Five
“Rachel, your mom is on line three.” Shannon yelled from the receptionist desk.
“Thanks. Did you find the papers yet?” She yelled back.
“No, I have no clue where I put them.” Shannon walked in the office. “I’ll look more tomorrow. We have plenty of other work to do before then. Aren’t you going to pick up line three?”
“Do I hafta?” She laughed.
“At least she only called twice today.” Shannon scooped up the sales analysis they’d been discussing.
“Yes but I know she’s going to bug me again about visiting.”
“Your fault for saying ‘in a couple of weeks.’”
Rachel pushed the button for line three. “Hi Mom.”
“Hi. How’s your day?”
“Busy. I had meetings all afternoon.”
“Lots a new clients or are you servicing the ones you got?”
“Little of both.”
“Things keeping you pretty busy.”
“Uh-huh, it is.” She looked over the charts and graphs on her desk. “Probably got another hour of work to do.”
“When do you ever sleep?”
Rachel looked up at the clock. “Mom, it’s almost eight. Why did you call me at the office?”
“I tried your cell first but you didn’t answer.” Rachel reached in her purse and pulled out her cell phone.
“Oh, sorry. I had it on vibrate earlier. I must have forgotten to put it back on ring.” Five missed calls? She scrolled down through them. Mom, mom, mom, their new sales man, mom.
“Why weren’t your phones forwarded?”
“We just left them go since we were here.”
Rachel caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye. Shannon held up a legal pad with two stick figures inside of a heart.
“No.” Rachel mouthed without speaking.
“The reason I’m calling is the house on the corner went up on the market today. I saw the realtor when he was putting the sign in the yard.”
“Did it?” Rachel drew a box with a triangle roof on her notebook and held it up for Shannon.
“A house?” Shannon said.
“Yes.” She whispered back.
“What?”
“Nothing mom. I was answering Shannon’s question.”
“I was saying. It’s such a great deal. Little bit of a fixer-upper but being s’ close dad could help you with the bigger jobs like drywall and plumbing. I can help you with decorating, wallpaper, paint and those kinds of things.”
“That’s fine mom but I’m really not looking for a house right now.”
“I need a house.” Shannon yelled over.
“Mom, Shannon said she needs a house.”
“There ya go. Shannon can be your roommate.”
“No, I’m too neat for Shannon.” Rachel cleared three files from her desk. “I like my apartment. And your house is half an hour away from my work.”
“I know but you drive twenty minutes as it is. Nevermind, just trying to help out a bit.”
“I appreciate it mom but I’m in a lease-“
“And I was thinking with interest rates going back up. Might be a good time to get in a place.”
“I know but-“
“What is ten minutes more when you’re traveling twenty already? And it’s such a nice little place. Three bedrooms, two baths, a fenced double lot and a basement. Basement is nice sized and could be finished off.”
“Okay, I’ll come look at it.” Why was she even trying to win this fight?
“Sucker.” Shannon sang over from her desk. Rachel swatted at her.
“Come up Friday night for dinner. You can look at the house and go to church with us.”
“Friday? I think I have plans.”
“With who? Tell Shannon she can come along. We always have a wonderful time when she visits. There’s a nice young businessman who started attending our church. Maybe she’d like to meet him.”
“Oh really? A guy Shannon’s type started going to your church. I’ll have to tell her.” Shannon waved both of her arms in an X motion in front of her. Rachel nodded her head back at Shannon. “All right mom we’ll come up but we have to get these monthlies looked over if I’m ever going to get out of here tonight.”
“That’ll be just fine. I’ll talk to you in a couple a days. Mean time I’ll give the realtor a call and figure a time to see the place.”
“Okay mom, bye.”
You are reading A Face in the Shadow by Tiffany Colter.
Tiffany is a writer, speaker and writing career coach. She is a frequent contributor to print and online publications in addition to her regular marketing blog at www.WritingCareerCoach.com
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This story is copyright Tiffany Colter. 2007. It may not be copied, distributed, sold or included in any larger work without the expressed written permission of Tiffany Colter.
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