Note-I do not own any of these characters.
Part 9

Sorry everyone for taking so long in writing another part. I have been busy with school and work and we are getting ready to move. But I have two new parts for all of you. I hope you enjoy!

Promise of a New Day

During the next month I started to feel a lot better about my continuing to grow relationship with Dave. Still uncertain of what our feelings were toward each other, it was great letting it go with the flow. We never rushed into anything, we were acting like very close but sometimes intimate friends. It was wonderful having someone like Dave around.
Independence Day was just around the corner. Mr. James had invited everyone to his house for a little party after the fireworks were let off in New York Harbor. His private helicopter would pick us up from the Criterion Building rooftop and fly us to his home in Connecticut. Dave and I thought it would be nice to go, everyone did for that matter.
"Did you want to go watch the lights with me?" Dave asked me after I had picked up the phone.
"Sure," I knew he meant the fireworks when he said lights, "that would be great."
Dave and I agreed to meet in the lobby of our building in ten minutes. At this point I was already getting ready for Mr. James' party. I ran down to the lobby, knowing that I was late to meet Dave down there. But he sat in a chair and waited on me.
"Sorry," I said.
Dave just smiled, "It's okay, you were only late by a few minutes."
We took a cab as close as we could get to the Harbor. Traffic was so backed up we were probably 15 blocks away when the driver said he couldn't get any closer. Dave paid him and we just got out to walk the rest of the way.



Dave had brought a blanket for the both of us, along with a bottle of wine. He laid the blanket down and I sat on it after it was ready. Dave sat down beside me and then laid down on his side, facing me, propping his head up with his arm.
"This is nice," I said.
"Is this your first fireworks display in New York?"
"Yeah," I replied, "but I'm sure that this will be better than watching a display in a fairgrounds."
Dave laughed at the thought, "I remember how that was."
I smiled at him. I just stared out to the water while waiting for the fireworks to go off. I heard someone start singing the national anthem, Dave and I stood up. Near the end, fireworks started going off like a madhouse. Everyone cheered and hollered.

The fireworks display was impressive, but short. Dave and I left near the end so we could hurry up and try to catch a cab to the Criterion Building. We got there in about twenty minutes.
"Hey, guys." We heard Matthew say when we walked onto the rooftop.
"Hello, Matthew." I said.
"Did you guys see the lights?" Beth said. She was giggling.
"Yes, as a matter of fact we did," Dave replied. He started looking around, and noticed that blankets were laid out everywhere. "Did you guys sit up here and watch?"
"Of course we did, Dave. Who in their right mind would try to catch a cab to the Harbor?" Bill said sarcastically.
"Well, we did." I replied, "and the traffic wasn't that bad."
"Impressive." Bill said.
"Bill, why don't you just leave them alone." I heard Catherine say.
Just then we all looked up when we heard Mr. James' helicopter approaching.
"Hey, Kids!!" Mr. James yelled from his chopper. "Come on and get in!"
Everyone piled into his chopper and we started flying to Connecticut.

There were more people than expected at Jimmy's. There were a lot of people that Dave or I did not know. I thought that Mr. James had just invited the people from the office. But we soon learned that these were people from other companies and plants that Mr. James owned. Soon Jimmy had Dave and I whisked away from our dancing and soon had us mingling with other people.
The hours started flying by, and before I knew it midnight had already come and gone.
"Dave, it's like two in the morning." I said to him.
He nodded his head. "I know. And I'm really tired."
"Let's go home." I said.
Mr. James' chopper was taking rounds of people back into the city. So we said our farewells to everyone, including Jimmy, and we took the next available flight back to New York.


