CHAPTER SEVEN
New York City - Cascina Restaurant.
December 15, 2000
7:00 PM
Carol arrived a few minutes early for her meeting. The restaurant was a nice upscale Italian eatery located between 45th and 46th Streets. She took a seat in the lounge just outside the dining area to wait. She was more than a little bit nervous, which was why she preferred being a little early the meeting - it gave her time to mentally rehearse what she was going to talk about. During the cab ride over, she'd even decided to mention her current project - the romantic thriller she'd been working on in the hotel room.
A few minutes passed and she noticed she'd begun to drum her fingers nervously on the table to pass the time. Perfectly understandable she thought, she was in a strange city, going out to dinner with a man she had only just met.
And yet, wasn't that precisely the same situation as last night with Ed? She had been so relaxed and comfortable around him - as if she'd known him forever. Why was this meeting so different than that? She couldn't answer that. But as she thought about it more, she realized that maybe it was because she just wasn't asking herself the right question. That maybe it wasn't what was special about tonight that made her so ill-at-ease, but rather what was so special about Ed...
After a few minutes, Carol looked up to see the blonde haired man from the elevator stride into the restaurant. His gaze swept across the room, finally settling on Carol. She suddenly felt like a deer caught in a hunter's rifle sights as he moved towards her.
'Why does this guy make me nervous?' she thought.
"Ms. Vessey... Carol," he said as he smiled and extended his hand to her in greeting, "I'm sorry about our last encounter. I'm Victor Knight. CEO of Knight Publishing Agents"
"Hello, Mr. Knight," Carol said.
"Please! Call me, Victor."
"Okay, Victor," Carol said hesitantly.
"Much better! Now let's see about our table."
Victor walked over to the maitre'd, who, upon learning Victor's identity, immediately pulled two menus out and escorted them to a quiet, somewhat secluded table near the back of the restaurant. When the reached the table, Victor waited until Carol was seated before sitting himself.
While she appreciated the gesture, Carol still looked nervously around the room, 'This was supposed to be a business meeting, not a DATE' she thought. She became even more concerned when Victor sat down directly next to her. Hardly conducive to a BUSINESS conversation.
"So, Carol," Victor said, "I want to apologize again for not being there the other day for your appointment. Emergency situation, you understand." His tone implied that she SHOULD understand, even if she didn't.
"Oh, yes, I understand completely," Carol said, afraid to say anything else.
"Of course, if I had known it was you when I bumped into you on the elevator I would have introduced myself," Victor continued with a smile.
"That's alright," Carol said. "I was the one with her head in the clouds and standing like a lump in front of the elevator doors."
"Carol," Victor said smoothly, "I don't think anyone could look at you and use the term 'lump'." As he said this, his eyes traversed her body.
Carol tried to repress a shudder of revulsion, but failed. 'Now,' she thought, 'I understand why he sat next to me - he has a much better view from there!' She shuddered again.
"Are you cold?" Victor asked. He started to remove his jacket, obviously with the intent to drape it around her shoulders. But Carol shook her head quickly, she didn't want that man's hands anywhere near her. "It's just nerves", she replied and picking up her a menu, "So, what's good?"
"Well," Victor said, "I have always been partial to their Spaghetti with Lobster, but their Pumpkin Ravioli in a bolognese sauce is excellent as well."
'Ah, lobster,' Carol thought. 'At least I can make this snake oil salesman spend some money on me. I can't believe I have to be here with him tonight.'
"Hmm," Carol said aloud, "the Spaghetti with Lobster sounds tempting."
"Well then, two it is," Victor said and called the waiter over. He ordered two dishes of the Spaghetti with Lobster and a bottle of the house wine.
Carol decided quickly that she would have one glass, and ONE glass only of whatever it was the waiter brought out. She had no intentions of lowering her inhibitions around this one.
"So," Victor said, "David gave you our new contract, right?"
"Uh, yes," Carol said. "Quite a difference from the old one."
"Yes, I must apologize for that. I'm sure David explained the need for the revision?" Victor asked.
"Yes, he mentioned it," Carol said. "I read through the initial contract three times and had a pretty good handle on it, but the new one is much more complex. I'm having a lot of trouble."
A predatory gleam appeared in Victor's eye, "Really?" he said, doing his best to sound surprised, "I wasn't aware of that. If you'd like, after dinner we could go back to your hotel room and I could go over the contract with you. Line by line if necessary."
Now it was Carol's turn to fake sincerity, "Oh, that's very kind of you. But it isn't necessary."
"It's no trouble at all." Victor replied, taking a sip of his water and leaning in closer.
"No what I meant was, it isn't necessary, because the contract isn't back at the hotel room. I have a...friend in the city who is looking it over for me. He's a corporate attorney who specializes in contract law."
Victor almost choked on his water when he heard that. Carol smiled inwardly.
"You have a...friend who's a LAWYER?" he asked, applying the same pause around the word friend that Carol had.
'Gotcha!' Carol thought, then replied, "Mm, yes. He's an old...friend from high school. We go way back. He's doing it for free."
"That's very .... considerate of him.", Victor replied cooling somewhat.
