Page 20 of Be My Valentine

“You do that too often, Ms. Donovan.”

She frowned trying to catch the words, she was still groggy from sleep and not completely lucid.

“I don’t fall asleep in the office, Mr. Arrow.”

“I didn’t mean that. You apologize too often, have you ever noticed that?”

“Maybe it’s because I make mistakes often.” she bit her lip uncertainly “I’m sorry…”

“Ah!” he admonished her raising a finger “Don’t say that word.”

“Thanks for the ride. Good night.” Kate reached for the doorknob, but Mark held her by the arm.

“I didn’t know you worked there, I only realized it when Annie asked the owner about you.”

Annie: I don’t call employees by their first names.

“She organized the evening, suggesting a typical place to our guests, so she called it. I would have prevented you from meeting them again in such a situation. I hope you can believe me.”

“I was just working; I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I know. If you have a problem with what happened tonight, let me know.”

“Mr. Campbell doesn’t blame me for anything, but you know that Carson “Boo…”, I mean Mrs. Carson won’t let me get away with it.”

Arrow turned to hide a smile.

“I’ll take care of her.”

“Oh no, please don’t,” Kate implored him and saw the dumbfounded expression on the lawyer’s face, “If you stand up for me, Mrs. Carson will come down even harder on me. I can handle this, believe me, I can. I have plans, I won’t be in your way for long and I promise I’ll look for another position right away. Please.”

Mark Arrow scrutinized her.

“Good. I’m glad to hear you’re planning to leave the pub.”

“What?” Kate had fully awakened “I don’t want to leave the pub!”

“You just said you’re going to look for another place!” Arrow retorted contritely.

“I was talking about your firm!”

The lawyer raised his eyebrows.

“You’re telling me you’d rather wait tables than take a desk job? Really?”

“Theoretically, no.” Kate decided to be completely honest, “But it’s hard to take the pressure.”

“Pressure? Ms. Donovan, your job is to digitize an archive, I wouldn’t call it a wearisome job.”

“It’s not the job, it’s you Attorney Arrow!” she blurted out “You yelling at me ranting as if I had committed a crime, you allowing your colleagues to make sleazy jokes, you demanding that only I have an obligation to wear my hair tied back, you not flinching when you see me waitressing in your office bringing coffee and tea to my colleagues! I wait tables, it’s true! You probably think that’s all I know how to do, but it’s not! And it’s not me bringing you the wrong paperwork, it’s you confusing the names!” She had raised her tone of voice and horrified by what she had said she covered her mouth with one hand.

“You have been very clear. Don’t forget to warn Mr. Campbell that you have returned home safely. Good night.”

Kate could not utter a word and got out of the car.

She collapsed almost immediately on the bed, she would talk to her mother the next morning, that is in a handful of hours, after taking a shower. At that moment she didn’t even have the strength to drag herself to the bathroom: she was exhausted and demoralized.

She came down almost at noon, her hair still damp and her eyes circled.