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walked around the reception desk to her office
near the back of the corridor.   Happy birthday to me , she thought as she
went.   She also figured she’d better
school herself on the issues first before she met with anyone.   Especially a union representative.
    But
as soon as she entered her office and sat her briefcase on her desk, the
intercom buzzed.  
    “Good
morning,” the secretary said into the intercom.
    “Good
morning,” Grace replied.
    “Mr.
Gabrini is on line three.”
    Grace
was surprised.   She hadn’t expected any
call from him, not ever.   “Thanks, Mag,”
she said and pressed number three.   “This
is Grace,” she said.
    Tommy
was in his office signing off on a stack of documents, with one of his
assistants waiting to retrieve them.   When Grace’s voice came onto the line he dropped his pen and leaned back
in his swivel chair.
    “Hello,
Grace,” he said.   “It’s Thomas.”
    “Thomas
or Tommy?” she asked.
    He
smiled.   “Tony.”
    She
laughed.   “Hello, Tommy.   What can I do for you?”
    You just wait and see , Tommy wanted to say.   “I thought we’d set a date for that date you
promised me,” he said instead.
    Grace
sat down.   She had assumed he wasn’t
serious when he didn’t bother to get her cell number.   She didn’t even consider the fact that he
knew where she worked.   “Okay, sure,” she
said.   “When’s good for you?”
    Tommy
pulled out his Blackberry and checked his calendar.   As usual he was booked solid, including a
business meeting with some investors tonight at one of his restaurants.   Normally he didn’t cancel those kinds of
meetings.   For some reason, this time, he
was considering it.   “How about tonight?”
he asked her.
    Grace
was surprised.   A guy who didn’t set the
date well into the future usually meant that he was definitely interested,
although she had a pretty good idea what he was interested in.   But she was a woman who kept her word.   Just as she was about to answer in the affirmative,
she realized what tonight really was.   Her birthday.   As in her surprise
party.   She knew she hated surprises for
a reason!
    “Can’t
do it tonight,” she reluctantly said.
    This
stopped Tommy cold.   He was accustomed to
a lot of things, but being turned down by a woman wasn’t one of them.   His smile dissolved.   He waved his hand, and his assistant left the
room.   “You can’t?” he asked.
    “I
can’t, no.”
    “And
why can’t you?”   He didn’t mean to sound
peevish, but he couldn’t help it.   He was
willing to cancel a very important business meeting for this date.   He wanted to know what it was that she wasn’t
willing to cancel.
    “It’s
my birthday, you see,” she said.   “And
some friends of mine are throwing me a surprise party tonight.”
    “Oh,”
Tommy said, feeling ridiculous.   “Of
course you can’t miss that.   So this is
birthday number?”
    “Guess.”
    “Twenty-five?”
    “Bless
you.   Thirty.”
    “Oh,
you’re a big girl now,” he said, relieved to hear her age.   “But wait a minute,” he added with a frown.   “If it’s a surprise party, how would you know
about it?”
    “Because
I have one particular friend who can’t keep a secret if his life depended on
it.”
    Tommy
nodded.   “Got it,” he said.
    Then
Grace added, rather hesitantly because she knew she was going out on a limb:
“You’re welcome to join us.”
    Tommy
hesitated too.   He dreaded the idea of
another get together, especially with a group of people probably much younger
than he was and none of which he probably knew.   But for some crazy reason he was very anxious to see those big, brown
eyes of hers again.   And to hear her
laugh.   And, if he was man enough to
admit it, to fuck her.
    “When
and where?” he asked her.
    Grace
smiled, relieved, and told him what he needed to know.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
    CHAPTER FIVE

 
    The