"As I said, he's an old and dear friend." Okay, now she was the one lying through her teeth, but she didn't care. It was just too satisfying watching this creep squirm, "He even offered to show me the city tomorrow."
She threw that last bit in just for spite.
The evening started going downhill from there. Victor seemed more interested in her body than her book ideas - ESPECIALLY the romantic thriller involving the novelist and lawyer. Which as she described the story to him, Carol realized just how much she'd based the novelist's love interest on Ed.
She smiled even more when Victor, in a pique of male jealousy, asked if her "lawyer-friend" was the inspiration for the character, and she'd been able to volunteer that 'there *were* a few similarities'.
When they weren't discussing her book ideas, Victor spent much of the time discussing his other favorite subject - himself. Carol suspected that he probably thought if he bragged about enough, she'd agree to sleep with him later. So, he told Carol about his planned ski trip to Aspen during the holidays, and about the kayaking trip he planned for later in the spring down the Colorado River. To listen to him, he was quite the adventurer.
He was also exceptionally dull. However, Carol didn't want to risk jeopardizing their professional dealings by appearing to be bored, so she did her best to fake interest. Mostly, by remembering moments from her previous evening with Ed.
While Victor bragged about running with the bulls in Pamplona, Carol recalled Ed telling her about working his way through school in a dry roasted nut shop. "You know a hazelnut and a filbert are two names for the same nut? You pick up that kind of thing working at a fresh roasted nut store."
When Victor talked about his white water rafting trip, Carol passed the time remembering how Ed, sitting with her in a diner drinking hot chocolate and eating giant chocolate chip cookies had asked, "How much power does the prom queen actually wield? Could you have like, say, bombed Belgium?"
And when Victor talked about his meteoric rise to a publishing magnate, Carol thought about how Ed had completely understood why she had broken off her seven year relationship with Nick, and how later that night he had confided in her about the break-up of his own marriage.
Over dessert, and Victor's college football career, Carol started to worry about how to extricate herself without offending him. She still had a pretty good feeling that an outright rejection of his advances would compromise their business relationship. And she was positive she was not deluding herself about his advances - not after he 'accidentally' grabbed her knee.
Suddenly a thought popped into her head and she excused herself to use the ladies room.
"Of course, Carol," Victor replied.
Carol grabbed her purse and made a beeline for the restrooms. Once inside, she looked around to see if anyone else was in there. Seeing no one, she took her cell phone out and placed a call.
She heard three rings before a voice came on the line. There was music and noise in the background.
"Hello?" the voice said.
"Molly!" Carol said. "It's Carol!"
"Hey, girlfriend!" Molly said "How's it going in the Big Apple.
Carol heard Mike's voice in the background, "Is that Carol? Ask her how her trip's going."
"Hm, oh, Mike and Nancy say hello," Molly added.
"Molly," Carol said urgently, "look I don't have time for chitchat. I need your help."
"Is everything okay," Molly asked, suddenly a little concerned.
In the background, Carol heard Nancy ask, "Is everything alright?"
"I don't know, she hasn't said anything yet," came Molly's reply.
"Molly, I'm alright. It's nothing serious" Carol replied, "I just need your help in creating a diversion."
"A diversion?" Molly asked.
"A diversion?" Mike and Nancy both echoed in the background.
"Carol, you do realize I am in Stuckeyville and you are in New York City," Molly added.
"Yeah," Carol said, "I know. Look, here's the deal. I'm having dinner with the president of the publishing company and...um, well, he's a real jerk. He's been making passes at me all night, but I don't want to reject him outright because that might blow my book deal."
"That creep! He wouldn't ... " Molly exclaimed. Then Carol heard her tell Mike and Nancy what she'd said.
"That's just the thing," Carol explained, "I think he would. God I wish I'd listened to myself and asked Ed to come along. Anyway, here's what I want you to do. In (Carol looks at her watch) ten minutes I want you to call me on my cell phone. Don't worry. I'll supply most of the conversation. It doesn't matter what you say as long as that creep is able to hear you through my phone. I'll pretend it's some sort of family emergency, make my apologies and get out of there. Got it?"
"Sounds easy enough," Molly said in an amused tone.
"Thanks, Molls," Carol was relieved, "I knew I could count on you." She slipped her cell phone back into her purse and made her way back to the table.
She sat down just as the waiter was bringing the dessert. Victor looked at her inquisitively.
"Is everything alright?" he asked his voice dripping with phony concern.
"Just had to powder my nose," Carol replied, "Now you were telling me about your ski trip to Aspen?" Victor smiled, and began rambling again - not only about his athletic prowess on the slopes, but also the intimate atmosphere of his lakeside cabin. Carol, in what she would later describe to her friends back in Stuckeyville as the "greatest acting performance of my life", pretended to be captivated by his story.
Every few moments, she surreptitiously glanced down at her watch. The seconds seemed to drag on forever.
