Allen sat at his desk flipping through the pages of a Sports Illustrated magazine, while he waited for his father to return his Friday afternoon call regarding his mother's test results. While the smooth sounds of Sade played in the background of his brightly lit office, Allen impatiently waited for the phone to ring. He attempted to picture life without the one woman that gave him the true meaning of love and it wasn't possible.
Allen contemplated taking a few days off, but he was scheduled to leave
for Toronto in less than two weeks for the initial overview, and he knew
that he needed to be prepared for the challenge at hand. With the sun
beaming through Allen's corner window and thick cloud of despair that
clung to his every thought, Mary walked in.
"Mr. Anthony," Mary said with hesitation. "There are two gentlemen
here to meet with you. They said that you have a ten o'clock
appointment with them, but I didn't see anything on your schedule
regarding a meeting today. Secondly, Andrew said that he needed to talk
with you when you get a moment."
"Who did they say they were with?" Allen asked unconcerned?
"They didn't."
"Can you please inform them that I am in an important meeting and I
will have to reschedule with them?"
"Sure," Mary said as she turned to carry out the request.
"And Mary, please apologize for me."
"As always," Mary responded, "anything for you. Before I forget, what
about Andrew, he seemed kind of nervous this morning?"
"Tell him I will come and see him this afternoon."
Allen thanked Mary and returned to his thoughts. He thought about
the good that his mother brought to the world with her teaching. He
wondered how many lives she had actually changed. He smiled as he
thought about her teaching him as a child, knowing that no matter what
the results of her tests were, he would always have her with him in his
everyday life. As Allen continued to reminisce, his memory was
interrupted by a burst through his office door and Mary shouting "you
can't just walk in like that!"
"Yo Jones," Charles said with Cupid close behind as Allen informed
Mary that it was OK to let them in. "We don't appreciate not having our
calls returned."
"I apologize, I just needed some time to deal with everything that's
going on in my life right now."
"What, that love thing again?" Cupid asked.
"It's that, plus a lot more."
"A lot more like what, work?" Charles asked.
"No, not work. Well, some work. See I got these two new guys that
I'm training to run their stores, and I don't know how they are going to
survive the opening because all they want to do is party at all times of
night. All in all," Allen fought for the exact words.
"I'm just going
through a lot," Allen detoured from the conversation.
"Yeah you said that," Cupid responded in a nonchalant tone, "but it's
been three months since anyone has heard from or seen you. What's
really going on with you bruh?"