“I didn’t hear you call my name . . .”
“Right, because your name isn’t Mary.”
Oh, I was Mary. Right . . . Whoops. Should I tell him my real name?
Scott sat up, groaning. Large sections of pumpkin were falling off his jacket.
“Uh, Scott. Did you just take a pumpkin bullet for me?”
Why would he do that?
“Pretty sure I took it for Mary.” He looked at me, annoyed.
I flinched. “Umm, yea . . . sorry. Are you okay?” He was gripping his shoulder and breathing through his clenched teeth and the bruise forming under his right eye looked like it would be black by morning. From the knot forming on the back of my head, I was guessing my skull was the culprit.
“Yep, never better.” He tried to move his left arm, which was followed by a round of curses. “Did you get the coupon?”
“No.” I couldn’t keep the sadness from my voice. After all, it would be wrong to be sad about cookies when he just got hit with a pumpkin. Well, at least I shouldn’t be.
He grabbed his envelope from his pumpkin-flavored suit jacket. “Here, take this. I'm pretty sure I will have plenty to remember tonight by.”
There was a surge of people running toward us now, a lady in an EMT coat and a man bringing out a stretcher among them. Nope. I was not doing that.
“I think we need to have you both checked out.” A lady with a vest started shining a bright light in my eyes.
No way I was leaving this field on a stretcher.
“Nope. I’m good.” I stood and stepped away from the stretcher. “I wasn’t hit. He saved me.” I pointed to Scott.
“Thanks a lot,” he grumbled.
The EMT lady scowled. “I at least need you to sign a form saying that I offered you care.”
“Will do,” I nodded.
With that, Scott’s puppy friend swooped in and tried to help pull him up. Scott yelled in pain.
“Other arm, James!” Scott closed his eyes and his face turned white.
“Um, thanks again?” I felt terrible, but there was nothing I could do at this point. If I ever saw Scott again, it would be too soon. I ran from the field.
Chapter Four
SCOTT
One night of chaos with “Mary”and I found a renewed passion to get back on track with my plans.
I had lost focus and was going nowhere fast. It was time to re-focus and prove to myself what I could achieve.
Time to email the letter to the Raymond & Johnson Law Firm. I had rewritten it a million times. Time to tell my dad I was ready for a change.
A few years of long hours and careful planning, and my dad’s law firm was out of the red.
My father, Ron, was a great man, but a horrible business owner.
I switched from the office email to my personal account and began sorting and deleting different messages I’d received that day. The best inbox was clutter-free and organized.
I shuddered when I thought of my dad’s work email. Pages and pages of spam mixed in with invoices and inquiries. I showed him how to sort and block different senders. It took me a full weekend to clean it up and set up how I thought it should run. Six monthslater, it was back in chaos. He swore he knew where everything was, and it didn’t bug him.