Finally, Carol heard her cell phone ring. At first, she pretended that she didn't hear it. When it rang a second time, she acted as if she thought it was someone else's phone. When it rang a third time, Victor stopped speaking and looked at her. With a sudden start, Carol said, "Oh, is that mine. I'm sorry. I don't know who could be calling me." She removed her phone from her purse, looked at the caller's number and said, "Oh, it's my friend Molly from Stuckeyville. I told her that I had a very important dinner engagement tonight, so it must be important."
She answered her phone, "Hello?"
"So for this 'diversion thing', I'm just supposed to just talk, is that right?" Molly asked.
"Oh my God! Molly are you okay?!" was Carol's reply.
"Nancy told me to tell you that Sarah's able to stand up on her own now," Molly said sweetly into her phone.
"I can't believe he did that!" Carol replied.
"What's wrong?" Victor asked, annoyed at the growing interruption. Carol ignored him, focusing instead on her cell-phone.
"Carol, when you get back to Stuckeyville there's this new dress shop over in Jaspertown, that we just have to check out. Nancy says the prices are just unreal."
"Of all the unmitigated GALL!" Carol fumed, "He can't do that to you."
There was a slight pause.
"Hey Carol? It's me Nancy. Molly ran out of things to tell you, so she passed the phone over to me. Is that alright?"
"Of course, it's alright dear, it's not your fault your dating that insensitive jerk! I'm glad you called." Carol looked over at Victor, gesturing in such a way as to indicate that she'd only be another minute or two. "It's good that you found that out now ... before something serious happened."
"Dr. Jerome called Mike a slack jawed llama today," Nancy said.
"You're PREGNANT!" Carol screeched into the phone. All eyes in the restaurant suddenly turned to their table. Carol smiled inwardly - it was working.
"This sounds serious." Victor interjected, "Maybe you should continue this conversation outside. We ... er, we don't want to cause a scene." He threw his napkin on the table, and motioned for the waiter to bring the check. It was a clear admission of defeat.
Carol sighed, "I guess you're right Victor. Molly, I have to go. I'll call you back in just a few minutes. Hold on sweetie." She hung up her phone, then looked up Victor and said, "I am *so* sorry Victor. Molly is really upset about an argument she and her boyfriend had and ...."
"I understand completely," Victor said smoothly, clearly lying. "Why don't you go ahead back to your hotel. I'll take care of the check. I'll have my office schedule another meeting so that we can sign the contracts."
Carol couldn't resist one more sting, "That would be just great. I'll have my friend there to. I had a lovely time, Victor," she added, then got up and made straight for the front door of the restaurant.
Once she was safely in her cab and heading back to her hotel, she got back on her cell-phone.
"Molly? I'm back. Mission accomplished."
"So it worked?"
"Yeah," Carol replied, "Thanks. I owe you big time. Yech! I feel like I need to take a shower after being with that guy all night. I think if he looked at my chest or my legs one more time I was going to scream."
"Carol, you *did* scream."
"That was more of a screech really."
"Oh. So how's New York?"
"Except for that jerk, great really," Carol suddenly realized that if she could get back to her hotel in time, she might be able to still call Ed. It wasn't that late and maybe he hadn't left the office.
"You're sure you're okay?"
With a smile she said, "Actually, Molly, I'm better than okay."
"Well," Molly said, "if you're sure. Anyway, I meant to ask you about something you said earlier."
"Sure, Molls," Carol said as her cab got closer to the hotel. "What?"
"Well," Molly explained, "when you called me earlier you said something about wishing Ed were there."
"Yeah?" Carol was surprised. She didn't even know she had said anything about Ed. 'This guy is really starting to pervade my thoughts', she thought with a flush.
"Who's Ed?"
"Um," Carol said, "actually you know him. Well, sort of...maybe."
"Thanks," Molly said, "that cleared it right up for me. Wait a second Carol... (talking to someone sitting next to her) Mike? Why are you and Nancy smiling like that? What do you guys know that I don't?"
"Carol, is there something YOU want to tell me," Molly asked, her voice all 'peaches and cream'.
"Stevens," Carol said. "Ed Stevens. He went to high school with us. I don't know if you remember him or not?"
"Oh I remember him alright. Played basketball. Very cute. Funny, too," Molly replied slyly.
Carol had just exited her cab and was walking toward the front door of her hotel. She continued on, oblivious to the bemused tone of Molly's reply. "He's a lawyer. Mike and Nancy gave me his business card - in case I had trouble understanding the contracts. Anyway, I went to see him yesterday and he said he'd be glad to do it. In fact, he's probably looking it over as we speak since I had to cancel dinner with him tonight."
"You had dinner plans with him tonight?" the sly tone in Molly's voice became more evident.
"Yeah," Carol said still distracted. She entered the hotel lobby. "We were supposed to continue last night's sight-seeing, but I had to cancel to have dinner with that creep."
"You cancelled dinner with Ed to have dinner with a creep?" Molly asked coyly.
Carol walked towards the elevators, "Molls, I didn't know he was a creep when he suggested dinner. If I did I would never have cancelled on a great guy like Ed."
She stopped.
Did she just tell Molly that she thought Ed was a "great guy"?
"So you think Ed is a great guy, do you?"
'Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.' Carol thought. She got on the elevator and pushed the button for the fourth floor. She needed to retreat tactfully. What to say? Ah, yes, that's perfect. "Oops. Sounds like my cell-phone is running out of power. I'll talk to you soon. Thanks again, Molls. Bye."
"Carol - wait I want to ...." was all Molly could get out before Carol hung up on her.
***
Carol sank into the couch. That hot shower was precisely what the doctor ordered. She looked over at the clock on the wall. 9:30 PM. She had considered calling Ed's office and seeing if he was still there, but decided that she'd probably missed him. Of course, she could always call him on his cell-phone. He'd given her his number last night.
No. She decided. She'd monopolized too much of his time already. He was giving her free legal advice, had bought her dinner and taken her sight- seeing last night, and would have taken her out to dinner tonight if she hadn't had to cancel. Besides, she'd see him tomorrow at 10 AM.
It was only twelve and a half hours away.
She got ready for bed. As she lie there curled up under the blankets, her thoughts drifted back and forth. Ed's face popped up quite frequently: the look of concern of his face as he pulled her out of the way of that cab; or later again when he'd found her crying in her room. The teasing expression he'd had when he'd wheedled a complement from her in his office. The flustered look on his face during the first minutes at Burger Heaven; and, best of all, the look on his face after she had kissed him.
'I STILL don't know anything about whether or not he's seeing someone' was Carol's final thought before she fell into a deep sleep.
***
Stuckeyville - The Smiling Goat
December 15, 2000
8:45 PM
Molly put her cell-phone back into her purse, she looked at Mike and Nancy. "The Eagle has landed."
Mike and Nancy just looked at one another for a moment. The Friday night crowd at the Smiling Goat was always a bit on the noisy side - perhaps they'd misheard her. Confused, they looked back at Molly, who sighed and said "It worked."
"Oh!" they said in unison.
"Um, so can we assume that everything is okay with Carol now?" Mike asked, then took a bite of his cheeseburger.
"Well," Molly said after a moment's thought, "She got away from that creepy publishing agent. As for the rest...I'm not sure."
Nancy took a sip of her soda. "The rest?" she asked.
Molly twirled her fork in her chef salad, "It's just that I've known Carol for years and I've never really seen her like this ..."
"Like what?" Mike asked.
"Well," Molly said, "She seemed so ... out of sorts. And then there was what she said about Ed."
"What she said about Ed?" Nancy asked, setting down her sandwich.
"What did she say about Ed?" Mike asked, grabbing another handful of fries.
"Well she didn't mean to say anything it just sort of came out."
"What?!!!" Mike and Nancy said in unison.
"She was talking about what a creep the publishing agent was and how she never would have cancelled the plans she'd made with Ed if she'd known what a creep that Knight guy was."
"She made plans with Ed?" Nancy asked?
"OUR Ed?" Mike added.
"Our Ed." Molly watched as both Mike and Nancy began to smile. "Wait. It gets better."
Mike turned to his wife, "Hi-five me honey."
"Why?"
"Because I think Molly's about to tell us that our little Edward has finally become a man."
Nancy just looked at her husband with exasperation, "Mike, quit being such an idiot. Carol and Ed didn't sleep together." She started to take another bite of her sandwich, then stopped. "Uh, Molly ... they didn't sleep together, did they?"
"No. At least Carol didn't tell me that. However, she did let it slip that she thought Ed was a 'great guy'."
Mike looked down at his empty plate, "Hey Nance? Are you going to eat your pickle?
"What?"
"Your pickle, are you going to eat it?"
"Michael Roger Burton, didn't you just hear what Molly said? Carol thinks Ed is a 'great guy'. Molly, give Mike your cell phone. Mike call Ed and find out if he still likes Carol."
"Nance. We're not in high school anymore. They're two grown adults. Let them sort it out," Mike replied.
"And what if they screw it up?" Nancy asked.
"Then we kill them. Now are you going to eat that pickle or not?"
Nancy handed her husband the pickle, he devoured it hungrily.
Nancy looked at her husband, "Well, if you're not going to call Ed about Carol. You should at least call him and tell him about the Stuckeybowl shutting down."
"No!" Molly said. "You're kidding? Why?"
"You haven't heard?" Nancy said, "There was a fire in one of the pin setters. Supposedly, one of the guys that works at StuckeyBowl caused it. Not deliberately, he just rewired something wrong or something. Anyway, with business being what it is, Big Rudy is short on cash and it doesn't look like he can make the repairs and the mortgage."
"Wow, that stinks," Molly said. "We used to love going to Stuckeybowl."
"Eddie is going to be so upset when he learns that StuckeyBowl is closing," Nancy said.
"Why?" Mike asked. "Nance, he lives in New York. Why would StuckeyBowl closing upset him?"
"Come on, Mike," Nancy said in that slightly exasperated tone of voice she used with him, "Eddie used to work there. He loved that place. He's going to be upset. You'd be upset too, if you had any feelings, you big moose!" She gave her husband a playful punch in the arm and smiled.
"I am not a moose," Mike said. Then looked at both women and added, "And I'll call Ed this weekend. Find out what's what. Okay?"
Molly smiled and Nancy leaned in and kissed him sweetly.
