Assignment 3- A Twist in the Tale

“I haven’t heard that name in nearly a decade,” Mark responded, “I am in town for an international business meeting at the Do Peas Corporate Towers. This is the first time I’ve been back to the neighborhood since we were kids. When I got here yesterday, I happened to run into your mother at the grocery store. She let me know where I could find you.”

               Maria suddenly forgot all of her troubles or that she had to be anywhere. She was just so happy to see Mark again. “How are you? How’s your family?” she asked, still visibly surprised to see him. Mark told her that his father was a CEO of a major Corporation in Champs Les Sims and he was working for him.

               “It looks like you’ve got someplace to be,” Mark said, “and I’d really like to catch up with you. Twelve years is such a long time for such a short conversation. Would you like to get coffee with me, or go out to dinner later tonight?”

“Of course,” Maria responded. Before she could say anything further, Joseph arrived. He rushed over to the door, looking concerned with a twinge of jealousy. He pushed past Mark to walk into the apartment.

“Maria, you’re late. We have to get going,” Joseph said, grabbing her by her wrist to pull her out the door, but not before taking notice of Mark. “Who is this?” Maria hesitated for a moment at the question.

“Joseph, this is Mark. He’s a childhood  friend of mine. Mark, this is my friend, Joseph,” Maria would finally say. Joseph’s eyes narrowed when he heard Maria introduce him as a ‘friend’. He begrudgingly shook Mark’s hand as he pulled Maria out the apartment door. As she was being whisked away, Maria told Mark that he was welcome to stay in her apartment until she got home, and they could catch up later.

Joseph and Maria had an eerily silent car ride to her office. It was clear that he was angry by the look on his face, but Maria was too overwhelmed by everything happening to her to think about it for the time being. She was far more concerned about what would happen when she got to work.

After Joseph dropped her off at work, Maria rushed into the office and found a note on her desk. It said to go to her boss’s office. The receptionist told her that Ms. Bunch, her boss, was in a meeting at the moment, so she should take a seat and wait.

While she was waiting, Maria started to reflect on everything that had happened in the past few months. She graduated last spring, which was the day Joseph proposed. She didn’t say yes right away, because she needed to think about it.  She had about a week to decide before they had to leave their apartment on campus. Joseph had found a place for them to move in and start their life together. Only, Maria wanted to know that she could support herself and be independent before making that big of a commitment to someone, so she said yes to the proposal but chose to live separately at least for a year.

Finding a job was difficult, since she was entering into a devastatingly weak economy. She was hoping to do something useful with her Liberal Arts degree. But after a month of searching, she finally found an opening with the Science Facility. She worked for two months as a test subject, which she was still convinced had given her some strange mutation or disease, of which she was just not  aware of yet. She got promoted to lab tech, which wasn’t so bad, but still had very little pay. She had terribly long hours working from early morning and having to work overtime almost every day. Because of the economy, she knew she was very replaceable and the boss had a no tolerance policy for any and all rule violations and mistakes. She was hoping since it was her first violation, she might let it slide. Maria was afraid she would get fired and that would mean losing her apartment. She wasn’t ready to move in with Joseph yet. Joseph was the only real boyfriend she had ever had and she had no way to know if he was really the one.

Then there was Mark, who had just stepped back into her life after all these years.  She thought about the way her heart had skipped a beat when she saw Mark standing in her door that afternoon. She had literally just been thinking of him the night before. She had been having all of these strange dreams lately. She usually didn’t remember her dreams after waking up, but the past few nights she remembered dreaming about simbots. Nothing in her life seemed to make very much sense at the moment.

Ms. Bunch’s door opened, and a few people left as the meeting came to an end. Maria looked at the clock and realized that she had been waiting for over an hour. The receptionist told her that Ms. Bunch was ready to see her.

 “Maria, come in. Take a seat,” Ms. Bunch said as Maria approached the door. She closed the door while Maria took the chair across from hers and then sat down. “I understand you didn’t come into work until after lunch today,” she began. Maria opened her mouth to try and say something in her defense, but her boss raised her hand, signaling Maria to be quiet. “This is unacceptable. You haven’t even been here for a year and you decide to take half the day off without as much as calling in? It’s shameful, really, and an embarrassment to me as your supervisor. Frankly, I don’t think you take this job as seriously as you need to.”

She pushed a button on her office phone and said to the receptionist, “See to it that Maria’s things are emptied from her desk,” She would release the button and then look back to Maria, “I trust you can find your way off the premises without security getting involved?” Maria was on the verge of tears, but managed to contain herself until she got outside.

She hadn’t driven herself to work today, and Joseph was at a casting call. She was trying to see if she had enough cash for a cab when she remembered Mark might still be in her apartment. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed her home phone number, hoping he’d answer. Luckily, he did! “Mark, can you please come pick me up from the Science Facility?” she asked, her voice trembling. Mark didn’t hesitate and was there in a few minutes.

He could tell Maria was upset, and tried his best to calm her down as they embarked from the Science Facility. “You look troubled. How about we get dinner on me, and we can talk about it?” he offered. Maria meekly nodded her head, still visibly holding back tears.

He drove her to the Little Corscian Bistro and they dined inside. Maria had always wanted to eat there, but had never had the money. The food was the most delicious she had ever eaten! She and Mark talked about high school and college and work. There were moodlight candles adding to the dim light of the restaurant, making the meal even more memorable. The dinner was the single most romantic evening she had ever had, and she wasn’t even sure it was a date. It couldn’t be a date, because she was engaged to Joseph.

Mark drove her home and walked her up to her apartment door. Maria kept marveling at what a wonderful night she had, despite how terrible her day had been. Then, as they stood in front of her door, Mark closed his eyes and leaned in to kiss her. Maria was shocked and didn’t react at all. Just as Mark was trying to kiss her, the apartment door opened. Joseph had been there, waiting for Maria to get home and find out how things had gone at work. Joseph angrily yelled “Get away from my woman!” Everyone stood there, stunned.