Saturday morning at Mega Corp

April looked her boss up and down as she walked to her office. “Good morning boss.” She could tell Amanda saw her eyes take her in. “Other than a cup of coffee, or maybe two.. Is there anything I can do for you?” Amanda gave her administrative assistant a friendly but tired smile. “Coffee would be a blessing, thank you. When that is ready come into my office and shut the door and yes I know I look like a disaster today.” April started to move away from Amanda’s door and turned to smile at her. “Oh Miss Best.” When Amanda looked back, April turned up her smile. “If this is you looking like a disaster then the rest of us don’t have a prayer at looking good.” She saw a genuine smile from her friend. “Thanks Gates, meet me when you get that coffee and we can talk.”

When April had the coffee with milk and two sugars she placed it on the desk of her boss, then turned around and closed the door. “Okay, now are you going to tell me why you are wearing jeans to the office for the first time Saturday or not.” Walking over to one of the free seats April smoothed her skirt out and sat down. Leaning forward and putting her elbows on the desk, waiting for Amanda to finish taking a few sips of coffee she looked to be needing. “It’s Bailey.” April right away rolled her eyes. “No, no let me tell you the full story before you say anything.” Amanda smiled down at her mug before taking another sip of the hot liquid. “Last night was the end of the little.. It was supposed to be the end. Turns out the Connors are staying for the summer and Bailey and I fought. Some things were said and I may have sent Bailey to her room like she was grounded.” April moved one of her hands in front of her open mouth. “You didn’t!” She didn’t miss the use of the female pronoun, but didn’t think it important, not yet at least. “I did and I felt so bad and I decided that I would end this all. Tell Derrick the truth or some sort of other lie to explain why my daughter wasn’t around anymore.” April waved both her hands back and forth at chest level. “No, no you cannot do that! Your career would be ruined! And.. mine.” She said the last part more quietly, feeling selfish just uttering it.

The dark haired woman saw a look of hurt in her friend's face and the selfish words brought emotional pain to herself. Amanda was in trouble, much more so than her. "I.." Amanda started, looking down at her keyboard instead of her friend. "I did not think of what it would do to you." Amanda then reached across the desk to touch April's arm and look her in the eye. "I am sorry, I cannot believe I am being so self centered. You do not have to worry though, or you can worry less. See when I was not able to sleep I got up early and wanted to check in on Bailey. I felt bad, and I thought seeing her sleep so peacefully would help me feel better. When I opened the door I found that I did not find Bailey at all. I started to panic that he left me." April was gripping the arms of her seat tight enough for her Knuckles to turn white. "He abandoned you!?" Amanda gave a few calm shakes of her head, a large contrast to the shouting April was doing. "Turns out he went to my sister's place in the middle of the night. He is working with her to prepare for my daughter to be here for the summer. Megan even said she could take care of the DMV issue."

April's vice-like grip let go, but she still had an angry look to her. "Didn't say a word to you, no note? Just up and left?" Amanda didn't respond right away as she considered what she said. "Bailey is not always the most considerate person, but from what Megan said he did not want to wake me up and have another fight." April blew some of her long dark hair our of her face and controlled herself so that she didn't roll her eyes at the idea of him willing to sacrifice to fix a problem, but was too afraid of a conversation. "Okay, fine, but what is this about the DMV." It dawned on Amanda that she hadn't been keeping her best friend up with all the twists and turns of this odd week. "There is a lot to unpack here, and I promise to do a better job of keeping you in the loop, that is if you still want to help."

"Boss, Miss Best. Amanda, Mandy.." She said all the names as if she was tasting the sound of them. "Amanda, if I was getting nothing out of this I would help you. If you needed to bury a body…" She paused as if reconsidering what she was going to say. "You would have to pay for me to get my nails done again after I helped you. Now tell me everything." Amanda laid out the events of the week with April only asking a few questions, like, "He borrowed one of your dresses, baked and cooked?" When she showed her the photo or Bailey with his hair in rollers vacuuming from Thursday night. "Okay if your sister is really creating records then I could add Bailey to your medical plan. We can explain it away as she used to be on her father's, but you have been so busy it slipped through the cracks." Amanda looked a little confused. "Your ex boyfriend didn't have medical insurance, but you supported him. If he had to go to the hospital that financial burden would only hurt his credit, but you would end up paying. If Bailey, your daughter had to go there is no good reason she would not be covered under you, and if Bailey said she was your daughter all of that responsibility would be on you."

