Look What I Found At The Mall

As much as I hated Penny at this time, I decided to be the bigger person and talk to her. Ok, maybe I only decided to be that person because I wanted to know more about Reed's brother and hos Penny ended up meeting him. Everyone wanted to know more about him and I didn't want Reed or Lucinda having anything to do with Penny.

I went into work yesterday with the intentions of cornering Penny and telling her that we needed to talk about what has been going on but when I walked in she was nowhere to be found. I asked Nadine where she was and Nadine shrugged, "I don't know, I haven't heard from her and Charlie didn't say she called in sick or anything."

I was sick to my stomach all day. I was hoping that I would have some answers for Lucinda and Reed when I got home but it didn't look like that was going to happen.

At the end of the day yesterday, Charlie called Nadine and me into her office. "I'm sorry that you had to work short handed today," she told us once we were seated. "But I had to fire Penny yesterday."

"What?" Nadine sat forward in her chair, staring at Charlie like she didn't believe what she was hearing. "Why? What happened?"

"I can't get into the details," she told us. "But I've been receiving complainants from a few of the parents about Penny's attitude and a few other things. I can't have someone working here, destroying the reputation that I've worked so hard to earn."

I wish I could say I was shocked to hear that Penny was fired but you all know I knew it would happen. I just thought it would be a more personal reason that caused Charlie to do something.

When we left Charlie's office, Nadine turned to me. "Do you think Charlie found out about Penny's after hours use of the day care? Or the inappropriate use of her office when she was on holidays? Or the other 'services' she performed for some of the dads?"

I stared at Nadine. "What?"

"Or maybe she found out about the time Penny screamed at the kids, or the time she actually hit one of them."

"Ok stop!" I grabbed Nadine's arm. "Why would Charlie have her working here if she's been doing all that stuff?"

Nadine shrugged, "Because she was doing her son a favor? Colin asked his mother to give Penny a chance after she got fired from her last job. But I hear that things haven't been going that great with Colin and Penny. Did you know he used to come by all the time after work to pick her up? He would send her flowers and never forgot her birthday."

"What happened?"

"I don't know," Nadine told me. "I wish I did. I just know that suddenly he wasn't coming around and when he did, Penny would get mad at him. Around that time, I caught Penny in the supply closet with one of the dads."

I left work yesterday not knowing what I would tell Reed when I got home. I called him up and told him that I would be a little later than I had planned on because I wanted to do a little bit of shopping before going home.

"Why don't I meet you and we'll go somewhere to grab a bite to eat?"

"That sounds great," I told him and made plans to meet him outside 6th Street Restaurant in a half hour.

Twenty minutes later I was making my way through the mall with a couple bags in hand while I pushed Alexis in her stroller. I was walking by the food court when I happened to notice him sitting at one of the tables savouring a banana split without paying any attention to what was going on around him.

I thought he changed his mind and decided to meet me at the mall but for the life of me, as I walked over towards him, I couldn't understand why he didn't call me to tell me or why he would be eating ice cream before getting something a little more substantial in his stomach.

"Hey," I stand across the table and smiled down at the top of his head. "I thought we were going to..." he lifted his head up slowly as I started to talk, he had just finished turning the plastic spoon he was using to eat the ice cream was upside down in his mouth but that wasn't what stopped me in mid sentence, it was the 'do I know you' look on his face.

"Oh my God!" I stared at him as Alexis started to whine and reach for the man she thought was 'dada'.

The guy glanced back and forth between my shocked face and Alexis' outstretched hand. He slowly pulled the spoon out of his mouth and returned it to his ice cream before he spoke. "I've been getting that look a lot since I've come to town," he told me. "But I have to say," he glanced at Alexis once again as she squealed 'dada!' "It's the first time that someone has called me 'dada'." He pushed back his chair and stood up. "My name is Sean," he held out his hand to me. "And I believe you can help me find what I came here looking for."

The resemblance between Sean and Reed was uncanny, I couldn't even wrap my mind around it. There has to be some differences, I thought. Do brothers look this much alike when they aren't twins?

"Is something wrong?" Sean dropped his hand.

Finding my voice, I frantically told him I had to go but he stopped me. "Wait," he reached across the table and grabbed hold of my arm but when I tensed he quickly dropped his hand and apologized. "I know this is a little bit of a shock..." I shook my head and he frowned. "What do you mean 'no'? You knew about me? How long?"

"Yes, I mean no." He continued to frown. "I mean," I sighed. "I only know because Penny -"

"Penny," Seam rolled his eyes. "I should've known that she was up to something, she was acting so strange. At first I thought it was because she..." he trailed off. "I didn't know I was close to finding my family until she insisted on calling me 'Reed' when I told her my name." When I turned away from him, he asked me if I was Reed's girlfriend, if the little girl who was calling him 'dada' still was his niece. "You know my family, don't you?"

"What do you want with them?" I asked. "Why are you here?"

"What do I want?" He spun me around and stared down at me. "I want to know where I came from! I want to know why I was given away! I want to know that there could be someone out there who might care about what happens to me!"

I wanted to ask him more but I realized that we were standing in the middle of a very public food court and Alexis was drawing attention from her cries for her 'dada'.

"I really have to go," I told him and started to turn away.

"You know I'll just follow you," he told me. "I didn't come all this way just to let someone who can help me find what I'm looking for, just walk away."

I'm not sure how long I stood there locked in a staring contest with him before I sighed and pulled out my phone. He watched me carefully as I flipped the phone opened. "What are you doing?" He asked.

I ignored him and dialed Reed's cell. When Reed answered, I turned away from Sean. "Honey..." I didn't know what to say to Reed.

But it turned out I didn't need to say anything, Sean pulled the phone from me. "Reed?" He asked hopefully as I spun around to face him. "Oh thank God!" I guess Reed asked him who it was because Sean told him his name and then told him he was his brother.

So I left the mall last night with a couple new outfits for Alexis, some shirts for Reed, and Sean.