Wanted

Chapter 3

"Morning!"

Melissa lifted her head from her phone to find Audrey at work at just 8:30. She chuckled. "What is happening?" she asked her.

"I woke up at my place. That's what happened." Audrey hesitated for a few seconds, seeing Melissa's look of disbelief. "Also, I wanted to come in time for once."

"It's only my second day here." Melissa commented.

"Yeah, whatever." She responded, laughing shyly while entering her office. Melissa watched her as she took a sip of her coffee, hoping to see an actual reaction this time, but there was still nothing. Audrey then grabbed the day's paper and started flipping through it, and Melissa returned to her mobile game.

Just a few moments later, Audrey burst out of her office and walked out angrily down the hallway. Melissa looked up in surprise, quickly analyzed the situation, then got up and headed her way, without making her presence obvious. Audrey entered Mrs. Watson's office, while Melissa remained outside, trying to make herself not so visible yet still trying to peak in and listen.

"What the fuck, Watson?"

"Hey hey hey, what's wrong? You knew you weren't getting front page today."

"That's not the problem. Here." She said, handing Mrs. Watson the paper, pointing at a column with stories celebrating National Coming Out Day.

Watson quickly perused through the page until she found what was of Audrey's concern. "Oh, I thought your entry was really nice. I had to put it in!"

"It was an anonymous thing! But my name is all over, for fuck's sake!"

"Well, you sent it from your work e-mail, I assumed it was okay. It was signed all over the place; in the document itself, on the e-mail..."

A very clear memory of herself setting Word and Gmail to sign every document and email popped into Audrey's mind, making her facepalm.

"Did you just slap yourself?" Watson asked, to which Audrey laughed nervously. "But seriously, what's the problem? You're out to us all."

"My parents read the paper every day." Watson looked at her in confusion. "They're subscribed, they have it delivered to their door. Yes, even in New Jersey."

"Alright, okay. But how is that a problem?" Watson asked.

Audrey looked away and rubbed her temples.

"Oooh. You're not out to your parents." She deducted, following Audrey's reaction to get an indirect response on whether she was right or not.

"They're really vocal about being against it, but I love them a lot. I didn't want to disappoint them or ruin our relationship. We've always been very close."

"I can tell, they have the paper delivered to their door every day." Watson commented, making Audrey laugh. "But you're a grown, successful woman. I bet they wouldn't have a bad reaction now. You'd explain and they would understand. Why not just tell them?"

"Because I'm married, Watson." Audrey said, grabbing her temples once again.

"To a man?" Watson asked, still in shock.

"Yes. Remember Josh? He's been to some of our celebrations and I introduced him as my best friend."

"Aww, wait, I get it. He's gay too, isn't he? Y'all got married to help each other with your unsupportive parents, didn't you?"