Running Northwest by Michael Melville Read Free Book Online Page A

joke.
    “Oh, shut up. You were gorgeous then and you are gorgeous now. How old were you when this was taken?” she asked.
    “Twenty-two. It feels like forever ago sometimes,” Stephanie, answered.
    “Yeah, I bet; five years is lifetime,” Karen said sarcastically. “So who’s the cutie, Stephanie?” she asked with a cheesy wink.
    Stephanie smiled as she was looking down at the picture studying it herself once again, looking at his face before she answered. As she did this, Karen was watching her face. Stephanie sat down on the edge of her desk, Karen doing the same.
    Stephanie sighed a little and then smiled as she looked down at the picture, “His name is Thomas…Thomas M. James,” she said quietly with far away thoughts of the man in the picture.
    Karen looked over at her friend who was still lost in thought and was starting to tear up again.
    “He was important to you?” Karen asked, trying to dig a little deeper and get Stephanie to open up and talk since she had been very withdrawn as of late.
    “He was, yes,” Stephanie, answered quietly as she looked up at Karen’s face.
    “I think he still is, Stephanie,” Karen said, giving her friend a knowing look.
    “Why do you say that?” she asked as she looked down nervously, and feeling a little embarrassed.
    “Stephanie, I’ve known you for a long time, darlin, I haven’t seen a man make you smile like you were since…well, I don’t even know when, before Jared I know that for sure. I never saw you smile like this when you looked at him, ever,” Karen said in a very matter-of-fact way.
    “So out with it, give me the lowdown on this guy Thomas. How do you know him and why haven’t I ever met him?”
    “It’s a long story; a really long story, Karen. I can’t really go into it right now, being at work,” Stephanie said, trying to get herself together and dry her eyes off.
    “Uh-huh, sure,” Karen said then adding, “Well here’s what is going to happen then Darlin. I am going to get the husband to watch the kids tonight. I’m going to get us some Chinese food and a bottle of wine…or two…and I am coming over, okay? No excuses. I will be there at 6:30 and then I want the whole juicy story all of it. Besides, I need some juicy girl talk, it’s been a while.”
    “I don’t know, Karen, it was so long ago. I do not know if there is even a point in talking about it anymore. I’ll probably be tired,” Stephanie said.
    “Stephanie, really! I just heard you breaking pictures of your ex-boyfriend in your office. I come in and see you sitting on the floor, crying and holding a picture of some strange sexy man from your past that I have never met let alone EVER heard you talk about. You’re trying to tell me there is nothing for you to talk about!”
    Stephanie put her hands on her hips, tapped her left foot, and tried to stare down her friend and coworker.
    “Okay fine, come over and we will talk. It would probably be good for me to talk about it anyway,” she ended up saying.
    “I wasn ’t really giving you a choice , Steph, but I’m glad you agreed to it anyway,” Karen said laughing as she turned and headed out of the room with the box in her hand. “And I’m putting this crap in the garbage now,” she said, walking through the doorway.
    “That’s fine with me,” Stephanie said with a wave as she looked down at the picture frame in her hand.
    She set it on her desk and sat back down in her chair to fix her makeup.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Four
     
    Thomas looked up from the notepad in front of him and at the front of his cell phone; it was 5:35. They had been there for about 40 minutes now. Things were not going quite as well as he had hoped when it came to Pete, the new kid that Tracie was testing out. Thomas was keeping notes on everything he saw and heard. Thomas looked away from the shops counter and across the table at his son Daniel and smiled.
    Daniel was doing his