The phone had already rung twice, but Mary was in too much of a hurry to pick the phone up.
The phone rang for the third time; frustrated by the persistence of the caller, she picked it up without looking at the caller ID.
"Yes! I heard that you were trying to call me, but honestly? I have no interest in talking to you." replied Mary as soon as she picked the phone up.
"Well Mary that's an awfully rude thing to say to such a close friend of yours." commented the voice on the other side. It took Mary hardly a second to realize who she was talking to.
"Athena?" she asked surprised.
"Well I presumed you knew who you were talking to or have you already deleted my number because I couldn't make it to your wedding?" asked Athena. Mary looked at the time it was 7:40 PM on the clock, John would be home soon and they had dinner reservations at 8:00 PM. Mary knew if she started talking to Athena the conversation would last the whole night.
"Listen Athena, I have plans with john tonight-"
"Great! I would love to meet John."
"No. I mean I can't talk to you right now, I have to go." answered Mary. The doorbell rang. "Listen John is here and I need to go right now or else we won't make it in time for our dinner reservation." Explained Mary as she quickly hurried to open the door expecting to see John; however it revealed to be someone else.
"So where are we going?" asked Athena with a wide smile; still holding the phone at her ear. …..
"So this is what a Watson lifestyle looks like?" asked Athena, who had now entered the living room without any offer.
"So what brings the Great Athena Leonard to the Watson household? I mean such a busy person like you came to visit me. Shall I ask the reason for such a huge honour?" asked Mary fully indicating her annoyance towards Athena. The young girl pushed her black hair behind her eyes and partially bit her lip. She looked upsettingly at Mary and replied.
"I got fired."
Mary's jaw suddenly dropped, "What?" she asked twice.
"I know you are mad at me and I am the last person you want to talk to but-"
"You got fired? Like you lost your job? You lost your job? "asked a bewildered Mary.
"Well technically I am suspended but it pretty much feels like the same thing. I mean it's been a week-"
Athena was interrupted by the sound of the main door unlocking and the sudden bang of the door. Standing in the hallway John furiously started calling Mary. "Oh what now?" commented Mary. She quickly went towards the hallway to meet an angry looking John.
"John! What is it?" asked Mary. She was already annoyed by the sudden appearance of Athena; and John's sudden burst wasn't helping the situation.
"That stupid Sherlock; that…that idiot. Agh! Doesn't have a case so decides to irritate me instead,the entire day I wasted helping him in solving the most stupidest cases but no. that's not good enough for him. Now he wants to come on our anniversary dinner and spend some quality time with us. One day, Mary, one day; I mean all I wanted was today to be special but that idiot. Aghhh!" screamed John while kicking the wall with his shoe. Mary put her arms on John's shoulder.
"Where is he right now?" asked Mary calmly with a gentle smile.
"In the cab waiting downstairs for us." replied John, emphasizing on the "us" part. Mary passed a delicate smile. Before she could reply, Athena popped from the living room.
"I guess I better leave then huh?" asked Athena. While making her way out of the apartment, Mary motioned her to stop. Athena stopped and looked up.
"First we need to talk about your problem and then ours, but we can't do that if I'm still mad at you, now can we?" Mary spoke towards Athena like a teacher speaks to a kindergartener.
"No?" Athena replied not sure where the conversation was going.
"Then you do me a favour and I promise to dedicate the entire day tomorrow to us. Fair deal? Now this favour right now is the only thing, that if you do can I truly forgive you." asked Mary. Athena contemplated she had a bad feeling about "a favour" but she needed to fix her relationship with Mary which her beautiful job had nearly managed to destroyed.
Unwillingly and unsure Athena replied, "Deal!" Mary gently crossed her arm with Athena's and started talking, "Athena, let me introduce you to my husband's best friend."
"Why?" Athena asked bewildered at what the favour was going to be.
Mary looked at Athena with the cheekiest smile ever and replied, "Because he's your date tonight."