The Christmas Edition

by Robin Shope

  Sure, they take over businesses that are painfully primitive. That’s not the point. They represent power. Look at it this way. In the age of capitalism, most small businesses are just treading water. Not so with Oliver and Duckworth. They have an uncanny perspective of predicting future trends and can smell a good deal thousands of miles away. This ability has taken them global.

  This is just the beginning…’

  Closing out the page, Lucy couldn’t read anymore. Lucy swiveled around in her chair and looked out the window at the snowy fields and the huge sky holding promises of more snow.

  Someone tapped at the door. “Go away!” she hollered.

  “Even me?” Joe stood in the doorway, looking at Lucy sadly. “Yeah, I heard. Monica told me. I’m really sorry, Lucy.”

  “Me, too.”

  Joe sat at the edge of the desk. “There are other old houses you can buy; Wisconsin is full of them.”

  “Not pink ones.”

  “I know it won’t be the same as this one but you could paint another one pink. I’ll even help,” Joe offered.

  “But I don’t know if I can handle a different house. I loved that pink house on that land…”

  “Wait, as I remember, we recently had a field trip where I saw miles of farmland. Maybe your next house will be on land that has a creek running through it.” He smiled sweetly.

  “I wish the problem could be solved as easily as just buying another house.” Lucy stood up and walked to the window. “The bigger problem is the other newspaper is in town. They have land and will be building before spring. That seals the fate of this newspaper. You may be looking for another job sooner than you think.”

  “We’re not done fighting them, Lucy. Look at the progress we have already made in just a few weeks time. Just this morning Carol counted nine new advertisers who are locked in for a year with us. Surrounding area towns are starting to carry our newspaper. Don’t give up just when the miracle is so close.”

  “Miracle?” Lucy turned around with a jolt. “I have never heard you talk like this before. Why the change now?”

  Joe breathed in deeply. “There is something in the air this Christmas, Lucy Collins. I am calling it a miracle.”

  The Christmas Edition

  The Christmas Edition

  Chapter Seventeen

  December 19

  Joe spent all morning on the phone in her dad’s office. He said he was drumming up more business for the newspaper. If that was true, she couldn’t figure why she couldn’t sit in with him and listen. But maybe what Joe told her wasn’t the real truth. He could be on the phone to Angela. If not, maybe he was putting out feelers for new job opportunities. Whatever the reason, all of the possibilities floating through her head made sure she didn’t get any work done and she kept glancing toward the door to check on him.

  The office door finally opened. Joe looked exhausted as though he had been on the phone all night, instead of a couple of hours.

  “Boy, you look as though you’ve been through the ringer. Is everything all right?” Lucy asked.

  “Just fine. Couldn’t be better.” Joe slipped into his heavy coat and buttoned it up. Joe paused a second. “Maybe it’ll turn out to be something really great. At any rate, I better take off. I have a meeting.”

  “A meeting, huh? Maybe I can tag along and see you using your gift of persuasion.” Lucy caught hold of Joe’s coat’s lapels just as Angela had. She was close enough for him to kiss her lips.

  From the corner of her eye she caught Ulilla staring at them. Joe must have seen her, too, sitting there smiling at them with her elbows resting on the desk, chin in her hands. “Young love,” she sung out.

  It made him draw back. “I’ll see you tonight,” he promised. “I’ll take you to dinner. You can choose the spot. I’ll pick you up at your place. Does six sound okay?”

  “Six sounds perfect. But, I must warn you, I expect you to tell me what this secret meeting’s about.” Lucy walked into the office and closed the door, trying to figure out what Joe was up to.

  She sat down and kept her hands in her lap. Her eyes scanned the top of the desk. Nothing seemed to be out of place and yet he had been sitting right here all morning. She needed a clue. If he was already scouting out job possibilities then she needed to know. If he was in a romantic relationship with Angela, she needed to know that most of all. Her heart had to be protected.

  Lucy held the mouse and clicked through the history on her computer, only to find it erased. That sent up a red flag. He was hiding something from her. Now Lucy looked at the telephone. She picked up the receiver and pressed redial. The office number came up. There was only one reason he would call the office while he was at the office. Joe deliberately dialed that number to cover for his last call. Her stomach tightened.

  Just as she was about to give up, she saw the yellow pad. There wasn’t anything written on the top sheet but there had been a paper torn off leaving the imprint on the page below. Lucy rubbed over it lightly with her pencil. The words Clear Water Restaurant surfaced.

  Joe had mentioned dinner. Maybe this is where he was taking her tonight. As Lucy went over copy for next week’s paper, thoughts kept niggling at her. Joe was scoring some impressive endorsements in the area along with ad space being bought up, but then there were those private meetings she couldn’t be a part of. It was as if he was making negations on his own. That didn’t set well.

