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EPISODE FOUR: "While You Were Away, Part 2"
It's a Friday morning in Baltimore and the weather is perfect. The sun is shining and there's not a cloud in the sky. Bret and Jamie are at their Butchers Hill rowhouse, both getting ready for the workday. Bret is in the bathroom shaving while Jamie is in the bedroom getting dressed. "You know, Bret, I've been thinking about Valerie the past few days. I don't know what it is about her, but she seems so insecure in her relationship with Alex," Jamie calls to him from the bedroom. "The other night at The Brew, Valerie seemed so angry and worked up when she returned from the bathroom."
Bret
peeks his head out of the bathroom and looks down the hall at Jamie in the
bedroom. "You know, hon, you just have to stay out of this
stuff. I mean, Alex is an attractive guy and part of his job is to flirt
with the customers," Bret replies. "That's enough to make anyone
a little insecure. I know I would be." Bret returns to his
position in front of the mirror and finishes shaving. He rinses his face
off in the sink and then pats himself dry with a hand towel. He flips the
light switch in the bathroom off and heads to the bedroom. When he walks
into the bedroom, Jamie is sitting at the end of the bed in doctor's
scrubs. She watches him walk into the bedroom and take his towel from
around his waist. He flings the towel across the room at Jamie and it hits
her, wrapping around her head. Bret snickers as he starts to get dressed
and Jamie removes the towel and throws it on the edge of the bed next to her.
"Jealousy is one thing, Bret. I really believe that Valerie thinks Alex has a thing for Holly. And she isn't exactly nice to any of us when we all hang out at The Brew," Jamie tell him. Bret laughs again and walks over to Jamie. He squats down in front of her and puts both of his hands on her knees. "Hon, you really shouldn't stress about it. Alex is a big boy and when he's had enough of Valerie, he will tell her to screw off. And Holly can handle herself." Bret stands up and continues to get dressed. "Anyway, Holly is Alex's first love and that can create a lot of tension for the new girlfriend." Jamie just watches Bret get dressed and doesn't respond to his comment.
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Meanwhile, at
a cafe in Charles Village, several blocks north of Mt. Vernon, Alex is at an
outside table reading the newspaper and having coffee and a bagel. Valerie
strolls over and covers Alex's eyes from behind with her hands.
"Guess who?" she whispers in his ear. Alex reaches up and
pulls Valerie's hands away from his face. "Knock it off, Val!"
he scolds. Valerie walks around and sits across from him at the table and
responds in
a child's voice, "OOOh, didn't poor wittle Alwex get enough west last
night?" She laughs at herself, but quickly controls her laughter when
she sees that Alex isn't amused. "So why are you so tense this
morning? You should have come over last night. Then you would've
been in a great mood today, Al," she adds, in a normal voice.
Alex folds up his newspaper as a server walks over and refills his coffee. "Anything for you?" the server asks Valerie. Valerie smiles at him and replies, "Can I get an iced mocha to go, please?" The server walks away from the table and Valerie turns her attention back to Alex, who has been just staring at her while he sips his coffee. "Sorry I can't stay this morning, but Scott and I have a meeting with an important client at 9. But I'm all yours this evening. What are we going to do?"
Alex leans onto the table with his elbows and looks at Valerie. "I actually can't see you this evening, Val. I promised Holly that I would come over tonight and help her move some furniture since Paul is out of town," Alex tells her. Valerie's face goes white. "And I'm working tomorrow and Sunday night, so I won't be able to come over to your place until early next week."
Valerie leans back in her chair and begins to pout. "I don't like it, Alex. I don't like it one bit," she rants. "Everytime Paul hops on a plane to go to one his stupid little graduate school interviews, you always run over there to take care of poor little Holly. I wish I got half the attention you give her. Then maybe you would be helping me move OUR furniture instead of helping her." Alex pulls his napkin from his lap and throws it on the table. He stands up and reaches into his front pocket and pulls out a wad of money. He counts some money and lays it on the table. He leans over to Valerie and says, gritting his teeth, "Maybe if you weren't so damned jealous of Holly this relationship would be going somewhere." He stands up and walks away from the table. Valerie counts the money he left on the table and then turns and shouts at him, "You could've left enough for mine too." She turns around the pulls a couple of dollars from her purse. "Damn you, Holly. Damn you!" she says under her breath as she throws the money on the table.
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Later that
morning, at a downtown office building, Bret is sitting in front of a computer
typing. There is a knock on his door and he shouts out, "It's
open!" The door opens and Ashley walks into his office. Bret
looks up. "Hey boss lady," he says with a grin. Ashley returns
the smile and walks to 
"It looks great, Bret. I can't wait to see the finished
product," Ashley praises. "How about we talk about some other
ideas I have over lunch?"
Bret looks at his watch and then at Ashley again. "I would love to, Ash, but my better half is going to meet me here in a little bit. She works in the ER at Harbor and only has a morning shift today," he answers. Ashley looks at him disappointedly, "Ahh, to be in love again," she replies sarcastically. "You couldn't pay me enough to go through that crap again."