Dave didn't say much to me in the cab. There was this kind of awkward silence falling between us. He walked me up to my apartment.
"Is there something wrong?" I asked him in front of my door.
"No, why do you ask me that?" Dave wondered.
"Well, you haven't said much to me since we left the party." I said. Dave just looked at me.
"Do you think that I could come in?"
"Sure," I said, I unlocked my door and we went in. It was so warm and humid outside that a blast of cold air from my apartment was a relief. "Do you want some iced tea?"
"Sure."
I went into the kitchen and poured us both a glass of tea. Dave was sitting on the sofa as I handed him his drink.
"I had a good time tonight." I said.
"Well, I'm glad you had a great time," he said sincerely, "I had a good time too."
I smiled at him. "You are so sweet."
He started to laugh at me. "Where did that come from?"
"Well," I said, "everything about you seems so innocent. The way you look, the way you act, just everything. It was silent again. "So, why don't you tell me why you didn't say much to me on the way home."
"I started to do some thinking." Dave replied.
"Thinking about what?" I asked.
"Well, about us."
I felt a little scared. Why was he thinking about us? We had been dating for a few months now, was he going to tell me that he didn't want to see me anymore?
"Okay," I sucked in my chest. "What about us?"
Dave took my hand in his and sat down his glass. "I am not for sure how I want to say this." He paused and looked into my eyes. "I have wanted to say this to you for so long, and in my mind I played and replayed in my head of how I was going to say this to you. I can't remember now, though."
"Dave," I said nervously, "just come out and say it."
He closed his eyes and came closer to me. My stomach was wrenching of butterflies, he put his arms around me and lifted me to my feet.
"Audrey," he said as he opened his eyes, "I am in love with you."
I thought my jaw was going to drop on the floor. I smiled at him and gave him a kiss. "Are you sure?" I asked.
He gave me a big hug and whispered, "I am very sure."
I felt so happy. Just having someone tell me that they love me again. And it felt so good to be loved. "I love you, too." I said. Dave continued to kiss me.
I sat down.
"Audrey," he said. "are you okay?"
"I'm fine." I replied. "I just think that we need to come out and agree to what we are going to do."
"Like in the office you mean?"
"Yes, because I don't want everyone to think that you are going to be biased or anything."
"Don't worry about that.' Dave reassured me. 'This isn't going to be anything like it was before.'
"If you want me to I can always resign, you know."
"No, no, no, there is no reason for you to leave the station."
"Well, it is Jimmy's fault for having us work so close together." I said.
"Yep," said Dave.

We were up all night, Dave and I fell asleep together on the sofa. I didn't even realize how late in the morning it was until I looked the phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Geez, Audrey. You sound like you just woke up." It was Mr. James.
"Oh, yeah, I'm not feeling too good."
"Sorry to hear that, hon. You haven't by chance seen Dave around have you?"
I looked over at Dave on the couch. "No, sir. I haven't seen him."
"Well, all right, but if you do see him tell him that I need him to bring the budget reviews to work with him today and that I think that something is wrong with the air conditioning in the office, but I'll have Joe take a look at it."
"Okay, bye, sir." I hung up the phone.
Dave rolled over and looked at me. "What time is it?"
"Well, it's time for both of us to go to work." I replied. Dave sat up and rubbed his eyes.
"I can't believe that I fell asleep,"
"Well, it was pretty late by the time we got here." I said.
"I'm gonna go up and get ready." Dave said, "How about I meet you back here in an hour and we'll stop on the way to work and get some coffee?"
"Sounds great," I smiled. Dave left and I started to get ready for work.
About an hour later I heard a knock on the door and I let Dave in. We went to the lobby and then walked down the block to grab some coffee, and then we took a cab to work.
It was so miserable outside. The heat and humidity was enough to kill someone. This was supposed to be our fifth day straight with temperatures in the 90’s. We got to the building and were on the elevator. I just couldn't wait to step off it and feel that blast of cool air. But when the elevator doors opened, I stepped off and didn't feel a difference. I looked over at Dave who seemed to be handling it okay.
"David." Matthew said to him. "Here is a message from the air conditioning place."
Dave read the message and then started looking for Joe.
"Yeah, Dave." Joe said.
"Joe, this is from the repair guy who said that you told him if he didn't leave you were going to make sure that his kids won't ever see their Uncle Lou again."
"What he didn't tell you is that Uncle Lou is everyone's uncle." Dave gave Joe a strange look. "See, I can tell what part of New York a person is from. That guy is from the same area as me, and around there everyone knows who Uncle Lou is."
"So who is Uncle Lou?" Dave asked.
"Oh, he's an old guy who used to sit out on the street and tell war stories…"
"Beth, call the repair guy back and tell him that we are sorry and that we are going to double his pay if he'll come back."
"Don't do that, dude." Joe said. Dave gave him a questioning look, "the guy didn't even know what he was doing. Just let me handle it."
"Okay, but it is miserable in here and I really want this fixed today."
"I'm on it." Joe said. Dave went into his office.
I looked around the office and saw that every one was hot and miserable too, so it wasn't just me. The lights were shut off to make everything seem cooler. But it wasn't helping too much. I sat at the conference table and took off my outer jacket that I had on with my suit. I had a chamise on underneath, but I was still very hot. I laid my head down after taking a drink of water. I started to doze off.

Part 10