followed by doing a church praise dance in the middle of the executive offices and shouting, “GLORY!!!”
“Shhh,” Angela said laughing.
“Wow, I have never had people be so happy to see me,” the same delivery guy was back and this time he was holding a small beautifully wrapped box.
“Ok, ain’t nobody dancing for you and how many companies do you work for?” Toni said stopping her dance and putting her hands on her hips.
Angela looked confused as she took the box he had brought to her and signed for it.
“I…. umm…” Angela started to say but something in the box made noise surprising her. She looked at the delivery man. “What is this?” she asked.
Shrugging his shoulders, he said, “I don’t know, I just deliver. I usually open up boxes when I want to know what is in them,” he said to her feigning ignorance.
“Ok, nobody likes a smart ass delivery man, sir,” Toni said. “You are the weakest link; goodbye,” she finished, shooing him out of the office as Angela untied the bow and unwrapped her box. She was still trying to figure out what it was.
“What is it?” Toni asked. Angela pulled a black walkie-talkie out of the box.
“Hello?” the voice on the walkie-talkie crackled.
Frowning, Angela pressed the button on the walkie-talkie and said, “Hello?”
“Hello, gorgeous!” Julian said.
Angela instantly knew who it was because her stomach fell and her heart skipped a beat like she was school girl.
“Julian, what are you doing?” Angela said into the walkie-talkie.
“I am on a little reconnaissance mission,” Julian said.
Angela looked at Toni who shrugged her shoulders in confusion but watched intently like she was seeing her favorite soap opera play out in front of her.
“You’re on a what now?” Angela said.
“A reconnaissance mission,” Julian said again. “I am trying to find out the best way to ask out the fascinating, stunning, perceptive woman that lives next door to me. I was hoping you could give me some pointers.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Angela could see Toni writing on a legal pad. When she held it up it said, “All I want to know is, how big it is.”
Waving her off Angela said, “Why not just ask her out. Women like a man that is straight forward.”
“I agree and I would except I don’t know what she likes to do. I really want to make a good first impression,” he said.
“Well, you are definitely making an impression,” Angela said smiling. “This has to be the weirdest conversation I have ever had,” she said into the walkie-talkie.
“Really? Well, I guess the tin cans with the string between them would have been weirder. I remembered you saying your boss doesn’t like it when you are on your cell phone at work. So I figured these would alleviate that problem,” Julian said.
Toni had swooned into her chair at her desk at how romantic this all was.
“Well, thank you for that consideration,” Angela said.
“So, back to this lady; what do you think I should do to get her to go on a bonafide date with me?” Julian said. Angela could hear the smile in his voice.
Julian was pacing around in the lobby of Angela’s office building praying this worked the way he wanted it to and that she did not think he was completely crazy. He was standing by a fake dogwood tree they had in the center of the lobby. Looking around, he noticed he had gained an audience of ten to fifteen thirty to forty something women all clutching their chests as they listened to his conversation.
Julian was not sure if that was sad, but the only woman he cared about was Angela.
“Well, you could just plan the date from beginning to end without consulting her. Just let her know what to wear and go from there,” he heard Angie say. “But first you have to ask her.”
“So you’re saying I should just ask and plan? You think she will go for that?” he said.
Toni was nodding her head like a two year old and clapping. Angie laughed and said,
Claudia Christian and Morgan Grant Buchanan