Worst Week Ever (A Long Road to Love) (6 page)

“Sounds
perfect. Let’s start tomorrow morning.”

“Hold on. You
need to tell Hal you plan to visit the customers. When he offers to set up the
meeting, tell him I’ll handle the logistics, then butter him up…” She frowned.
“Do you know what that means?”

He chuckled
and leaned close to her. “Yes, and what’s more I even know how to do it.”

Her gaze went
to her lap as she sucked in her bottom lip.

Did she feel
the attraction between them? Or did she only worry he'd treat the customers the
way he treated his deadbeat employees?

Sam pulled the
limo to the side of the street. “This is as close as I can get. If you beep me
ten minutes before the show is over, I’ll try to park closer to the doors when
picking you up.”

“Just do the
best you can, Sam.” Trent smiled at his driver’s stunned expression. Sam had no
doubt expected a tirade over his promise to ‘try to park closer’ instead of
promising to be directly in front of the theatre. However, Carrie had made a
good observation earlier today. His home staff performed tolerably well, not
perfectly, but a far cry better than the slackers at work did. Practicing his
new managerial style on his home staff made sense. Then he’d be ready for his
new improved workers once they come onboard.

Suddenly, a
voice, sounding a great deal like his father’s, spoke in his head.

When has
anything worked out for you? If there’s a way to screw it up, you’ll find it!

Trent breathed
in and out. He wanted to ignore the voice, but couldn’t. Things never went
right for him.

To prove the
point, the shoe guy’s warning not to sit in the front rows at the Tall and Tiny
show suddenly came back to him. Trent had thought snagging front row center
seats a sign his luck had changed. But no, all it meant was Carrie would join
him in purgatory.

A young usher
led Trent and Carrie to their front row center seats. Trent had tried to get their
seating changed the moment they arrived at the theatre, but the show had sold
out. Carrie sat down, smiling with pure happiness, clearly expecting to have a
wonderful evening. He refused to have her disappointed.

Gripping the
usher’s elbow, Trent passed him a folded hundred. “Tell these comedians not to
throw anything on my lady.”

The boy stared
at the bill for several seconds before his eyes rounded. “Is this real?”

“Yes. Now did
you hear what I want?”

He nodded
happily. “Nothing on the lady. I’ll let them know right now.” The fellow walked
to a very small man in the third seat from the end, and knelt down to talk.

Why won’t
anyone do what I ask?

“Kid, stop
gabbing and get to your job!”

The boy and
the man stared at him in shock then the boy ran off. Trent shook his head in
disgust at the hundred he’d just thrown away.

The tiny man
continued to glare at him.

“You sitting
down in our lifetime?” a voice behind him asked. A spackling of applause
followed the question.

Carrie grabbed
his hand and pulled him to his seat then apologized to the people behind them.

“Don’t
apologize for me!”

“No one else
is going to,” she muttered and crossed her arms, staring straight ahead.

Damn it all! He
wanted this evening to go perfectly.

Fortunately,
he knew how to melt away the chip on her shoulders. He rose, faced the people
behind him and squinted due to a bright light shining down from the upper
balcony. “I apologize for standing before the show started.” He would have left
it at that had they not had the audacity to look directly at him and laugh.
Annoyed, he added, “It never occurred to me you might want to admire the
curtain.” Their amusement only increased. In fact, the whole damn place seemed
to be laughing at him.

What is
wrong with these people?

Carrie tugged
on his arm. At least he’d succeeded in getting her to stop ignoring him. Returning
to his seat, Trent discovered the diminutive man from further down the row now
stood in front of him in profile, staring at the curtain, his hand pressed to
his heart, while pure rapture shown from his face.

Trent lost his
patience. “Sir, can you take your seat? If I can’t stand, neither can you.”

His comment
seemed to echo through the auditorium and everyone laughed.

The little man
faced him and tried to pull Trent from his seat.

God, had
the whole world gone mad?
“Would you stop that and sit down.”

Carrie leaned
in and whispered, “He’s tiny.”

“I can see
that, which means when I toss him, he’ll end up on the stage.”

The audience
howled.

Trent glared
at the people to his left and then spoke to Carrie. “Why is everyone laughing?
The show hasn’t even started!”

Carrie covered
her face and shook her head.

The
little fellow jumped toward Trent. The spotlight suddenly illuminated them, as
the man duck, weaved, and shadowboxed in the light while the audience
applauded.

Trent groaned
as understanding dawned. Carrie hadn’t stated the obvious, but warned him that Tiny,
half of the comedian duo, had decided to make him part of the act.

