AS THE MOUSE

OVES©

Soap Opera "As The Mouse Moves" - Monday May 14^th 2001
"Tiffany I need to talk to you," her boss Clark said as soon as he walked into his townhouse near Washington Square Park where they worked. Jan Morgan had just left a meeting with him after a heated exchange.
"Sure," Tiffany said as her hands began to tremble.  She hadn't known what was wrong when she rushed into the office this morning.  At first she thought perhaps he had found out for sure that his suspicions were correct and that she had been seeing his wealthy client Amir.  Jan's jealousy over her wealthy boss Amir had caused plenty of problems, but so far the secret affair was only speculation. 
"Did you see the front page of today's newspaper?" Clark asked nodding towards the newspaper folded under Tiffany's hand on her desk.
"Yeah I just saw," Tiffany said.
"Did you know that your sister Starlene is seeing Jan's father?"
"No."
"She never mentioned this to you?"
"Never."
"Well Jan's really upset over this."
"I heard," Tiffany said having overheard Jan's angry words from Clark's upstairs office this morning.
The ringing of the phone interrupted their conversation.
"Manhattan Party Planning," Tiffany answered relieved for a moment away from the tension with her boss.
"Could I speak with Tiffany Diamond please," the strange man's voice on the telephone asked.
"This is she."
"Well, hello Tiffany.  This is Eric with The Empire State Newspaper.  We need your sister Starlene's phone number," he said.
"I'm sorry.  I can't give you that kind of information."
"Oh.  Then could you tell me something about your family?"
"No. I certainly can't tell you anything," Tiffany said hanging up the phone.
"Who was that?"
"The Empire State Newspaper."
"See Tiffany?  Most of the newspaper's have already called here this morning asking about your sister. You can understand why Jan's so upset."
"I didn't know anything about this Clark.  I'm as shocked as you are.  There really isn't anything I can do about what my sister does."
"Yeah I understand but Jan doesn't see it that way.  This really puts me in a bad spot," he said remembering how adamant Jan was that Tiffany should be fired.
"Are you going to fire me again?" she asked bracing herself. He had laid her off once before at Jan's urging.
"I just want you to talk to Starlene and try to get her to cool her act a little. This is very harmful to Amir too," he said.
"I'm really sorry."
"Call her now and see if she'll agree to stop seeing Stanley.  See if you can make her understand how hard this is for Jan and how much harm this might do Amir," he said.
"Sure. I'll do everything I can.  Thanks Clark for not being mad at me.  I was so afraid Jan would convince you to fire me," she said.
"I know it's hasn't been easy for you and Jan with all of the problems that Skeeter has caused," Clark said watching her face closely.  He had overheard Jan calling Skeeter on the phone from his office.  If his suspicions were correct Jan was secretly seeing Tiffany's estranged husband and that might explain her constant jealousy towards his assistant Tiffany.  He had wondered many times if Tiffany knew of the affair that he suspected.
"She said something about Skeeter too?"  Tiffany asked wondering if her suspicions had been on target all along. 
CONTINUED TOMORROW. MORE PHOTOS BELOW.