In his office on the twentieth floor of the Covington Tower, Daniel Covington is wrapping up his phone call with the architect over the status of construction of the residential cottages. He gets out of his chair to the minibar to pour himself a glass of scotch. Despite his rule of not drinking on the job, he needed something to dull the memory of being rejected by Louise the other evening at his son's wedding on the yacht. Telling him, she had to focus on herself rather than proceeding into a relationship with him.

​

Daniel looks out of the large picturesque window that gives him the view of the skyline of Downtown Radcliffe. He puts the rim of the glass to his lips to take in the drink.

 

He turns around when he sees his door unexpectedly opens from his indirect vision.

 

"Hello son," Deirdre Covington says

​

The matriarch of the wealthy Covington family is wearing a black and white Paisley Bell-Sleeve dress and black Christian Louboutin pumps. She too is carrying a black leather carryall bag from some French designer Daniel forgets the name of that his mother likes. Since she arrived, she had been staying at Home Farm with the rest of the family.

​

"Mother, what brings you by? better question how come Evelyn didn't let me know you were here,"

 

Evelyn is Daniel's longtime secretary, who moved from Staten Island to Radcliffe to continue to work for him.

 

"Let's just say I gave Evelyn an additional thirty-minute break," she winks. "I came to say goodbye, I'm heading back to New York, in a few hours."

 

He puts down his glass on the side table to give his mother a gentle hug and kiss on the cheek.

 

Deirdre takes a seat in one of the two club chairs in front of his desk.

 

"Seems like Max and his new wife are enjoying themselves in Fiji," Glad they got there safely,"

 

"Me too," he says diplomatically.

 

She suspects something wrong with her eldest offspring knowing instinctively something is troubling him.

 

"Is the business giving you the flux?" she says in her polished southern accent.

 

"No mother, in fact, the construction of the cottages and retail development should be complete near Christmas, --  it is something a little more personal,"

 

"No need to be tight-lipped son, as your mother I have a right to be a concern for my children no matter how old they get. By the way, I see little gray hairs sprouting out from your head do something about that," she says with a dab of well meaningful humor.

 

Daniel isn't in the mood for his mother's comments. "If it will get you out of here any sooner, I told Louise that I wanted to start dating her again, and she told me no, she started giving me these excuses."

 

Deirdre gets up to go fix herself a glass of vodka. "What is up with this family's infatuation with that damn family?"

 

"Mother, I am serious, I thought she would be open to starting things again,"

 

Deirdre herself wasn't keen on the two of them courting when they were teenagers over thirty years ago. She, however, couldn't compete with the anger of her husband Patrick and her former lover Jimmy Saunders not wanting their progeny to have any kind of connection. It is one of the reasons why the family left for New York City all those years ago.

 

"Son, it's not any of my business, but she is a grown woman, not that teenage girl you loved with all of your heart,"

 

Daniel takes a long sip of his scotch. "What are you saying then?"

 

"Maybe it wasn't meant for you two to get back together," she says impactfully.

 

Daniel drinks some more scotch before becoming dismissive. "How long have you been rehearsing that speech mother?"

 

Deirdre walks over to snatch the glass out of his hand tossing the remaining brown liquid out of the cup into the sink. "You are sitting here like Little Miss Muffet instead of the CEO of a Fortune 500 company," Louise only wants to remain friends?" So what? "Find someone else to share your life with Daniel,"

 

The words coming out of his mother's mouth do make sense, but he only has been with two women in his entire life. One can never come back due to circumstances out of his control, and the other is scared.

 

"You still know how to pull the punches, don't you?"

 

"I sure do, I wish I pulled some to get your sister to come to her own Nephew's wedding,"

 

Emma is currently traveling through Italy, spending nearly half of her trust fund with no direction in her life.

 

"Don't worry, she'll be back in the city when she needs a place to stay," he assures her. "I'll walk you to the elevator,"

 

On their way into the hallway, Deirdre gets a little teary at the portrait of her husband from forty years ago when he first opened the Covington Group in that office suite not too far from here. It makes her miss him more than she already does. And it also makes her get proactive. So when she crawls in the back of the limousine that is designated to take her to the airport. She informs the driver of an additional location she needs to be dropped off.

 

"Will you be cutting it close, Ma'am?" the driver poises while he steers the vehicle onto the street.

 

"It won't take long," she remarks confidently.