"When You Want Her Back..."



Chapter Nineteen!!



April turned in bed at the sound of the phone ringing. Moaning she got up from bed and walked to the living room. Reaching into one of the couch cushions she finally found her cordless phone. Answering it she said “Hello?”

“Your sister is all taken care of. I made sure to take care of her first thing in the morning. Top priority.” Thinking for a second at what she was hearing April soon figured it was Jay.

“What do you mean in the morning?” there was a two minute pause and Jay said “April its one in the afternoon”

April jumped up from where she was sitting completely awake and alert. How could she have slept so late? One thing that April hated was sleeping late. She would admit that she wasn’t exactly a morning person but she definitely didn’t like sleeping in late. April felt that sleeping during the day time was a waste of time. It made her feel like she was missing all of the action that happened during the day time.

“Would I be safe to guess that you were sleeping?” Jay asked.

“Yes!! I was sleeping and it made me miss helping you with my sister! How did it go?” April said yelling at first then stopping herself as her voice was still shaking from just waking up.

“It went fine. I have to finish some paper work though. I sat with the D.A. and Lena and we settled with six months jail time and then after wards probably a year of probation.”

“This is so hard. I don’t even understand what’s going on… I didn’t even know you could go to jail for just people knowing you used drugs. I thought it was only when they catch you carrying it.” April said pacing around her living room.

“Well Lena was carrying. She had some in her pocket when they found her.”

“What?” April said taking a tone that implied she was beyond confusion. “But Lena never told me about that part!”

“Probably she didn’t want you to know or probably she couldn’t remember it. Either way the police did so well… she got what she got. Six months will go by fast trust me.”

“Yeah, sure, it’s just a lot to take when you have just woken up”

“Sorry about that, I would have thought that you were awake by now but I guess not. What time did you go to sleep?”

“I don’t remember.” April smiled. “Connie and I had a ‘Honey mooners’ marathon.”

“Surprises me that it wasn’t ‘I love lucy’” Jay said.

“That was last week.” Then April hung up. Leaning back in her seat on the couch she sighed.

It was hard for her as a sister to digest the fact that her sister was going to jail. She wondered how it all started. Couldn’t imagine how her extraordinaire sister could live a life of drugs and bad marriage. Probably if you would have told her all of this five years ago, April wouldn’t have believed it.

Still in the end she had to admit that she was happy it was all over. Everything could be settled now. She would continue dating Bret and helping out with Hana. She could return to her usual routines and maybe even get more writing done. That in mind April smiled. Getting up April headed straight for her computer. Writing was exactly what she would do.

*********************************

Bret held little Hana’s hand as the elevator went up the floors. Bret listened as Hana went ‘ding’ with the elevator. He laughed and by the time they reached his floor he had started saying it along with her. The elevator doors opened as Bret was smiling down at Hana. Standing in front of the elevator was Olivia. A mixture of a smile and a grimace came upon Olivia’s face.

“Bret! What are you doing here? I wasn’t expecting you to come in for a while.” Olivia said pulling him out of the elevator. “You have so much work you could help me with!” It seemed that when Olivia pulled Bret and Bret pulled little Hana that it was that moment she realized Hana was there. She looked from Bret to Hana then back again, confusion written all over her face.

“I’m not here to work Olivia.” Bret said picking up Hana then turning toward his office. Bret walked down the hall only to hear Olivia walking behind him.

“So then why are you here? Is this your daughter? She’s awfully pretty I tell you. I could have never imagined you with a daughter.”

Reaching his office door he reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out a set of keys. Before he could use the keys Olivia reached around him and opened the door. “I had to go inside your office to get some files while you were gone.” She told him.

Rolling his eyes he entered his office. He looked around to see if she had changed anything. He couldn’t imagine why Olivia would go in his office. He knew for certain her “files” excuse was false. The only files he kept in his office were ones that belong to him that no one would need. Other files were kept in the secretary’s office.

Looking around he noticed nothing different or messed up so he shrugged. He put Hana down in a chair and turned to Olivia. Bret disliked Olivia a lot and couldn’t understand her ways. Some days she gave him head aches and others she made his work even harder for him. Right now he didn’t feel the same anger he normally felt when he thought of her. Probably it was the fact that he came to pack his things or probably it was just the fact that he hadn’t seen her in a couple days so he hadn’t dealt with the daily annoyance.

“I’m here to pack my things. I’m quitting. To answer your question... Yes, this is my daughter. Olivia this is Hana.” Bret held his hand as a gesture to Hana.Olivia glanced at Hana, quickly did a half wave and then focused on Bret. “QUITING?! You can’t quit!”

“Why not?” Bret found it interesting how Olivia seemed to be worried about him quitting.

“Because the office needs you!”

“No it doesn’t”

“yes it does”

“No it doesn’t”

“YES IT DOES!! It needs you! Who will make it more of a competition? Who will give it more of a reason to work harder? Who will it bother? Who will it annoy? You must stay!” Bret gave Olivia a weird look then realized that by “the office” she meant her.

Suddenly he felt bad. It was the look in Olivia’s eyes. Like she would feel different with out him or maybe even possibly miss him. “Don’t worry. ‘the office’ will do a wonderful job with out me because she is great at what she does which, is why I always compete with her.” Bret smiled.

Olivia laughed. “You compete with the office? What a LOSER” Still laughing she patted him on the shoulder and walked out his office.

Shaking his head he looked down at his daughter who was hugging her doll and watching him with small eyes. Using his index finger he made circles around his temper and mouthed “Crazy”.

Bret turned and walked behind his desk. He opened the drawers and began removing things. Everything he wanted he put on top of his desk. He sorted through three drawers and was on his forth when he stopped abruptly. Staring into the draw on the very bottom he looked at a picture.

The picture was of him and Jackie. It was taken at their wedding and Bret was kissing Jackie. Jackie had cake on her face and so did Bret. Jackie seemed to be happy and so did Bret. It was his favorite picture. When he looked at this picture he used to feel the love. Most days when he looked at the pictures he had to hold back tears. It hurt him, this picture. Yet, it seemed today it had no power over him.

Looking at the picture he sighed. This was now a far past. This was now nothing to him. Getting up he threw the picture into the garbage. His favorite picture and his only copy of it were now apart of the garbage.

“What was that daddy?” Hana asked Bret getting up from her seat and rushing to his side where he stud in front of the garbage.

“Nothing.” He said meaning everything he was saying. “That was nothing.” He kissed Hana on her head and held her close to him.

This was his future. The small girl he held in his embrace now was his new meaning for life.