***

“Hello, can I speak to Ms. Raymond, please?” a snooty-voice asked as I picked up the phone.

“Speaking.” I sat up in my bed and put the ice cream tub to the side, not wanting it to fall over while I was on the phone.

“Ms. Raymond, this is Priscilla calling from Marathon Corporation’s HR department. You haven’t been to work in three days, and you haven’t called in, so we wanted to make sure that everything was okay.”

“I’m fine.”

“Then why are you not at work, Ms. Raymond?” Her voice was harsh and I knew that if she could, she would fire me on the spot.

“I don’t know what to say.” I replied honestly and laughed about what her reaction would be if I told her the truth. I slept with the CEO, who’s my ex, found out he was engaged and has a son and he broke my heart again. Oh yeah, and I also let him f**k my ass**le. Win for me.

“Will you be coming in tomorrow, Ms. Raymond?”

“Doubt it.” I grabbed my spoon and dug into my Ben & Jerry’s. I needed a strawberry cheesecake ice cream fix.

“Ms. Raymond, I have to tell you that...” She paused and I heard some whispering in the background. “One moment, please.”

“Katie.” His voice was silky and smooth and my heart flipped.

“Brandon.” I replied softly, the ice cream in my spoon long forgotten as it dripped onto the bed.

“What are you doing?”

“Eating ice cream.” I replied automatically and he laughed.

“Come in to work tomorrow, please.”

“I can’t.” My voice shook.

“I need you on my team, Katie. Please come into work tomorrow.”

“You hurt me.” I whispered. “I don’t want to see you again.”

“Fight for it, Katie.” His voice was urgent. “You worked so hard to get this job. Are you really going to throw it away?”

“I don’t know what to do. I hate you.”

“Think about what you really want.” He paused and then continued. “Think about what’s in your heart and fight for it. Don’t just walk away again.”

“What are you talking about?” My tone grew angry.

“I hope to see you tomorrow.” His voice was soft now. “I hope you’re the warrior princess I always thought you were.” And then he hung up. I lay back on the bed with my eyes wide and my heart beating fast. I was shivering even though it wasn’t cold. I closed my eyes as I remembered the last time he had called me his warrior princess. It had been a Saturday, and we’d gone to lunch at some cute chic restaurant in Soho. We’d shared a salad and a sandwich and had been playing footsie under the table. I’d been going on about some new book I’d read—I think it was A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, so it wasn’t actually new, just new for me. I had never really studied much history, so I had been fascinated by the history of relations between France and England. Brandon was a bit of a history buff, so he’d been telling me about Louis the Fourteenth and his wife Marie Antoinette when I saw the manager of the restaurant run outside and start berating two young boys who were going through the trash can at the curb. The two boys looked tattered and dirty and had taken food out of the trash can to eat. Without thinking, I jumped up and ran outside.

“What’s going on?” I asked the manager, and noticed that one of the boys was crying.

“These two thieves are going through the trash. They need to leave.”

“Thieves? They look like they’re seven or eight.” I shook my head. “And they are stealing rotten food. I bet they’re hungry. Are you boys hungry?” I gave them both a warm smile and they nodded slowly. “You should be giving them something to eat, not chasing them off.” I glared at the manager.

“I’m not encouraging these hoodrats.”

“Everyone is a human being and should be treated with dignity and respect.” I glared at him, my voice getting louder.

“What’s going on out here?” Brandon’s arm slid around my shoulder and his voice sounded concerned.

“These two boys were going through the trash for food because they’re hungry and he won’t let them take the scraps.” My voice was passionate. “I think he should be getting them food from the kitchen and he’s not even letting them take the food in the garbage.”

“I have a business to run. I can’t feed every Tom, Dick, and Harry for free.” He glared back at me.

“These are kids.”

“I don’t care.” He turned around and walked back into the restaurant.

“Wait here with the boys.” I looked at Brandon and then hurried back into the restaurant. “I’d like to order four sandwiches, with four bags of potato chips, and four cookies and four bottles of water.” I marched up to the manager. “And I want them STAT.”

“Excuse me?”

“If you don’t want me to start shouting and letting everyone know how greedy and uncharitable this restaurant is, you will get them ready now.” I spoke calmly. “Don’t worry, I’ll pay for the food.”

He stared at me for a few seconds but then turned around and put in the orders. I smiled to myself at my small victory and walked back outside with the bags of food as soon as I had them. The boys had huge smiles on their faces as they stood there with Brandon, and even wider smiles when I handed them the food.