinking about what delicious man I was going to unwrap for the holidays. You were supposed to be thinking about what to do with your wife.”