Free Love Hurts by Brenda Grate Page B

didn’t know her identity. Anna shifted on her chair and tore the corner off her story. She crumpled it into a tiny ball in her hand while she considered Cliff’s words. Anna couldn’t just discount them like she might have with someone else. He never said anything he wouldn’t put his considerable weight behind.
     
    “Maybe,” she conceded.
     
    Before Cliff could reply, someone knocked at the door. He looked hard at Anna for a moment then said, “Just a minute. I’ll be right back. Don’t move.”
     
    Anna could hear Paul asking if everything was okay. So damn nosey. Anna conceded that he probably thought he could help her. It took a lot of courage for anyone in their office to brave knocking at Cliff’s door. If they’d only taken the time to get past his gruff exterior, they would find the marshmallow center as Anna had.
     
    Cliff barked something at Paul, and Anna felt sorry for him, grateful that he’d at least tried to help her.
     
    Cliff closed the door with an impatient snap. “Your wanna-be boyfriend tried to rescue you from the dragon’s lair.”
     
    Anna groaned. “Please don’t call him that. It’s humiliating enough that he follows me around like a puppy. He just won’t leave me alone!”
     
    “Sorry. I’m a little irritated. Things aren’t going so smooth at home.” Cliff dropped into his chair, as though feeling every bit of his extra weight.
     
    “How’s Connie?”
     
    Cliff shook his head and sadness filled his face. “She’s not well at all. I think the end might be closer than any of us want to think.”
     
    “No! I had no idea. I need to come see her.”
     
    “She’d like that. Bring Matty. You know how he brightens her day.”
     
    “I will, Cliff, I promise. I’ll phone first, though.”
     
    “Yes, that’s a good idea.”
     
    Anna leaned forward and patted his hand, and Cliff took her hand and gripped it hard.
     
    “I’m so sorry this is happening to Connie,” Anna said. “She’s such a wonderful woman. Here I am burdening you …”
     
    Cliff’s hand squeezed harder and Anna gasped with the sudden pain. “No, don’t ever think your problems are too trivial for me,” he said. “It helps to take my mind off what’s happening at home when I can help a friend.”
     
    Anna squeezed back. “Thanks, Cliff. You’re a good friend.”
     
    He let her hand go and gave it a quick pat. “So, you’ll go talk to Jilly?”
     
    The thought took her breath away. Anna picked at the minuscule lint on her pants. “I don’t know. I guess I have to.”
     
    “She needs you, even if she doesn’t think so right now.”
     
    “I know, it’s just, well, you know Jilly.”
     
    Cliff let out a bark of a laugh. “Yes, I know Jilly. She’s a terrific girl, but does she have a temper.”
     
    Anna laughed too, remembering one Christmas when Cliff made a comment that got Jilly’s back up. They were discussing politics, despite Anna’s attempts to change the subject, and Cliff made a disparaging remark about, unbeknownst to him, Jilly’s favorite politician. She went up one side of him and down the other. Anna figured it had probably been the first time anyone dared to call Cliff a conservative lackey, and to his face. Cliff laughed at her, which at first made Jilly hotter, but eventually she calmed down and laughed with him. She apologized for her rudeness, but he said it was the most entertained he’d been in a long time. From that time on, they’d been great friends.
     
    “Well,” Cliff slapped his meaty palm on his desk, “don’t forget to come and see Connie. I’m going to tell her you’re coming.”
     
    “I won’t forget.” She gave him a wink and left the office. As soon as she entered the newsroom, as the staff liked to call it, even though it was just a big open area with cubicles like any other office, all eyes swiveled to survey the remains. She’d been in there longer than most people and they must have figured there’d be nothing