Could this
night get worse?
He wanted to storm out and demand his money back, but the
little guy had Carrie laughing, despite her best efforts. Unless he wished to
ruin their not-a-date date, he just needed to go with the flow. As he watched
the fellow dance about, he had to admit Tiny had charm.

He smiled and
held both palms out as if in surrender. Tiny froze in motion then lifted his arms
up in the classic boxer victory stance. In his tiny suit, the result looked
ridiculous.

Then the
little man rose into the air, his feet swinging wildly.

Trent expected
cables lifted Tiny, but he saw nothing to explain how the guy floated upward.
When the audience applauded, he joined. Carrie had called them comic magicians,
and now he understood why.

A crack of
thunder jarred his senses and made him jump. When he recovered, the tallest man
he’d ever seen stood before him. The thin, ghoulish fellow looked to be
twenty-feet tall. He stared down at Trent. Applause roared from the audience.

Trent would’ve
clapped too but the guy wouldn’t stop glaring at him. The spotlight highlighted
the ghoul’s pale gaunt face, sunken eyes, and stringy black hair. His arm
stretched down to Trent and pulled him up by his necktie.

Trent didn’t
resist. Better to go willingly, given the guy’s strength ensured mandatory
participation.

Another thunderclap
and everything turned black. The audience burst out in applause, but Trent
couldn’t see a thing.

“Don’t move
and we won’t throw anything on your lady,” a soft voice whispered in his ear.

Now, he
understood. His time as the pigeon had not yet ended. At least he’d saved
Carrie. He stood passively as hands lightly flitted over his body and face.

“Would you
like me to return this mortal?” a low, well-modulated voice asked the audience
from overhead.

A group nearby
yelled “No, keep him.”

Then Carrie objected,
“Hold on. I want him back.” A moment later, her voice became louder.
“Seriously, can you return him please.”

“Plead your
case before the great Seer of All, and make it shallow. I’m tired of the
profound.”

“Well, we are
supposed to go out to dinner
—
someplace
really nice.”

“That’s
certainly shallow, but I sense many young men in the audience who would gladly
take his place.”

Various guys
yelled offers.

“No! I don’t
know what restaurant has our reservation, so I need Trent back or I won’t get
my nice dinner.”

“Now you’re
sufficiently shallow, but it’s not tugging my heart. Do you love this fellow?”

“Uh…”

“I’ll take
that as a ‘no.’ Has he money?”

Trent cringed.
Their first date had just begun. And she didn’t even know she was on a date. This
ass would frighten her away with his impertinent questions. Damn it! If this
guy’s questions caused Carrie to feel like a gold-digger, she’d build a wall of
professionalism he’d never break through.

“He’s my
boss.”

The audience
ooed as if sensing an impropriety.

“Get me out of
here,” Trent whispered. “He’s screwing everything up.”

“Be patient,”
a voice whispered.

“Does he have
a wife?” the ghoul asked.

“No.”

“Do you?”

“No. Nor a
husband,” she added as the audience chuckled.

“Is he a good
boss?”

Trent groaned.
He’d always liked Carrie penchant for telling the truth, not just when it
suited her, but all the time. Until now. Maybe they could sneak out at
intermission.

“I’m working
on it.”

Trent released
his breath. She answered as best as he could hope for.

The audience
liked it too, and started chanting ‘bring ‘m back.’

A second
later, thunder cracked and he flew upward and hung mid-air before the audience
as they laughed and applauded.

He understood
the applause, but why the laughter?

Looking down,
he realized someone had dressed him in a giant ballooning clown outfit.
Thank
God, I don’t have a clown nose
. He touched his face and discovered he had
one of those too.
Great! How had they’d put a bulb on my nose without me
noticing?
His cheek felt oily and so thick he could barely feel his hand
touching them. When he studied his fingers, white oily makeup covered them.

Crap. He’d
never get this off in time to make dinner. Anger surged through him until he saw
Carrie smiling at him with something akin to adoration.

Might as
well go with the flow.
He smiled and waved at the crowd, then grinned at
Carrie.

Tiny, seated
in Trent’s chair, covered Carrie’s hand with kisses. Oddly, it didn’t annoy
Trent, probably because her adoring smile remained on him.

“Are you sure
that’s my boss?” she asked.

The lugubrious
giant replied from his towering height, “I promise you, your boss is a big
clown.” The crowd laughed.

Tiny knelt in
the chair, a ring the size of a dinner plate in his hands.

Tall gave a
low chuckle. “Tiny wishes to marry you.”

Carrie smiled
at the little fellow. “You are very kind, but no, thank you.”

Tiny sighed
and threw his arms over his head, causing him to fall out of the chair and then
disappeared. A second later, Trent landed in his seat, no longer wearing the
clown suit.