Bret laughs at Ashley and then inquires, "So you're not seeing anyone at all? I find that hard to believe. I mean, don't take this the wrong way, but you are an incredibly attractive woman." Ashley smiles a thank you to Bret and then stands up. "Well, since she has you for lunch, do you think she'll mind if I steal you for dinner?" Bret returns the smile to Ashley. "Not a prob, Ash. She is working in the morning so we don't have anything planned anyway. I was planning to burn the midnight oil to get this website up and running by Monday anyway." Ashley walks toward the door. "Great, you pick the place and I'll pay the tab," she tells Bret and she walks toward the door and out of his office. Bret just watches her as she walks away from him. After staring at the empty doorway for a few minutes, he shakes his head. "Incredibly attractive doesn't even begin to describe it!" he says to himself. He stares at the door for a while longer and then turns his attention back to his work.
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Several blocks
north of Downtown Baltimore, at Catrina's rowhouse in Mt. Vernon Square, the
newspapers have piled up on the front porch. Inside the house, dishes have
piled up in the sink and left unattended to, and in the bedroom, clothes are
strewn about the floor and the furniture. In the bed, Catrina lays on her
stomach staring at the closed window shutters that are offering the room just a
bit of light. The alarm clock is sounding and the time on the clock reads
12:05pm and the telephone is ringing. Catrina makes no effort to stop the
alarm from going off or to answer the
phone. After the phone rings six times, her answering machine downstairs
answers the call. "Hey, this is Catrina. Scott and I cannot
come to phone right now, so talk to us and we'll get back with you.
[pause] Wait for the beep." The volume on the answering machine is
turned all of the way up and after her prerecorded greeting, the beep
sounds. Catrina reaches over and hits the snooze button on her alarm clock
and listens, "Cat, I know you're there. I called the salon and they
told me you've been out all week. I wish you would talk to me. It's
not like you think. I'm going to keep calling until you answer. Cat, we
can work this out. We can..."
As Scott leaves his message on the answering machine, Catrina makes her way down the steps and to the table in the living room where the answering machine sits. She reaches for the telephone cord going into the back of the answering machine and yanks it from the wall. Scott's message is cut short. Catrina walks into the kitchen and pours herself a cup of coffee from the cold coffee pot. As she places the cup of coffee in the microwave to heat up, the phone rings in the kitchen and startles her. She walks over to it and places her hand on the receiver. She lets out a loud sign and picks up the phone on the fourth ring. "Yeah," she answers. She listens to the person on the other end of the line for a few seconds. "I'm coming in. I'll be there in an hour or so. Could you tell everyone I'd like to meet with them after hours today. I think I'm going to take you up on that offer to buy the salon." She pauses again and listens. "Thanks, Devin. I'll see you in a bit." Catrina replaces the receiver and pulls her coffee from the microwave. As she sits at the table in the kitchen, she hears the doorbell. She places her hand on her forehead and sighs again. She struggles to get off of the chair and walk into the living room. She peers out of the window and sees Scott there, holding his cell phone. Her telephone rings again and she just walks up the steps and heads to her bathroom to shower.
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Later in the
afternoon, Jamie and Bret are walking through the Broadway Market in the
Southeast Baltimore neighborhood of Fells Point. They are hand-in-hand as
they walk from vendor to vendor trying to decide on something to eat. As
they are walking, Jamie looks at Bret and says, "You 
know,
I really wish this Ashley lady would have been there today when I stopped by to
pick you up. You've been talking about how she has all of these wonderful
ideas and is so into what you've done so far with the marketing plan. She
has my interest piqued."
Bret looks at
her and smiles, "Well, I'm glad you seem to be alright with me working so
closely with another woman. I wouldn't want you to be all Valerie on
me," he jokes. "We are going to have a dinner tonight after work
to discuss where to go next with the marketing plan." They stop at a
deli within the Broadway Market and place an order for two sandwiches.
Jamie looks up at Bret, "I have to get to bed early tonight anyway. I
have a double tomorrow." She reaches up and kisses Bret on the
lips. A few
seconds later, the grab their sandwiches from the counter and pay the man.
They walk out of the market's south entrance and to the waterfront where they
sit on the ledge and have their lunch.
While sitting and eating their lunch, Jamie notices that Bret seems very distant. "Bret, have you talked to Catrina at all this week? I haven't heard from her since last Sunday," Jamie asks. Bret ignores Jamie's questions so she asks again, this time nudging him in the arm. "Oh, no. I haven't," he answers. Jamie looks at him inquisitively. "What were you thinking about?" Bret smiles and leans over and kisses her forehead. "Just about how good life is, Jame. Life is pretty good," he answers as he looks out over the Baltimore Harbor. Jamie looks out to the water as well, "Yeah, it is pretty good right now, isn't it?"
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Later that evening, Holly is in her kitchen placing a frozen pizza in the oven. The telephone rings and as she runs to answer it. "Hello?" Paul, on the other end of the line responds to her answering the phone, "What's your favorite scary movie?" Holly laughs and does a Drew Barrymore impression, trying her best to remember the scene from the movie SCREAM. Paul laughs at her. "How's my baby doing?" he asks.