  Lucy also found it perplexing that Joe was so attentive to her and yet there were wine bottles and love notes in his apartment. Was this tied in with Angela? Beautiful…gorgeous Angela. She had been gone for a few days now and Joe never explained anything about that visit. Not that he had to. There was no obligation between them. Yet, why didn’t he? If there was nothing to hide, then why not come right out with it?

  She opened her office door. From where she stood, she could see to the back of the main room where Joe had moved his desk. Monica had searched his apartment and brought back plenty of information. Now Lucy wondered if a search of his desk was in order. It might be better just to leave things be and let them play out on their own.

  A battle of wills broke out inside of her…the insecure one who wanted to find out once and for all what was going on with him and the other side who was filled with faith. Slowly, she approached Joe’s desk trying to figure out what kind of a person he really was and if she should plunge ahead and go through his personal business. She needed answers for both her professional and personal lives.

  “Hey,” Monica hooked her arm. “Didn’t you hear me?”

  “What?” Lucy was so focused on her thoughts that she blocked out all other sound. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

  “I just asked if I can take my lunch now.”

  “Sure, I guess.” Lucy looked across the room at the clock. “Wait. Have you ever heard of the restaurant Clear Water? ”

  “Sure have. It’s a new restaurant in Williams Bay. I hear they have wonderful fresh fish and salads.”

  “Why don’t I take my lunch break with you and we can eat there?” Lucy offered.

  “Really?” Monica scrunched up her nose. “Your dad only gives us thirty minutes to eat and it will take that long just to drive there.”

  “Dad is on vacation, remember? We can take as long as we’d like.”

  “I love how you think! Let me grab my purse and off we go!” Monica danced to the counter and pulled out her purse. “Ready!”

  ****

  “Fancy place.” Lucy looked around approvingly from where they sat toward the back of the restaurant. Each table had a linen tablecloth and the room was lit with chandeliers to create the mood. “It’s really busy today for lunch, too. Just about all the tables are taken which should be a sign of good food.”

  “And expensive, too.” Monica looked through the menu.

  Lucy glanced at the prices, too, and had to agree with Monica. “Don’t worry; I asked you so this is my Christmas treat to you.”

  “That’s no
t…”

  “Yes, my friend, it is. Now, let’s change the subject.”

  Monica sighed but gave up that current discussion. “I have been meaning to ask. How’ve things been between you and Joe since Angela blew out of town?”

  “Okay, I guess.” Lucy hummed tapping her foot anxiously.

  “Any mention of the love letters or the wine?”

  “Nope. He’s my mystery man, for sure.”

  “Didn’t he ever explain who Angela is?”

  “Nope.” Lucy shrugged setting down her menu.

  “Mike told me your mom found you two in his car in the driveway.”

  “Of course, she did. We drove home together and I hadn’t gotten out yet.”

  “Is that all?” Monica seemed disappointed.

  “Yep.”

  “The way Mike tells it, neither one of you was in a hurry to go anywhere.”

  “My family needs to stop meddling in my affairs. It’s way past time for me to move out and live on my own.” Lucy shook out her napkin and laid it across her lap.

  “Maybe you can move in with me.”

  With Mike spending more and more time at Monica’s, it was really the last place she’d move to. For now, Lucy didn’t say anything; she just smiled and thanked God for a friend like Monica.

  When the waitress came, the two of them ordered the fish of the day and their salad. While they waited for their food, Monica squinted and frowned. Then she dug around inside of her purse for her glasses. She put them on and starred across the room again.

  “What are you looking at?” Lucy’s heart sunk and she was afraid to turn around.

  “Lucy! I think I see Joe. He isn’t alone.” Monica’s whisper sent shivers down her back.

  “You’re kidding!” Lucy gasped and started to turn in her chair.

  “Don’t look! Don’t look!” Monica handed her back the menu. “Cover your face! Don’t let him see you!”

  “Is he with Angela?” Lucy asked behind her menu.

  “No, he’s with a couple of men.”

  “Thank goodness.” Lucy sighed with relief and put down her menu. She swiveled in her chair to take a quick look. “You’re right; it is Joe. Well, at least he isn’t eating with Angela. Or some other woman.”

  “I wonder who they are.” Monica pondered.

  “It’s none of our business, really.” Lucy felt giddy with relief.

  “Well, not two minutes ago, you were about to make it your business when you thought Joe was sitting with some woman,” Monica snapped.

  “Joe is entitled to a private life, ya know? I mean it’s not up to us to know everything there is about him.”

  “Well then, should we ask them to join us?”

  “I still don’t want him to see us. I think he wants to bring me here when he takes me out for dinner tonight,” Lucy whispered. “I don’t want to spoil the surprise for him.”

  “I want to know who those men are that he is talking to. You can’t tell me you aren’t the least bit interested in finding out,” Monica reached for her glass and sipped the water.