New York City - Cascina Restaurant.
December 15, 2000
7:00 PM
Carol arrived a few minutes early for her meeting. The restaurant was a nice upscale Italian eatery located between 45th and 46th Streets. She took a seat in the lounge just outside the dining area to wait. She was more than a little bit nervous, which was why she preferred being a little early the meeting - it gave her time to mentally rehearse what she was going to talk about. During the cab ride over, she'd even decided to mention her current project - the romantic thriller she'd been working on in the hotel room.
A few minutes passed and she noticed she'd begun to drum her fingers nervously on the table to pass the time. Perfectly understandable she thought, she was in a strange city, going out to dinner with a man she had only just met.
And yet, wasn't that precisely the same situation as last night with Ed? She had been so relaxed and comfortable around him - as if she'd known him forever. Why was this meeting so different than that? She couldn't answer that. But as she thought about it more, she realized that maybe it was because she just wasn't asking herself the right question. That maybe it wasn't what was special about tonight that made her so ill-at-ease, but rather what was so special about Ed...
After a few minutes, Carol looked up to see the blonde haired man from the elevator stride into the restaurant. His gaze swept across the room, finally settling on Carol. She suddenly felt like a deer caught in a hunter's rifle sights as he moved towards her.
'Why does this guy make me nervous?' she thought.
"Ms. Vessey... Carol," he said as he smiled and extended his hand to her in greeting, "I'm sorry about our last encounter. I'm Victor Knight. CEO of Knight Publishing Agents"
"Hello, Mr. Knight," Carol said.
"Please! Call me, Victor."
"Okay, Victor," Carol said hesitantly.
"Much better! Now let's see about our table."
Victor walked over to the maitre'd, who, upon learning Victor's identity, immediately pulled two menus out and escorted them to a quiet, somewhat secluded table near the back of the restaurant. When the reached the table, Victor waited until Carol was seated before sitting himself.
While she appreciated the gesture, Carol still looked nervously around the room, 'This was supposed to be a business meeting, not a DATE' she thought. She became even more concerned when Victor sat down directly next to her. Hardly conducive to a BUSINESS conversation.
"So, Carol," Victor said, "I want to apologize again for not being there the other day for your appointment. Emergency situation, you understand." His tone implied that she SHOULD understand, even if she didn't.
"Oh, yes, I understand completely," Carol said, afraid to say anything else.
"Of course, if I had known it was you when I bumped into you on the elevator I would have introduced myself," Victor continued with a smile.
"That's alright," Carol said. "I was the one with her head in the clouds and standing like a lump in front of the elevator doors."
"Carol," Victor said smoothly, "I don't think anyone could look at you and use the term 'lump'." As he said this, his eyes traversed her body.
Carol tried to repress a shudder of revulsion, but failed. 'Now,' she thought, 'I understand why he sat next to me - he has a much better view from there!' She shuddered again.
"Are you cold?" Victor asked. He started to remove his jacket, obviously with the intent to drape it around her shoulders. But Carol shook her head quickly, she didn't want that man's hands anywhere near her. "It's just nerves", she replied and picking up her a menu, "So, what's good?"
"Well," Victor said, "I have always been partial to their Spaghetti with Lobster, but their Pumpkin Ravioli in a bolognese sauce is excellent as well."
'Ah, lobster,' Carol thought. 'At least I can make this snake oil salesman spend some money on me. I can't believe I have to be here with him tonight.'
"Hmm," Carol said aloud, "the Spaghetti with Lobster sounds tempting."
"Well then, two it is," Victor said and called the waiter over. He ordered two dishes of the Spaghetti with Lobster and a bottle of the house wine.
Carol decided quickly that she would have one glass, and ONE glass only of whatever it was the waiter brought out. She had no intentions of lowering her inhibitions around this one.
"So," Victor said, "David gave you our new contract, right?"
"Uh, yes," Carol said. "Quite a difference from the old one."
"Yes, I must apologize for that. I'm sure David explained the need for the revision?" Victor asked.
"Yes, he mentioned it," Carol said. "I read through the initial contract three times and had a pretty good handle on it, but the new one is much more complex. I'm having a lot of trouble."
A predatory gleam appeared in Victor's eye, "Really?" he said, doing his best to sound surprised, "I wasn't aware of that. If you'd like, after dinner we could go back to your hotel room and I could go over the contract with you. Line by line if necessary."
Now it was Carol's turn to fake sincerity, "Oh, that's very kind of you. But it isn't necessary."
"It's no trouble at all." Victor replied, taking a sip of his water and leaning in closer.
"No what I meant was, it isn't necessary, because the contract isn't back at the hotel room. I have a...friend in the city who is looking it over for me. He's a corporate attorney who specializes in contract law."
Victor almost choked on his water when he heard that. Carol smiled inwardly.
"You have a...friend who's a LAWYER?" he asked, applying the same pause around the word friend that Carol had.
'Gotcha!' Carol thought, then replied, "Mm, yes. He's an old...friend from high school. We go way back. He's doing it for free."
"That's very .... considerate of him.", Victor replied cooling somewhat.
