Those Angstrom Men!. (5 page)

Mr. Angstrom sat down in front of Maggie’s desk.

“Well, you are very attractive, young lady. And you seem to be doing a good job for us.”

“Eh, thank you, Mr. Angstrom.” Maggie was on edge. The older man’s words were inoffensive, but the way he looked at her was very unsettling.

“You used to be a reporter at a women’s magazine, Miss Parker. You must be right up on all the celebrity gossip.”

“Not really, Mr. Angstrom,” Maggie smiled sweetly. “The magazine folded almost two years ago, and I covered the very minor celebrities, you know, fifth cousins of the Queen twice removed, Third Division footballers, worthy causes such as homes for retired race horses. Regional gardening shows…they never sent me to the big ones like Chelsea,  and I had to write the weekly romance quiz. I hated that, it was rather silly.”

“So the magazine was nothing like that
Wonder Women
, then?”

“Nothing at all, Mr. Angstrom.
We didn’t even have a gossip column, let alone roving reporters following celebrities about.  We catered to a completely different demographic.

“
Wonder Women
has the lion’s share of the eighteen to thirty five market, and they do it very well.
Modern Woman of Britain
was aimed at the more rural areas outside London, Birmingham and Manchester, small town women. Its readership was the forty to sixty age group and the name was misleading.

“
We weren’t aiming at the modern woman, at all. We wrote to please the old fashioned women. When I wrote the romance quiz, I had to be careful not to be too racy. I couldn’t even imply a sexual relationship. Our older readers complained. I actually stopped reading
Wonder Women
years ago, it made me too dissatisfied with
Modern Women
.”

“How long were you with the magazine?”

“I started a year out of University, and stayed for five years, until it folded.”

“What’s your degree in?”

“I have an M.A. in English, and I did a lot of Economics as well...so I think I have good qualifications for this magazine.”

“What did you do the year after University?”

It seemed to Maggie that Mr. Angstrom Senior had perused her curriculum vitae in considerable detail.

“I spent it in Australia, getting to know my mother again. I hadn’t seen her since I was twelve.”

“Why not?”

Maggie winced. These questions were politically incorrect, but she could see that the senior Mr. Angstrom had no
regard for politically correct.

“She left my father for another man, an Australian cricket player. After the divorce, she followed him to Melbourne and married him. My father would not give permission for me to leave England to go with her.”

“Then who raised you? Your father?”

“My father and my Gran.
My father died of cancer three years ago. My Gran is in a nursing home now.”

There, that should shut him up about her family.

Brian Angstrom was thawing a little. This girl was professional, polite and not really afraid of him. Sounded as though she had a stable upbringing despite her mother running off to the far ends of the planet.

“Why did the woman’s magazine fold?”

“Do you want my honest opinion or the official version?”

“Both.”  

“Officially, the publisher retired. He was about fifty-five and he said he and his wife wanted to travel.”

“I can understand that,” said Brian Angstrom. “I retired at fifty-five to spend time growing prize dahlias and taking about four holidays a year with my wife. But you have a different opinion, don’t you? What is it?”

“My opinion?  Well, Harry Barr, the Publisher, had made his son Advertising Manager, and Jamie was more interesting in lavishly entertaining potential advertisers on his expense account than in actually selling advertising space so revenue dried up and advertising sales expenses more than quadrupled.

“He made his daughter
Heloise Managing Editor, and she was horse mad.  Hence the stories about homes for retired race horses. Plus, she’d never held a job in her life. Nor had she, in my opinion, ever read any magazine that wasn’t about horses.

“We stopped appealing to the housewives and the divorced women forced back into boring dead-end jobs, and we certainly weren’t attracting new horsy readership. 

“Heloise refused to have a web page, or an online edition. She even cut the food section in half and all but decimated the fashion pages. I expected it to go under about eight months before the owner finally pulled the plug. I’m sure his wife made him, to preserve their retirement funds. She was his second wife, you see, and found no reason for Harry to keep indulging his children.”

Mr. Angstrom smiled.
“Very sensible of her. From what you say, they’d have bled him dry...

“Then I see you had a nineteen month hiatus before you started to work for us. Why is that?”

“My Gran developed Alzheimer’s. I went to care for her until she needed to be placed in a nursing home,” said Maggie simply.

“Why you?”

“She raised me from when I was twelve. As I said before, my mother had and
emigrated to Australia and remarried. My father, Gran’s son, refused permission for me to leave Britain. Dad and I lived with Gran until I went to University.

“My Uncle and Aunties live close to London and run small businesses. Uncle has a building maintenance company that he works at very hard and my two Aunties have a hairdressing shop. It just made sense when I was without a job for me to look after Gran.

“I did get some redundancy compensation from the magazine, and it was enough to give me pocket money while I was in Chipping Camden, but not much more. Gran’s pension paid the electricity and the rates, and I pitched in with the groceries and grew the veggies. It was a very nice life, in a way, quiet. I started to write a children’s book at night, when Gran settled down, the nights she did settle down.  Anything else you want to know, Mr. Angstrom?”

Brian Angstrom smiled. The girl had spoken quietly, matter of fact, no airs and graces. She wasn’t looking for praise or approval. She seemed sincere.

“What are your career plans?”

“I like my job. I really like it now I can be a little creative with the weekly column.”

“Ah, yes, that weekly column. You’re a good editor, Maggie, but it’s possible you are a better writer...that column is being very well received. So you plan to stay with us for a while?”

“Yes, I do. I’ve just passed the probationary period and
Gordon has given me a raise. I like it here.”