“Let’s have a
round of applause for the nice lady’s boss. Take a bow, Trent,” the giant ghoul
demanded.

Trent rose and
waved at the cheering audience. All the good energy coming his way overwhelmed
him. These people liked him now. All because of Carrie. They hadn’t liked him
until she’d spoken up for him. He tugged Carrie from her seat and hugged her to
his side. The crowd began to chant ‘kiss’. With white clown paint all over his
face? Not a chance. So he shook his head and returned to his seat. On the stage,
Tiny and the giant poised in a romantic embrace, with Tiny’s legs flapping in
the air.

When their
moment of affection ended, Tiny and Tall disappeared then the stage went black.

A soothing baritone
announcer voice, which made him think of liquid chocolate, filled the
auditorium. “Ladies and Gentlemen, we apologize for the delay. Please put your
hands together for the dynamic duo, Tall and Tiny.”

Everyone
stood, clapped and yelled as a seven-foot man and his four-foot partner walked
onto the empty stage with a fishing pole, a pink plastic bucket, and a giant
umbrella with a bull’s-eye painted on its canvas.

They stopped
center stage and waved at the crowd. Tall scratched his head. “Boy, whoever
said New Yorkers are unfriendly hasn’t met you guys.”

***

Fifteen
minutes into the show, Trent yelled to Carrie over the cheering of the
audience. “These guys are amazing!”

Her eyes
sparkled with joy as she nodded in agreement.

Thank God,
he’d picked the one she wanted most. Left on his own, he would’ve selected the other
non-musical. No way political satire could outdo these two.

Trent had no
idea how they did any of their tricks.

He gripped
Carrie’s hand in his. If not for her, he would’ve never experienced any of
this. Just being with her improved his life.

When the
lights came on for intermission, a woman rushed up to him. “How’d you
disappear?”

He smiled. “I
have no idea.”

“Where’d you
go?”

He thought
he’d been under the stage, but he didn’t want to reveal any secrets. “Someplace
dark.”

A young man
crowded in. “Seriously, you couldn’t tell where you were?”

“Nope.”

“You are so
lucky,” a woman behind them said. “I’d pay anything to have my husband
disappear.”

Everyone
chuckled at her statement, except for the angry man seated beside her. “Sit
down, Alice,” he snapped.

“It’s
intermission. I can stand if I want to.”

Trent winked
at her in agreement.

A woman
further down shuffled up the aisle. “I hear some nights the dwarf catches the
fish at the end of act one.”

Carrie frowned.
“He’s not a dwarf. He’s just small in size. And he caught a whale.”

“Excuse me,”
the woman stated and stormed off.

The grumpy man
looked up. “Some people don’t like the truth.” He focused on Trent. “You really
don’t know how they made you disappear?”

“I think
cables were involved when they returned me as a clown, but I’ve no idea how
they put it on me.” He turned to Carrie. “Which reminds me, I need to go to the
men’s room and wash off the clown face.”

Carrie smiled.
“Your clown face disappeared with your clown suit.”

He rubbed his
cheek and studied his hand. “We need to hire these guys to make our slackers
disappear.”

* * * *

The second act
surpassed the first. However, when Tiny dumped a gallon jug of water into his
bucket, Trent grew worried. While they promised not to throw anything on Carrie,
he had garnered no such assurance for himself.

“Oh no,” he
groaned.

Tall chased
Tiny and his bucket around the stage, angry because water kept sloshing all
over the place. Both of them slipped on the wet floor, resulting in amazing
feats of acrobatics.

At one point
Tall held Tiny in one hand.

“Tiny, I’m
tired of carrying you. Stand on your two feet!” Tall ordered.

The little man
splashed him with more water from his bucket.

“Then fall on
your own.” He pulled his hand away and stepped back, yet Tiny remained
suspended in the air.

Tall seemed
most baffled and waved his hands under and above Tiny as he walked around him.
He scratched his head and shrugged. “Since Tiny refuses to get down and
continue the show, you people should probably just go on home now.”

Not
surprisingly, no one stirred.

“Seriously,
folks, he’s one stubborn dude. You might as well go on home.”

Everyone
laughed.

From his perch
in the air, Tiny glared at Trent.

“Don’t laugh.
I’m serious.”

That of course
made Trent and everyone laugh harder.

Carrie
squealed, “Don’t do it!”

Trent looked
up to see a ferocious Tiny heaving his water bucket straight at him. Knowing
the bucket held real water, he tried to rise to escape the area, but he didn’t
have sufficient time to act. Instead, his action just meant he met the contents
a bit sooner.

Goodbye
dinner reservation.

He closed his
eyes as something light and dry hit him. When he opened his eyes, sparkling
glitter covered him.