"As I said, he's an old and dear friend." Okay, now she was the one lying through her teeth, but she didn't care. It was just too satisfying watching this creep squirm, "He even offered to show me the city tomorrow."
She threw that last bit in just for spite.
The evening started going downhill from there. Victor seemed more interested in her body than her book ideas - ESPECIALLY the romantic thriller involving the novelist and lawyer. Which as she described the story to him, Carol realized just how much she'd based the novelist's love interest on Ed.
She smiled even more when Victor, in a pique of male jealousy, asked if her "lawyer-friend" was the inspiration for the character, and she'd been able to volunteer that 'there *were* a few similarities'.
When they weren't discussing her book ideas, Victor spent much of the time discussing his other favorite subject - himself. Carol suspected that he probably thought if he bragged about enough, she'd agree to sleep with him later. So, he told Carol about his planned ski trip to Aspen during the holidays, and about the kayaking trip he planned for later in the spring down the Colorado River. To listen to him, he was quite the adventurer.
He was also exceptionally dull. However, Carol didn't want to risk jeopardizing their professional dealings by appearing to be bored, so she did her best to fake interest. Mostly, by remembering moments from her previous evening with Ed.
While Victor bragged about running with the bulls in Pamplona, Carol recalled Ed telling her about working his way through school in a dry roasted nut shop. "You know a hazelnut and a filbert are two names for the same nut? You pick up that kind of thing working at a fresh roasted nut store."
When Victor talked about his white water rafting trip, Carol passed the time remembering how Ed, sitting with her in a diner drinking hot chocolate and eating giant chocolate chip cookies had asked, "How much power does the prom queen actually wield? Could you have like, say, bombed Belgium?"
And when Victor talked about his meteoric rise to a publishing magnate, Carol thought about how Ed had completely understood why she had broken off her seven year relationship with Nick, and how later that night he had confided in her about the break-up of his own marriage.
Over dessert, and Victor's college football career, Carol started to worry about how to extricate herself without offending him. She still had a pretty good feeling that an outright rejection of his advances would compromise their business relationship. And she was positive she was not deluding herself about his advances - not after he 'accidentally' grabbed her knee.
Suddenly a thought popped into her head and she excused herself to use the ladies room.
"Of course, Carol," Victor replied.
Carol grabbed her purse and made a beeline for the restrooms. Once inside, she looked around to see if anyone else was in there. Seeing no one, she took her cell phone out and placed a call.
She heard three rings before a voice came on the line. There was music and noise in the background.
"Hello?" the voice said.
"Molly!" Carol said. "It's Carol!"
"Hey, girlfriend!" Molly said "How's it going in the Big Apple.
Carol heard Mike's voice in the background, "Is that Carol? Ask her how her trip's going."
"Hm, oh, Mike and Nancy say hello," Molly added.
"Molly," Carol said urgently, "look I don't have time for chitchat. I need your help."
"Is everything okay," Molly asked, suddenly a little concerned.
In the background, Carol heard Nancy ask, "Is everything alright?"
"I don't know, she hasn't said anything yet," came Molly's reply.
"Molly, I'm alright. It's nothing serious" Carol replied, "I just need your help in creating a diversion."
"A diversion?" Molly asked.
"A diversion?" Mike and Nancy both echoed in the background.
"Carol, you do realize I am in Stuckeyville and you are in New York City," Molly added.
"Yeah," Carol said, "I know. Look, here's the deal. I'm having dinner with the president of the publishing company and...um, well, he's a real jerk. He's been making passes at me all night, but I don't want to reject him outright because that might blow my book deal."
"That creep! He wouldn't ... " Molly exclaimed. Then Carol heard her tell Mike and Nancy what she'd said.
"That's just the thing," Carol explained, "I think he would. God I wish I'd listened to myself and asked Ed to come along. Anyway, here's what I want you to do. In (Carol looks at her watch) ten minutes I want you to call me on my cell phone. Don't worry. I'll supply most of the conversation. It doesn't matter what you say as long as that creep is able to hear you through my phone. I'll pretend it's some sort of family emergency, make my apologies and get out of there. Got it?"
"Sounds easy enough," Molly said in an amused tone.
"Thanks, Molls," Carol was relieved, "I knew I could count on you." She slipped her cell phone back into her purse and made her way back to the table.
She sat down just as the waiter was bringing the dessert. Victor looked at her inquisitively.
"Is everything alright?" he asked his voice dripping with phony concern.
"Just had to powder my nose," Carol replied, "Now you were telling me about your ski trip to Aspen?" Victor smiled, and began rambling again - not only about his athletic prowess on the slopes, but also the intimate atmosphere of his lakeside cabin. Carol, in what she would later describe to her friends back in Stuckeyville as the "greatest acting performance of my life", pretended to be captivated by his story.
Every few moments, she surreptitiously glanced down at her watch. The seconds seemed to drag on forever.
