AS THE MOUSE

OVES©

Soap Opera "As The Mouse Moves" - Tuesday June 4th 2002
"You want a Coke?"  Starlene asked walking past Tiffany's desk towards the kitchen where her sister worked on MacDougal Street.
"That would be nice," Tiffany said never looking up from her work.  "We can go to lunch as soon as Clark gets back from his lunch with Jan at the Plaza Hotel."
"No hurry. I'm fine," Starlene said pushing the swinging doors open and walking into the kitchen as they closed behind her.
"Hi Tiffany," Clark said opening the front door of the townhouse and closing it behind him.
"Hi Clark. How was lunch at the Plaza with Jan?" she said glancing up as she watched her boss walk into the living room towards her desk.
"Weird," he said taking a seat beside her desk.
"How's that?"
"Stanley came into the restaurant and he was with Nicole," Clark said remembering the sight of lipstick on Stanley's collar.
"Oh my God," Tiffany whispered hoping her sister wouldn't come from the kitchen and hear the news that her lover was with Nicole.
"Oh they both said that they ran into each other while she was shopping.  He took her to lunch thinking she would want to have our engagement party at the Plaza."
"Oh…I see," Tiffany said.
"Yeah.  Nice of Stanley huh?"
"Well, I guess so."
"It was just so shocking to see them together.  You don't think that old man is in love with Nicole do you?"
"Oh no.  No. He's marrying my sister."
"It's just strange.  I don't have a great feeling about it."
"You're just in love," Tiffany said wondering what was really going on.
"Stanley's paying for our engagement party too," Clark said thoughtfully.
"How nice, I suppose."
"It's all very suspicious."
"You have doubts about Nicole?"
"I have doubts about Stanley's intentions.  I have doubts about Jan…I have doubts…" he stopped himself.
"Gee.  This all happened over lunch?"
"It's just all strange.  Stanley suddenly had to leave after saying he would pay for our lunch and the engagement party. He left and then Jan seemed to be annoyed all during lunch.  Then after I had put Nicole in a cab to go uptown to Madison Avenue shopping and Jan had left in her limo to go back to the Upper East Side…" he stopped himself and rubbed his forehead.
"What? What happened?" Tiffany asked hoping Starlene wouldn't come out of the kitchen and hear the conversation.
"I was getting into a cab to come back here and I saw Skeeter getting out of a cab rushing into the Plaza Hotel."
"Skeeter? My ex-husband?"
"Yes, Skeeter."
"Did he speak to you?"
"Yeah, he saw me.  I told him that I had just seen Nicole and Stanley while Jan and I were having lunch in the Palm Court Restaurant," Clark said as the swinging doors opened and Starlene walked in carrying two Diet Cokes.
"You saw Stanley with Nicole?" Starlene asked frowning.
CONTINUED TOMORROW. MORE SOAP PHOTOS BELOW.