Office
Mary Johnson was typing a letter Fuller had dictated to her. Across from her, Joan Addison was sitting at her own desk and, as usual, doing nothing. The girl was reading a satirical magazine and munching chocolates from a box. Miss Addison had a way of being annoying even when she was not talking, and when she did talk, all she uttered was brainless nonsense.
‘Hey, Mary,’ Mary now heard. She looked up and saw Miss Addison walk towards her on her short, pudgy legs. As Fuller was not present, the girl dispensed with wiggling her backside for him to see.
‘Yes?’ Mary asked. ‘Got nothing to do? Scoot down to the supply room then, we’re short on staples.’
The wood of the desk creaked when Miss Addison parked her massive behind on it. ‘What’s this I heard yesterday?’ she asked with a crooked smile. ‘Is Mr. Fuller taking you to the Cozy Bottom tomorrow?’
Mary swallowed. It was true, it was to be a quartet, the only way for her to meet Lucy, and for Fuller to have a night out with Tim. Miss Addison must have been eavesdropping when Fuller and Mary had discussed it in his office.
‘The place is called the Cozy Corner,’ Mary corrected her colleague. ‘I am taking my paramour, and Mr. Fuller will be escorting Miss Smith.’
Miss Addison’s blue eyes sparkled. ‘I want to come too!’
‘You’re not invited,’ Mary stated. ‘It’s a double date, you’d be the fifth wheel on the wagon.’
‘I know that,’ Miss Addison snapped. Then she fell silent, taking her sweet time to come up with her next phrase.
‘Take me along,’ she demanded. ‘Or else I’ll tell the world that you are Mr. Fuller’s mistress. The court is in your ball now, sweetheart.’
Not bothering to correct her, Mary watched her leave to go to the supply room and then burst into the main office, where Fuller was smilingly schmoozing on the phone, probably to Tim. When he spotted her, he croaked: ‘Gotta hang up now, babe,’ into the receiver, banged it onto the hook and then gave her an angry look. ‘Christ, Mary, don’t go boo-hoo on me now, I’ve seen enough of that! Shit, I can’t never get no goddamn work done in here with all the side business interrupting me.’
‘I’m sorry, Fuller,’ she hiccupped. ‘But Miss Addison, she…’