Maria felt genuinely safe for the first time sitting in the bright coloured room, filled with all types of toys, and nurses dressed in uniforms. The air was filled with both, loud cries and joyous screams as kids less than three feet tall ran around the room. As much as Rose didn’t understand, being around kids did give her peace. She looked down at the sleeping child in her arms. Michael and Julie had played with Elizabeth all afternoon. After Jane picked Julie up, her little eyes began to flutter close, and her lips parted in a yawn. She looked so cute and Maria found it amusing how children could fall asleep anywhere, as long as they were comfortable. But Michael was different, when he felt sleepy, he would always look for her and crawl into her lap and sleep there. It always annoyed Ricky, so whenever he did, she would find a place to hide and just enjoy that moment holding her sleeping baby, then after a few hours she would prepare herself for an ultimate beating. It was a small price to pay for a few perfect moments of peace.
Maria looked around in search of Michael. She had been so distracted with Elizabeth and the memories her perfect sleepy face brought, that she had taken her eyes off him longer than her usual time. She watched Michael’s every move, she couldn’t afford not to. She panicked when she couldn’t spot him. She immediately thought of Ricky, and how possible it was for him to walk out with Michael, Dave had. She stood up and rushed to the nurses’ station, careful not to wake Elizabeth.
“Excuse me, have you seen my son?” she asked, struggling to keep her voice steady.
****
Dave riffled through the legal documents again wondering how he was going to fix Todd’s mess this time. It was the worst mistake he’d ever done, and all he could hope for was that he wouldn’t make worse mistakes in the future. He tried to think of a number of ways he could fix such a silly mistake with less liability to the firm and the client. He glared at Todd across his desk one more time before he went back to the papers. He was blank, his mind half in it. He was still thinking of Paula and her petrified face and wondered what exactly happened to her to make her so… angst-ridden.
He thought she could be running away from an abusive father, but the fatigue in her face showed she was much too old to be a teenage mom. An abusive boyfriend could be a possibility, explaining the scars on her arms and hands, and the dark small shades on her face that matched those on the visible parts of her skin. Dave hardly missed anything.
The thought of someone hurting her made him angry and all he wanted to do was protect her, why he felt like this for a woman he’d spent under two hours with, he completely had no idea.
Todd sat upright, his lips split in a nervous smile, “So what do you think?”
Dave looked at him, “I think you should be fired.”
Todd nodded, not at all surprised by the honest remark. “Apart from that.”
Dave leaned back in his seat and sighed exhaustively, “I can fix it, but not today.”
“When?” Todd asked relieved.
“Next week. Call the client, set the meeting for Monday.”
“How about we don’t do that and just meet with them when the final meeting is originally scheduled, two weeks from now.”
Dave gave him an incredulous look, it couldn’t be possible that he didn’t understand the amount of damage he had caused, “We can’t do that, we need more money to fix this.”
“I’ll pay for it.”
“That’s close to what you make in a year.”
“I can afford it. I have a feeling if my dad finds out he’s really going to fire me.”
Dave leaned on his desk and slit his eyes at Todd, “You lied to me?”
“Yes. I expected you would catch it, but you were preoccupied by the green eyed beauty,” Todd whistled, “She’s got a body on her, and a virgin face too. If you weren’t already barking up that tree…” he left his sentence hanging, the expression of his face completing it.
Dave drew back into his chair. Todd was right, she was a beauty. He had seen more beautiful women than her, but her fragile virgin look was hard for any man to resist, and he was certain it attracted the man who made her the way she was.
“I want my promotion Todd.” he said, changing the subject. He didn’t want to talk about Paula, at least not in a lustful way.
“I can’t do that,” Todd laughed, “I only said that to get you to help me, and besides it’s already yours.”
“And if you want my help, you’ll find a way to make it happen sooner.”
Todd stopped laughing when he saw how serious Dave was, before he could say anything the door opened.
“There’s someone here to see you.” Carol said with a laugh.
“Who?” Dave asked, pushing his chair back and standing up.
“A handsome little man with a tongue coated in honey,” she opened the door wider, “Come on in Miguel.”
Miguel walked into the office with a wide grin on his face and took the seat next to Todd, “Hi Dave.”
“Hi Miguel, where’s Elizabeth and your mom?” He sat down, his full attention turned to him.
“In the day care centre.” he answered, swinging with the chair. Normally that would annoy Dave, but he didn’t mind.
“Are they coming up?”
He shook his head, “She doesn’t even know I’m here. I’m hoping we’ll be done talking before she notices I’m gone.”
Dave picked up his phone and dialled the day care number. He knew how Paula would react if she didn’t know where Miguel was, the image of her on the floor in the cafe filled his head. She was in agony then, and she most probably would be far worse since he disappeared on her watch.
“You should have told her before you left.”
“Do you like my mama?” Miguel spat out.
“Yes.” Dave answered, as he waited for someone to answer his call.
“Do you want to be her boyfriend?” Miguel asked directly, his voice levelled.
Dave was speechless for the first time in his life. His blunt question had caught him completely off guard. He wasn’t sure how to answer him, as he had thought about everything else apart from that, his real intentions. He stared at Miguel completely shocked. It took him a few seconds to realize the female voice on the other end of the line.