I wasn't looking forward to the new task I had been assigned at work. We'd been given a new client and I'd heard through the grapevine that she wasn't easy to deal with, and lucky me, I had her and the new project dumped into my lap.
I waited in my office for Nick to ring, letting me know she had arrived. Finally 9:30 came and the phone rang; I asked Nick to show her into my office. I knew how important this client was to the firm and I knew first impressions were everything. I stood up as I watched my door slowly open.
There she was, the reason for all this nervous energy I'd been harboring all morning long. I walked toward her and she politely held out her hand and introduced herself. "I'm Merry Smith and I assume you're Cheryl Parker."
She was all business and got straight to the points she wanted me to grasp. She was quick to point out that we would be spending a lot of time together and that she hoped my family didn't mind the long hours that would be required to get the work accomplished. I let her know right away that I was single and lived alone, and that my closest family lived several states away. I assured her that I was fully prepared for the task ahead.
She seemed relieved, and over the next few weeks I understood just how serious Merry was about her job. I'm obsessive about my work but Merry was like no one I had ever worked with before. Despite all her obsessions about her work, we actually became pretty good friends. Gradually, we stopped talking only about work, and opened up our personal lives a bit to each other.
Merry was just getting over a break up with her partner of several years, a woman who had finally decided that she was sick of Merry being gone for months at a stretch for her job. When Merry told me this, I was a bit surprised, because Merry had not struck me as being gay.
Finally, one Friday night, we were finishing up the day with Chinese take-out, and I remarked how sick I was of eating take-out food, and how I was looking forward to being able to cook a good meal at home the next night. Merry agreed that take-out food got really old after awhile, but she said you should try it from her viewpoint. She sometimes went two or three months without anything but restaurant food.
"Tell you what. Why don't you come over to my place tomorrow night, and I will do my best to give you a dinner you won't forget for awhile."
Merry thought that was simply a wonderful idea, so I wrote up very precise instructions on how to get to my condo, and insisted that she not worry about bringing anything.
I decided on Coq a Vin, fresh asparagus cooked just enough to be al dente, and a berry pie. I had everything ready to go, and was just putting the pie in the oven when the phone rang. It was Merry, and she was completely lost. Apparently Merry, despite all her other sterling qualities, was navigationally challenged. She couldn't read a map for the life of her, and although my instructions had been precise, she had to go out of the way because of an accident, and gotten herself completely turned around.
I found out where she was, and laughed when she told me.
"You're only about ten blocks from here. Go back on Main until you get to 23rd Street, turn right, go another three or four blocks until you get to Valley Vista Drive, turn left, and you will see the condos on your left about half way down the block on the right. See you in a few minutes."
I have no idea why the street is called Valley Vista Drive. There isn't a valley anywhere near here, but the developers must have wanted to make it sound exotic.
I finished putting the pie in the oven, and had everything ready to cook. All I had to do was put it together, which wasn't going to take more than 30 minutes or so to have on the table. I opened a bottle of Merlot to let it breath a bit, and by the time I had finished that, the doorbell rang and Merry was there with a bottle of wine, and a bunch of flowers.
When I looked at the wine, and smiled and told Merry that we must be on the same track, it was exactly the same wine I had just opened for dinner.
We had a drink while I got dinner cooked, standing in the kitchen talking and laughing like we had been friends forever.
Dinner was wonderful, and even though my attention had been split between the dinner and Merry, everything came out wonderfully. We opened the second bottle of wine, and had worked our way through a good portion of that when we started dessert.
Merry was talking animatedly, waving her hands around, then picked up her wine glass to sip from it. The base of the wine glass caught on the dessert plate, flipping the dessert plate over into her lap, and spilling the wine down her white blouse and into her lap to mingle with the berry pie.
Fortunately, my floor in the eating area is wood parquet, so no damage was done there, but Merry's clothes were a complete mess.
"Oh, shit. These are brand new, and the wine isn't going to come out of these. Christ, the pants look like I had worst period anyone has ever had."
"Quick Merry, get those clothes off, and let's get them in the washer so they don't stain. I'll get you a robe or something."