“What about that children’s book you mentioned? Have you finished it, or stuck it in a drawer and forgotten about it?”

“I work on it at night, when I don’t see my boyfriend. He travels a lot. It’s nearly finished.”

“Is he nice, your boyfriend?”

Maggie’s eyes shone. “He’s wonderful. I’m such a lucky girl to have him.”

The older man cocked his head and smiled. There was no doubting the love shining out of the girl’s eyes. She’d do.

“You made quite an impression on my son, Maggie. So much so that he had you transferred over here. I can see why, he’d have been totally distracted with you in his own office...never get his work done.”

   Maggie blushed.
What a thing to say! Mr. Angstrom Senior had some very strange ideas!

“I don’t think that’s the case, Sir. I’ve never even met your son. I only worked at Angstrom and Associates for about a week, and he was out of town during that time, but I am grateful it
led to working here. It’s a great office and I’m enjoying the work.”

“He’s handsome, my son, isn’t he?”

“I’ve never seen him, Sir. As I said, he was out of town the week I was there.”

“Surely you saw his portrait hanging the lobby? He and I were painted together a couple of years ago and the oil hangs in the lobby.
Very good likeness of both of us.”

Maggie frowned. “No, Sir. There was a rather remarkable Klee hanging in the lobby while I was there. I used to stare at it every day, admiring it.”

Brian Angstrom smiled to himself. Ian had thought of everything...smart lad, his son.

“Well, I’m pleased you like your position here. I’m sure it will do until you get married, won’t it?” smiled the older
man.

“Eh...” Maggie did not know what to say. This was a most unprofessional turn to the conversation.

“Eh...I’m a single, working woman, Mr. Angstrom. No rings on my finger. And these days, women usually work after they’re married.”

“You are serious about your boyfriend, aren’t you, Maggie?”

“Mr. Angstrom, he is very special, but I hardly think that is germane to my position here.”

“Oh, my dear...” laughed Brian Angstrom. “Well, we’ll see you again very soon, I know.”

He rose and left her office.

“What was all that about?” thought Maggie, then shrugged and turned back to the
undertaker.

Ten minutes later, she heard a familiar voice in the outer office. What was Ian doing here? 

He stepped into her office and closed the door behind him.

“Ian, what a lovely surprise,” she exclaimed as she rose to kiss him. “Did you just get back?”

“I did, and I came straight to see you, Maggie mine. I had to hear you tell me you love me in person.”

“I do love you, darling. I love you, I love you,
I love you.” Maggie kissed her man.

He kissed her again, and again, and again.
“And I love you, I love you, I love you, Maggie mine.”

The door opened behind Ian.

“Ah ha! You are serious about your boyfriend,” smiled the senior Mr. Angstrom.

“I asked her earlier, Ian, and she didn’t give me an answer.”

“Dad! I might have known...you couldn’t wait until Sunday, could you!” said Ian resignedly.

He turned to Maggie. “I asked him not to interfere. He couldn’t wait to meet you.”

“Dad? I thought he was Mr. Angstrom’s father. You’re Ian Armstrong.”

Ian turned very red. “Eh…I’m Ian…”

“Ian who? Ian Armstrong…or Ian Angstrom?

“Oh, baby, I’m so used to women throwing themselves at me for my money, when I saw you at the airport, I switched my First Class ticket to sit with you on the plane. I’m afraid it was lust at first sight, so I decided to go incognito and enjoy what I hoped could be a normal relationship...and it has been, hasn’t it?”

“So you had me transferred over here so I wouldn’t find out? Instead of just telling me the truth?” Maggie was indignant.

  “Yes, no, sort of. I knew if you stayed in my own office, you’d be scared off. Besides, the staff would make our lives unbearable. We’d be under a microscope.

“Maggie mine, I find you irresistible. I’d never be able to concentrate on work.

“
Besides, you’re incredibly talented and you would have been wasted in my office, darling. Look at the success you’re having here at the magazine, all on your own merits, baby…

“Besides, I have a rule...”

“I know, you have a rule that you don’t date your staff, but I’m still your staff, really, aren’t I?” Maggie was breathing fire now.

“Technically, I guess, twice removed.”

“You lied to me, Ian.”

“Only so we would have a chance to get to know each other normally, Maggie mine.”

“Don’t call me that! How could you lie to me, and keep lying to me?”

“Only about my last name. I never pretended to be anyone else, Maggie. I told you I’m a business consultant, and I am. I never pretended to be poor...I just didn’t mention how rich I really am. I only wanted to get to know each other honestly, not you thinking I‘m what the tabloids say, because I‘m not. I‘m an ordinary man who happens to have a lot of money.”

“Our whole relationship is based on lies, Ian!”

“Only one little lie, Maggie, all I did was to change Angstrom to Armstrong. I would have told you earlier, but then I found out on the plane you were coming to work for me, and that made it very awkward...”

“Awkward? That’s an understatement. No wonder your father was grilling me earlier.”

“Maggie,” said Brian Angstrom pleadingly, “Please give Ian a chance.

“You don’t know what his life has been like since he was on that Eligible Bachelor List. He’s had hundreds of women throwing themselves at him....you’re the first girl he could be relaxed with, knowing you are with him because you care for him, not all his assets.”

“He can keep his assets and stuff them where the sun doesn’t shine!” Maggie blazed.

She reached into a drawer, pulled out her handbag and strode to the door. “I’m going home! I have to think about all this.”

Ian did the only thing he could think of. He grabbed her and kissed her and kissed her and kissed her until her lips parted, and she was kissing him back.

“Maggie mine, that kiss wasn’t a lie, was it?”