Holly takes the cordless telephone into the living room and sits on the
sofa. "Not too bad for being all alone and stalked by a vicious
serial killer," she jokes. Paul laughs. "Alex is on his
way over and we're going to move the furniture out of the living room so I can
start painting. But don't you worry, I'm not going to do it all.
I'll be sure to leave some for you. How did the interview go this
afternoon?"
Paul chuckles again and replies, "Great, actually. Out of the three interviews this week, the interview today at Berkley seem to go the best. You'd love it out here, Holl, you really would." Paul continues, "I have some bad news though." Holly listens in suspense. "I'm not going to fly back until tomorrow night on the redeye. I ran into Chris Martin today and we're going to hit the town tonight. I hope that's okay, sweets."
Holly jokingly sighs. "I suppose so. I guess I'll have to paint all by myself. Maybe I'll invite Valerie over to help. Do you think she would?" Holly asks Paul sarcastically. Paul laughs but then abruptly stops. "Holl, you just stay clear of her. I don't trust her, especially after what happened to you in the bathroom at The Brew on Monday night," he warns. There is a knock at the door and Holly jumps up to answer it while she's responding to Paul.
"I told you I would talk to Alex about it tonight," Holly tells Paul while she is opening the door to let Alex into the house. As he comes in and takes off his jacket, he smiles at Holly and listens to her wrap up her conversation. "I promise, I will talk to him tonight. Be careful. And I'll talk to you tomorrow. Don't forget to call me with your new flight information." Paul responds on the other end of the line, "I love you, sweetie. I can't wait to see you." Holly concludes the conversation, "I love you too, Paul. Bye." With her sentiment to Paul, Alex's smile disappears. He watches her as she runs into the kitchen to replace the telephone on its charger base. As she comes back into the living room, Alex forces a smile.
Holly walks over to Alex and gives him a hug. "Thanks so much for doing this, Alex. You don't know how much I appreciate it." Alex responds that it's no inconvenience and the both sit down on the sofa in the living room. "I'm making us pizza and I bought some beer. I hope that's cool," Holly asks. "You didn't even have to do that, Holl," Alex responds. "What were you talking to Paul about on the phone? Was it something you had to talk to me about?"
Holly stands up and quickly changes the subject. "I could go for a beer now, couldn't you?" Alex agrees and Holly heads into the kitchen to grab a couple of beers from the refrigerator. Alex follows her into the kitchen. "So, what's up Holl? What is it?" Holly continues to avoid the subject by discussing the painting and the pizza, and anything else she can think of to talk about. "Holl? Stop it. Talk to me," Alex demands.
Holly begins, "On Monday night, remember when Val walked me to the bathroom." Alex acknowledges. "No, it's nothing, just forget it." Alex just looks at Holly. The timer for the oven goes off and Holly turns and stops it. She walks over the oven and removes the pizza while Alex just stands there, waiting for her to finish. "Holly?" Holly cuts the pizza and then turns to Alex. "She threatened me Alex. She thinks that there is still something between us and she threatened me. Something about killing me if I didn't keep my hands off you or something. It's silly." Holly laughs.
Alex sits down at the kitchen table. "I don't know that it's silly, Holl." Holly stops what she is doing and looks over at him. "What we had was amazing. There will always be something there, Holl. And if I wasn't such a jackass back then, I can't help but think it would still be here and we would be happy." Holly walks over to the table and sits down next to him. She reaches over and grabs his hand. "Oh, Alex. So much has changed since then. That was three years ago and we've both grown up so much since then. We're still best friends and that's the most important thing." Alex reluctantly agrees with her.
"You know, it's kind of funny that we're having this conversation. Valerie and I got into an argument this morning about you and I really laid into her. I even walked away from her and haven't talked to her all day," Alex tells Holly. Holly stands up and walks behind Alex. She leans down and puts her arms around him. "Alex, I will always have this incredibly special place in my heart that belongs to only you. It's yours and will always be yours," she tells him. A single tear runs down Alex's cheek and Holly wipes it away.
"I guess I haven't exactly been there with Valerie. I suppose she has every right to be angry at me, but she certainly shouldn't take it out on you," Alex tells Holly. "I'll talk to her about the bathroom incident." Holly smiles at Alex. "Why don't you just talk to her about how much you care about her?" Holly insists. "I'm fine. I made it through. I'll live. I suppose I would feel the same way if I were in her shoes. It's gotta be tough for her since we're still so close." Holly and Alex looks at one another and smile and Holly continues, "So what do you say we eat and drink and paint? Or just eat and drink and Paul can paint when he gets home?"
The two laugh and walk over to the stove top where the pizza is waiting. As they take their slices and their beer and walk into the living room, Valerie watches them from the back door window. "I'm not going to lose you, Alex. I'll do anything to make sure you stay mine. Anything!" Valerie says aloud as she stares at Alex and Holly through the window.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Coming next week, February 18, 2001, Episode Five: Let the Truth Be Told....