AS THE MOUSE

OVES©

Friday November 24^th, 2000
"We have dinner.  I send car for you," Amir said in his broken English into the telephone.  He hoped he could convince Tiffany to forgive him for leaving her alone on Thanksgiving while he entertained the visiting foreign Princess. He'd completely forgotten about this American holiday that Tiffany felt was so important.  He realized he'd asked her to forgive him a lot lately.  She was just getting over finding out in the newspapers that he had a comatose wife in his country.
"Has your Princess gone home?" she asked her voice filled with hostility.
"Yes.  She go home this morning," His PR agent had made the arrangements for him to escort the Princess to the opening of his new international spa while he was out of the country.   
"I can't have dinner Amir.  I have other plans," she lied.
"I see.  I thought we make plan.  I try to call you late last evening and you never answer," he said wondering where his lover had been all night.
"Maybe I'm a Princess to someone else," she said reciting Skeeter's words.
"You find someone else?"
"Maybe.  Remember I'm still married too Amir."
"You see this Skeeter again?" he asked hoping that certainly she hadn't been with her estranged husband.  He had to hire a bodyguard to protect her from him a few months ago.  His bodyguard was almost killed by gunshot wounds.  He still suspected Skeeter was involved in the mystery shooting that the NYPD had blamed on a homeless man.
"I don't feel I have to report to you Amir.  You haven't been totally honest with me.  You have a sick wife in a coma.  You have obligations with this Princess.  The only obligation I have to you is this apartment.  I'll find another place to live in case you want to move in your Princess," she said hotly.
"She never live here.  She go to her country now.  You stay in apartment.  You are very angry.  I regret you are angry with me.  What can I do?  I plan all day to spend with you."
"You're too late.  Maybe you need to be alone and think of the way you have treated me Amir.  I won't be treated like nothing.  I have to go," she said overwhelmed with jealousy and anger as she remembered the image of him on television with the Princess on his arm at his opening party for Manhattan Gold International. 
"You change your mind.  I wait here for you," he said as he listened to her hang up the phone.
She wiped the tears from her cheeks.  Confusion seemed to overwhelm her this past week after losing her job and  finding out her lover was a married man. She had finally forgiven Amir when he showed up in the wee hours of the morning after his party begging for forgiveness. It seemed like another insult for him to leave her the next morning after their intimacy and spend Thanksgiving with that Princess. Running into Skeeter in the diner on Thanksgiving night had only added to her confusion.  She thought she had seen Skeeter on camera at the party too, but couldn't be sure.  Being alone on Thanksgiving would have been too unbearable so she agreed to leave the diner and come back to his apartment on Bleecker Street for drinks.  She wasn't sure if it was the loneliness or too many drinks but they had gotten along better than she had expected.  Life in NYC was reaching rock bottom, maybe she would convince Skeeter to move back to Georgia with her.    She certainly didn't have anything to lose now.  She didn't have a  job and she was living in Amir's expensive apartment.  Maybe she would go to Skeeter's again tonight and try and convince him that they should give up this crazy life in New York and move back home to Georgia.  They still had their mobile home in Georgia; it would be easy, she thought.  They were still legally married; they could start a family like she had always wanted.  Amir was married to a wealthy sick woman in a coma; he couldn't offer her a marriage and a family like Skeeter.  She dialed Skeeter's number and listened to the ringing phone.
"Hello" he answered.
"I thought I'd come over and we could talk," she said.
"When?" he asked wondering what time Jan was expecting him later tonight.
"Hold on Skeeter, I have another call", she said hitting the button on the phone.
"Hello", she answered.
"Tiffany.  Are you busy?" her former boss Clark asked.
CONTINUED MONDAY. MORE PHOTOS BELOW.