  “Um, I believe you’re right. I was just so glad Joe wasn’t dining with another woman I momentarily lost my focus. Okay, how do we get that information?” Lucy drummed her fingers on the table.

  The waitress arrived with their plates. She set them down in front of the women. “Is there anything else I can get for you, ladies?”

  “There is.” Monica smiled at her. “Do you know the names of those three men seated at the far table by the front windows? I could swear I know them from somewhere.”

  “Oh, I don’t, off hand. Are you ladies interested in one of them?” the waitress smiled.

  “In a way.” Lucy cut in.

  “I’ll see what I can do, but it might take a while.” The waitress left.

  “Eat slowly. Hopefully, they won’t notice us,” Lucy moved the food around her plate without really picking any up. “What are they doing now?”

  “Eating.”

  When their meal was over, Lucy ordered dessert. And then another. “I’m gaining weight just sitting here waiting for them to leave.”

  “Hold on just a bit more because it looks as though they’re paying for their meals right now. Finally, we can leave,” Monica sighed.

  At that moment, Lucy looked up and locked eyes with Joe. He smiled at her as he dropped bills on the table. After a word with the men, Joe came to their table. “Hey, I didn’t see you walk in.”

  “Look who is here, Monica, it’s Joe.”

  “Hi Joe, we didn’t see you,” Monica said.

  “Did you have a nice lunch?” Lucy smiled her sweetest, most innocent smile.

  “Sure did. If you don’t mind, I need to get going, but I will see you tonight for dinner. I’ll pick you up at six?” Joe gave her a nudge.

  “Will there be more moonlight dancing for us afterward?” Lucy asked.

  “Maybe.”

  “Drive safely back to the paper and don’t get lost!” Lucy waved as though she wasn’t the least bit concerned.

  “I plan on taking the rest of the afternoon off if that’s all right with you, Boss?”

  “Of course, as long as your work is done, there is no sense in just sitting there.”

  “That’s what I thought, too. See you both later.” With that, Joe walked out the door, and at the same time, the waitress stopped by Lucy’s table with the bill and pressed a piece of paper into her hand. “One paid with cash but the other two paid with credit cards, which is how I got their names. Don’t tell anyone I did this, please, or I could lose my job.”

  “I won’t tell a soul. It’s our little secret because I have a lot to lose as well.”

  After paying the bill, the women hurried to the car, laughing all the way. They had gotten the information they needed.

  “If the newspaper fails, Lucy, you should apply with the FBI to be a spy,” Monica guffawed.

  “I’ll be sure to hire you as my assistant.” Lucy sat in the driver’s seat and stared at the folded paper in the palm of her hand. She unfolded it and screamed. Ryan Oliver and Matthew Duckworth were the words scrawled on the paper.

  “These are the names of Joe’s lunch companions.” Lucy passed the paper to Monica.

  “Oh my gosh, Lucy! What do you think they’re up to?”

  “I think they’re trying to get Joe to be their editor.” Lucy sat with the car running. She was too upset to drive yet.

  “That has to be it, and I bet they can pay a whole lot more than you do.”

  “And they are probably impressed with how he has increased our sales and gotten new advertisers.” Lucy watched shoppers walking along the snowy streets. Empathically, she added, “Do not say anything to anyone. Not my parents, not Ulilla, and certainly not Mike!”

  “What makes you think I would tell Mike anything?”

  “Because you two are dating.” Lucy winked at her. “Listen, I am glad you and my brother like each other, but that doesn’t give you license to tell him everything. No one can know about Joe meeting Oliver and Duckworth. Not yet. I have to figure out how to approach it with Joe.” Lucy put the car in gear and backed out of the space. She couldn’t get to the office fast enough.

  Since Joe said he wasn’t returning to the newspaper today, Lucy went straight to his desk. Lucy shook the mouse of his laptop. The screen came back to life but Joe had locked his computer. Lucy sat down. She looked at the drawers for a moment before yanking out the bottom left drawer. She dug through it. Then she went for the top narrow drawer. There was his daytimer. Flipping it open, she found all the pages before December first had been torn out. She read through it, finding nothing new. Today was marked as LUNCH. She closed the daytimer and put it back into the drawer. She moved on to the top right drawer finding pencils, pens, erasers, and a small dictionary.

  “If you tell me what you are looking for, maybe I can help you find it.” Joe was staring down at her, his expression furious.

  She looked up at him in disbe
lief. “First, tell me about your lunch today.”

  “I didn’t realize I was supposed to report to you on my whereabouts when I wasn’t here.” Joe didn’t appear ready to back down.

  Lucy stood to her feet, humiliated he had caught her going through his things.

  “Lucy, John Friedman is on line one for you,” Monica called from the front desk. “Want to take it in your dad’s office?”

  “Yes, I do.” Lucy was glad to get away from Joe. She closed the door and felt safe. “Hello, John?”