Amanda let out a breath, smiled just a little, and gave a single laugh as she remembered something. "Medical coverage was one of the pros I was telling Bailey for marriage." April gave her a lopsided grin as she thought, no one should have to argue or discuss pros and cons of getting married, and heaven help her she didn't want to ever do that. "Well that is one less thing the two of you have to worry about. Also I think I'm going to add myself as an emergency contact for Bailey. Hmm.." Amanda raised her eyebrow at that last sound. "What idea are concocting?" April gave her a devilish smile. "I figure while I'm at it adding your daughter to the system. I am going to set myself up as her Godmother. I'm sure your sister would adopt her if heaven forbid something happened to you, but the idea of being the emergency contact for Bailey tickles me. Can you imagine me telling August that I'm the Godmother of the girl he went on a date with." April started to laugh at the idea and it was contagious enough that Amanda starred in too. "Oh, you are bad." She laughed a little more, something she felt she needed badly. "Just make sure you and Bailey's Aunt take good care of her if I cannot."

The conversation moved to more work related topics for a bit. April jotted down a few notes of some tasks to follow up on. As she was leaving with one hand on the door. "Open or closed?" Amanda looked at all the emails she had to get through this morning if she wanted to get out of here at a decent time. "Closed and do not let anyone in, just take down what they need and I will get back to them." With a smile and nod April left her boss to her work and needed to see about hers. Looking down at her list she read through them.

"Follow up with Edward in accounting about billable and non-billable. Call the city parks department about renting an area for the girls bday party on Monday early evening. Speak with Megan Best about Bailey paperwork. Speak to HR about Bailey. Hmmm" April wrote a little more next to the line item about the park. "See about decorations!" If Derrick Connors was staying in town for his daughters party and it was supposed to be a joint eighteen year old girls party they were going to need to see about doing this right. She didn't think Amanda could afford much, so she would have to find out the budget from him. April went about her day, one of the good things about a Saturday is that the phone hardly rang, giving her plenty of time to work on projects like getting things ready for the interns. She got herself deep enough into her work that she hadn't noticed someone coming up to her desk till they were right in front of her. April's hands froze over the keyboard as she looked up at Derrick Conners wearing dark jeans and a yellow polo collared shirt.

"Sorry sir, Miss Best is not to be disturbed." She said with a friendly smile and watched the man move his gaze from her, to the closed door and back. "What if I was just real quick?" April shook her head slightly. "Afraid not sir.” He gave her a bright smile as he tilted his head. “What if I pulled rank?” Without skipping a beat April answered right back, making sure he knew she wasn’t going to let him in. “You are not my boss, you are important, handsome, from what I understand a good leader and my boss likes you, but I was told no one is to disturb her and there was no exclusionary clause for you. I can take a note, what would you like me to tell her?” Derrick let loose with a hearty laugh. “No, that is okay. I do want to see her, but I came to speak with you actually.” That caught her by surprise, she had no idea why he needed her. “What can I do for you Mr. Connors?” He gave her a playful smile and looked back to Amanda’s door. “Not going to happen.” She watched him hold up his hands in a surrender motion. “I understand Miss Best wishes you to fill her role when she gets promoted, and I wanted to see if that is what you desired too. I did notice your record, going to school while working full time and from what I understand you are getting ready to take your project management certification. That is a hard test and I wish you luck on that.” Hearing him ask questions like this and knowing what she has been doing made her feel like this was something that could actually happen. “Of course I would love to fill Amanda.. Miss Best’s shoes. I think I could do a great job and thank you sir, I have been studying hard.” Derrick put his hand in his pocket and glanced at his phone that he pulled out, checking a message before putting it back and returning his attention to April right away. “From what I understand you will have your first management assignment this summer. You will do good work and I know people are paying attention to a rising star like you.”

April actually found herself blushing, he didn’t mention anything about her being a woman, how young she was, how she was a secretary or even her looks. It shouldn’t be an oddity, but it was and it felt wonderful. “I do have to confess I have a second reason for coming over here. I was hoping you could… well I understand you are Mandy’s best friend and I wanted to know what her favorite flowers were.” Aww that was so sweet, she had to hold herself back from saying so out loud. “Her middle name is Rose, and she likes the classic red.” Derrick nodded a single time to her in affirmation, his warm smiling growing. “Thank you, that means a lot to me. Though out of curiosity, what would happen if I just went into the office and ignored you saying no?” April calmly slid her chair closer to her phone and pulled it off the hook. “Simple, I would call your secretary. Maybe all your flights end up being red eyes, or meetings end up scheduled back to back instead of giving you a break.” She watched as Derrick tilted his head back a little and reappraised her. “You are not to be trifled with.” She gave him her devilish smile and a small nod of her head. “Not at all, and I like yellow roses, with dark chocolates. You should get the same for Amanda.” Nodding a little Derrick put his hands in his pockets, his grin never fading. “Red roses for her, yellow for you, dark chocolate for both. I think I can remember that. You have a good day Miss Gates.”

April couldn’t help but be happy at the encounter, she really did like the man. Still holding the phone in her hand she looked down at the phone number Amanda had given her for her sister. Time to find out what she was doing so they could coordinate.