Tom Smith smiled when he opened up the Christmas card Suzy sent him. He chuckled at the silly note she had written.
"Dearest Professor Tom, Hope Santa brings you a big old ...."
Jolene, his paralegal, knocked on the office door and entered. He looked up from the note and saw the smirk on Jolene's face.
"It's HER again. Do you want to take the call or not?"
He cleared his throat and said, "I'll take it in here. Close the door on your way out please."
"Sure thing boss." Jolene snickered as she closed the office door.
He was slightly irritated when he picked up the phone and said, "Tom Smith".
"Professor Tom! I just wanted to say hi. I also wanted to make sure you got my gift." Suzy said brightly over the phone.
"Yes. I got them both. Thanks for the thoughtful gifts and card, but you really didn't need to do that. By the way, I also got the flowers you sent a couple of weeks ago."
She laughed and said, "Good to know. Anything for my favorite professor!"
She continued to chatter away while he thought of all the work that was piled on his desk.
He felt guilty that he was irritated by her phone call. She was nothing but kind and thoughtful towards him. She sent him the flowers to cheer him up when he lost an important appeal a few weeks ago. She sent him a "Case Management Survival Kit" to "help him survive his big case" as she indicated, a couple of weeks before that. She also sent him cheerful notes, took him to lunch and called him on a regular basis.
He sighed and focused in on her chatter when she said, "Professor? Suzy to Professor Tom. Are you listening?"
He said, "Of course I am. I'm just getting ready to go to lunch so I really should go now."
He hung up after saying goodbye and breathed a sigh of relief. He wondered why he felt flattered, irritated, glad and annoyed all in one, when it came to Suzy.
He definitely knew he didn't enjoy being the butt of jokes around the office. He thought of Jolene's smirk when she announced Suzy's call.