Finally, Carol heard her cell phone ring. At first, she pretended that she didn't hear it. When it rang a second time, she acted as if she thought it was someone else's phone. When it rang a third time, Victor stopped speaking and looked at her. With a sudden start, Carol said, "Oh, is that mine. I'm sorry. I don't know who could be calling me." She removed her phone from her purse, looked at the caller's number and said, "Oh, it's my friend Molly from Stuckeyville. I told her that I had a very important dinner engagement tonight, so it must be important."
She answered her phone, "Hello?"
"So for this 'diversion thing', I'm just supposed to just talk, is that right?" Molly asked.
"Oh my God! Molly are you okay?!" was Carol's reply.
"Nancy told me to tell you that Sarah's able to stand up on her own now," Molly said sweetly into her phone.
"I can't believe he did that!" Carol replied.
"What's wrong?" Victor asked, annoyed at the growing interruption. Carol ignored him, focusing instead on her cell-phone.
"Carol, when you get back to Stuckeyville there's this new dress shop over in Jaspertown, that we just have to check out. Nancy says the prices are just unreal."
"Of all the unmitigated GALL!" Carol fumed, "He can't do that to you."
There was a slight pause.
"Hey Carol? It's me Nancy. Molly ran out of things to tell you, so she passed the phone over to me. Is that alright?"
"Of course, it's alright dear, it's not your fault your dating that insensitive jerk! I'm glad you called." Carol looked over at Victor, gesturing in such a way as to indicate that she'd only be another minute or two. "It's good that you found that out now ... before something serious happened."
"Dr. Jerome called Mike a slack jawed llama today," Nancy said.
"You're PREGNANT!" Carol screeched into the phone. All eyes in the restaurant suddenly turned to their table. Carol smiled inwardly - it was working.
"This sounds serious." Victor interjected, "Maybe you should continue this conversation outside. We ... er, we don't want to cause a scene." He threw his napkin on the table, and motioned for the waiter to bring the check. It was a clear admission of defeat.
Carol sighed, "I guess you're right Victor. Molly, I have to go. I'll call you back in just a few minutes. Hold on sweetie." She hung up her phone, then looked up Victor and said, "I am *so* sorry Victor. Molly is really upset about an argument she and her boyfriend had and ...."
"I understand completely," Victor said smoothly, clearly lying. "Why don't you go ahead back to your hotel. I'll take care of the check. I'll have my office schedule another meeting so that we can sign the contracts."
Carol couldn't resist one more sting, "That would be just great. I'll have my friend there to. I had a lovely time, Victor," she added, then got up and made straight for the front door of the restaurant.
Once she was safely in her cab and heading back to her hotel, she got back on her cell-phone.
"Molly? I'm back. Mission accomplished."
"So it worked?"
"Yeah," Carol replied, "Thanks. I owe you big time. Yech! I feel like I need to take a shower after being with that guy all night. I think if he looked at my chest or my legs one more time I was going to scream."
"Carol, you *did* scream."
"That was more of a screech really."
"Oh. So how's New York?"
"Except for that jerk, great really," Carol suddenly realized that if she could get back to her hotel in time, she might be able to still call Ed. It wasn't that late and maybe he hadn't left the office.
"You're sure you're okay?"
With a smile she said, "Actually, Molly, I'm better than okay."
"Well," Molly said, "if you're sure. Anyway, I meant to ask you about something you said earlier."
"Sure, Molls," Carol said as her cab got closer to the hotel. "What?"
"Well," Molly explained, "when you called me earlier you said something about wishing Ed were there."
"Yeah?" Carol was surprised. She didn't even know she had said anything about Ed. 'This guy is really starting to pervade my thoughts', she thought with a flush.
"Who's Ed?"
"Um," Carol said, "actually you know him. Well, sort of...maybe."
"Thanks," Molly said, "that cleared it right up for me. Wait a second Carol... (talking to someone sitting next to her) Mike? Why are you and Nancy smiling like that? What do you guys know that I don't?"
"Carol, is there something YOU want to tell me," Molly asked, her voice all 'peaches and cream'.
"Stevens," Carol said. "Ed Stevens. He went to high school with us. I don't know if you remember him or not?"
"Oh I remember him alright. Played basketball. Very cute. Funny, too," Molly replied slyly.
Carol had just exited her cab and was walking toward the front door of her hotel. She continued on, oblivious to the bemused tone of Molly's reply. "He's a lawyer. Mike and Nancy gave me his business card - in case I had trouble understanding the contracts. Anyway, I went to see him yesterday and he said he'd be glad to do it. In fact, he's probably looking it over as we speak since I had to cancel dinner with him tonight."
"You had dinner plans with him tonight?" the sly tone in Molly's voice became more evident.
"Yeah," Carol said still distracted. She entered the hotel lobby. "We were supposed to continue last night's sight-seeing, but I had to cancel to have dinner with that creep."
"You cancelled dinner with Ed to have dinner with a creep?" Molly asked coyly.
Carol walked towards the elevators, "Molls, I didn't know he was a creep when he suggested dinner. If I did I would never have cancelled on a great guy like Ed."
She stopped.
Did she just tell Molly that she thought Ed was a "great guy"?
"So you think Ed is a great guy, do you?"
'Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.' Carol thought. She got on the elevator and pushed the button for the fourth floor. She needed to retreat tactfully. What to say? Ah, yes, that's perfect. "Oops. Sounds like my cell-phone is running out of power. I'll talk to you soon. Thanks again, Molls. Bye."
"Carol - wait I want to ...." was all Molly could get out before Carol hung up on her.
***
Carol sank into the couch. That hot shower was precisely what the doctor ordered. She looked over at the clock on the wall. 9:30 PM. She had considered calling Ed's office and seeing if he was still there, but decided that she'd probably missed him. Of course, she could always call him on his cell-phone. He'd given her his number last night.
No. She decided. She'd monopolized too much of his time already. He was giving her free legal advice, had bought her dinner and taken her sight- seeing last night, and would have taken her out to dinner tonight if she hadn't had to cancel. Besides, she'd see him tomorrow at 10 AM.
It was only twelve and a half hours away.
She got ready for bed. As she lie there curled up under the blankets, her thoughts drifted back and forth. Ed's face popped up quite frequently: the look of concern of his face as he pulled her out of the way of that cab; or later again when he'd found her crying in her room. The teasing expression he'd had when he'd wheedled a complement from her in his office. The flustered look on his face during the first minutes at Burger Heaven; and, best of all, the look on his face after she had kissed him.
'I STILL don't know anything about whether or not he's seeing someone' was Carol's final thought before she fell into a deep sleep.
***
Stuckeyville - The Smiling Goat
December 15, 2000
8:45 PM
Molly put her cell-phone back into her purse, she looked at Mike and Nancy. "The Eagle has landed."
Mike and Nancy just looked at one another for a moment. The Friday night crowd at the Smiling Goat was always a bit on the noisy side - perhaps they'd misheard her. Confused, they looked back at Molly, who sighed and said "It worked."
"Oh!" they said in unison.
"Um, so can we assume that everything is okay with Carol now?" Mike asked, then took a bite of his cheeseburger.
"Well," Molly said after a moment's thought, "She got away from that creepy publishing agent. As for the rest...I'm not sure."
Nancy took a sip of her soda. "The rest?" she asked.
Molly twirled her fork in her chef salad, "It's just that I've known Carol for years and I've never really seen her like this ..."
"Like what?" Mike asked.
"Well," Molly said, "She seemed so ... out of sorts. And then there was what she said about Ed."
"What she said about Ed?" Nancy asked, setting down her sandwich.
"What did she say about Ed?" Mike asked, grabbing another handful of fries.
"Well she didn't mean to say anything it just sort of came out."
"What?!!!" Mike and Nancy said in unison.
"She was talking about what a creep the publishing agent was and how she never would have cancelled the plans she'd made with Ed if she'd known what a creep that Knight guy was."
"She made plans with Ed?" Nancy asked?
"OUR Ed?" Mike added.
"Our Ed." Molly watched as both Mike and Nancy began to smile. "Wait. It gets better."
Mike turned to his wife, "Hi-five me honey."
"Why?"
"Because I think Molly's about to tell us that our little Edward has finally become a man."
Nancy just looked at her husband with exasperation, "Mike, quit being such an idiot. Carol and Ed didn't sleep together." She started to take another bite of her sandwich, then stopped. "Uh, Molly ... they didn't sleep together, did they?"
"No. At least Carol didn't tell me that. However, she did let it slip that she thought Ed was a 'great guy'."
Mike looked down at his empty plate, "Hey Nance? Are you going to eat your pickle?
"What?"
"Your pickle, are you going to eat it?"
"Michael Roger Burton, didn't you just hear what Molly said? Carol thinks Ed is a 'great guy'. Molly, give Mike your cell phone. Mike call Ed and find out if he still likes Carol."
"Nance. We're not in high school anymore. They're two grown adults. Let them sort it out," Mike replied.
"And what if they screw it up?" Nancy asked.
"Then we kill them. Now are you going to eat that pickle or not?"
Nancy handed her husband the pickle, he devoured it hungrily.
Nancy looked at her husband, "Well, if you're not going to call Ed about Carol. You should at least call him and tell him about the Stuckeybowl shutting down."
"No!" Molly said. "You're kidding? Why?"
"You haven't heard?" Nancy said, "There was a fire in one of the pin setters. Supposedly, one of the guys that works at StuckeyBowl caused it. Not deliberately, he just rewired something wrong or something. Anyway, with business being what it is, Big Rudy is short on cash and it doesn't look like he can make the repairs and the mortgage."
"Wow, that stinks," Molly said. "We used to love going to Stuckeybowl."
"Eddie is going to be so upset when he learns that StuckeyBowl is closing," Nancy said.
"Why?" Mike asked. "Nance, he lives in New York. Why would StuckeyBowl closing upset him?"
"Come on, Mike," Nancy said in that slightly exasperated tone of voice she used with him, "Eddie used to work there. He loved that place. He's going to be upset. You'd be upset too, if you had any feelings, you big moose!" She gave her husband a playful punch in the arm and smiled.
"I am not a moose," Mike said. Then looked at both women and added, "And I'll call Ed this weekend. Find out what's what. Okay?"
Molly smiled and Nancy leaned in and kissed him sweetly.