Chapter 81: The British are Coming!

Wednesday, I got a ping from Ang; she had gotten in early, and was HERE! Ethan, trying to be helpful, let me know that he let my sister onto the floor, and ensconced her in an empty office until he could find me.

“I don’t have a sister!” I said to him, while we walked back to my desk. “What did she look like?”

“Well…” he trailed off and blushed. “She was real tall and dressed in this vest…”

“Angel!” I crowed, and smiled. “Where is she?” Ethan pointed down the hall, but I couldn’t find her. I looked all over the place. I went back to my desk, and laughed. My monitors, all three of them, were covered in layers of sticky notes.

“Alex,” I said to the guy next to me. “Who did this to my desk?”

He had the good grace to look embarrassed. “Well there was this really tall girl…”

“And you didn’t think to ask her WHY she was covering my monitors with sticky notes?” I asked, peeling the last ones away. I collapsed into my chair laughing when I saw my screen saver. She had blown up the picture from Newark of David showing his tat, so that just the tat and nip were showing. She had superimposed a shot of David’s mouth, sticking his tongue out at her, over the Joker’s mouth. That woman is a whiz with PhotoShop. It was hysterical.

“And you let her mess with my computer?” I couldn’t believe this. Whose minions were these, anyway?

“Well, Hath, she knew the password, I just assumed you gave it to her,” he said. I logged in and changed my password right away. I guess J0KER5WILD was just too easy. I saw she had flooded my inbox with photos from Chicago. I was gonna kill her. After I hugged her.

She pinged me on the boards, but I still couldn’t find her. I mean I called her, and went looking all over the damned place, but she was nowhere to be found. Finally, she gave in and came to my desk. I had to laugh. I walked past her at least a dozen times in my search for her. She was in a freaking disguise! She had on a slim back below-the-knee pencil skirt, a white oxford shirt, penny loafers for God’s sake, and a platinum blonde wig. She looked great. Totally different. We had a good laugh over that.

Since I wasn’t expecting her, I couldn’t leave early. I had also one of the worst days in a long time. Work was just awful, with problem after problem, and to top it all off, it was raining! That meant no outdoor shooting range: no .50 cal today. We’d have to settle for handgun target practice. By the time five rolled around, I was more than ready to go. Ang was waiting for me, and we went for the train.

We shared a double bench on the train and dished. That and played on the board. The crazy girl was on her laptop as I was on my ‘Berry, and we were talking to each other though we were sitting right next to each other. It was funny, and we laughed the whole way home.

Ang parked her car in the second bay of the garage. No offense to her, ‘cause I love her dearly, but David’s Nav looked much better there. No matter. In another week, it’d be empty altogether. When we got to the house, we went in to change. Ang called up from her bedroom, “You going Commando?”

“You mean without my undies or dressed like Rambo?” I called back to her.

“Either,” she laughed.

“Yes!” I yelled back.

We went down to the cellar so I could get my guns out of the safe. We were taking the nine mil and the .22. I swung open the heavy door and Ang whistled. In addition to the handguns and the .50, there was an over-under trap gun, a .22 rifle, and a pellet gun I’ve had since I was a kid.

“Jesus, Hath, waiting for a coup?”

“Not waiting for one,” I said, sticking my tongue out at her, “but ready for one.”

“How the hell are you getting this to David’s?”

“With the help of a hydraulic jack, and a big guy named Mitch,” I answered. “They’re coming next Saturday.”

We went out to my club, and I got us all signed in. It was pretty dead in there, but it WAS Wednesday night. We put a hundred rounds or so through the guns, and soon I felt a WHOLE lot better about my day. Nothing like a little recreational target practice to ease the stress. Now, it was on to dinner.

Wednesday night is my traditional ribs-n-ritas night at the barbecue place. Virgin ‘ritas for me nowadays, but still tradition. We got cleaned up, locked the guns in my locker at the club, and took off. I’d pick the guns up over the weekend.

When we got to the restaurant, I saw my friends’ cars here already. Arms looped together, Ang and I walked in. “Hey girls!” I called over, and my friends waved.

“Hey yourself,” Lisa said. “Who’s this?”

“This,” I said dramatically, “Is Ms. Angel Jamieson.”

“At yer service,” she said, bobbing a curtsey.

“Is this the one…” Krissy started, and I smiled.

“Yep the one that had a thing for David.”

Ang slugged me. “Bloody hell, woman, do you have to tell them everything?”

Uh yeah, I do. I made the introductions, and Krissy called out to her husband that we were ready to eat. “Hope you have a shitload of food,” I said to him, when he came out to say hi, bringing a basket of onion rings, “cause my girlfriend here is an eating machine.”

“Girlfriend?” he said, looking Ang up and down. “Cheating on me with someone ELSE, Jenilee?”

“Stuff it, RibMan,” I said, and Ang laughed. She looped an arm around my shoulders and kissed my cheek.

“It isn’t cheating, sweetie, if it’s with another girl,” she said. “Besides,” she winked at Paul, “David doesn’t seem to mind.”

“Yeah, Paul, David didn’t care that we slept together in Chicago.” That had the desired effect. Paul stuttered and stammered and I think he may have blushed, but he was so tanned, it was hard to tell. We gave our orders, and settled in to dish.

Ang told some great stories about things that had happened in her bar, and we were laughing so hard, we were starting to attract attention. We moved into the back room, where there was usually some musician or another performing, and continued our gabfest. The music was pretty good – a local country combo that did a good job with the songs they chose. We sang along, and even line danced a time or two. I started yawning around ten, and the girls laughed at me.

“You getting old or something, Hath?” Megan asked.

“Naw, the LJs are kicking my ass,” I answered. “I need a nap.”

We said our goodbyes and headed back to my house. Ang and I changed into our jammies, got all cleaned up (again), and hunkered down on the couch to flip through the channels and chat some more. We were pretty sure Nathan was coming on Saturday, though we didn’t know how long he was staying. I had invited him and Ang to stay through Easter, but Nate didn’t know if Sam was hosting or not. So, for good measure, I invited Sam and Jon too. I could just imagine the look on my sister in law’s face, and could hear my little niece exclaiming, “You’re Jon Bon Jobi!” and I hoped they could come. But, it was their first Easter together, and I had no idea if they had plans already.

David was coming in tomorrow, and flying out Friday to spend the long weekend with his kids. Ang and I were going to do some shopping tomorrow afternoon, do the touristy thing on Friday, hitting the museums and other hot-spots, and Saturday was gonna be a hang around day. Ang already said she would help me get things ready for Sunday, even if they weren’t staying. I was SO looking forward to this!

I didn’t even make it through the news. I was dead on my feet and had another long day ahead of me. I kissed Ang goodnight, and went to bed. I have no idea how long she stayed up, but she HAD to be tired. She hadn’t slept much the night before for missing Nathan (awww) and soon I heard her go downstairs. Content that everything was right in my little corner of the world, I curled up and fell asleep.