When this recession is over, we’re a skyscraper-only operation. Still, I don’t like marble for the wall. Too mausoleum. I want something that blends. The maze is good, but it’s uptight. Like you, Sidenschwandt,” he said to Jill, whose eyes popped open. Next he turned to Audrey, but like his brother, got her name wrong: “And probably you, too, Loomis. Show me something better by next week.” Then he rapped his knuckles against the table, and said, “From the way this meeting started, I thought I had a lemon on my hands. Nice surprise.”
Then, shockingly, Mortimer smiled. “Next time, less pills, sweetheart. Send me the plans in an e-mail so I can run it through engineering. I’ll set up a client meeting for the end of the month. I’ve got to run.” He was standing fast and turned back once to add. “One more thing.”
“Yes?” Audrey asked.
“This whole room was waiting for you. By my watch, almost five minutes. Everybody here.”
Audrey looked to Jill. Jill looked to her hands.
He lowered his voice. “That can never happen again.”
Audrey nodded. “Yes, sir.”
Then he and Randolph, who gave her a surreptitious thumbs-up, were out the door. The rest, including the 59th Street team, followed slowly, like herded sheep. What surprised her—a couple of them patted her on the back. Dave Galea even whispered, “Fuck yeah! Lunch is on me.”
She and Jill were the last to leave the room. “Did you really have a polyp?” Jill asked.
Audrey shook her head. “No. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. But I had to say something.”
Jill looked at her for a beat longer than necessary. “Well, take better care of yourself. I can’t afford to give you time off.”
“Oh.” Audrey’s shirt had dried. She took off the jacket and tried to hand it back, but Jill wouldn’t accept it. “Keep it. You’ll need it.” Then she lowered her voice so that no one outside could hear. “You helped me out on that. Decent job. Thank you.”
Audrey beamed. “Yeah. Rough start, but I think they liked it. I wish you’d give me some notice next time, though.”
Jill flipped her cell phone open and began to text a message. “The nurse is sick today, and nobody’s watching my son.”
Audrey frowned. “Sorry.” They stood at the wide boardroom window overlooking downtown Manhattan. Sun-soaked tourists crowded Battery Park to ride the Circle Line, then snap photos of former monuments turned holes.
“Technically, as my second-in-command, it’s your job to develop presentations. I don’t have to give you notice.” Jill didn’t look at her when she said this, and a bolt of genuine rage thundered through Audrey’s chest. The worm inside her began to gnaw. She thrust the jacket in Jill’s direction until she had no choice but to take it back.
“Smells like sick people,” she said, and left the room.
10
You Like Me? You Really Like Me!
David swung by her cubicle ten minutes later, with the other members of the team in tow. “I was thinking Balucci’s, so we could sneak in a couple of beers,” he said. He was wearing a crisp blue suit and pressed trousers. He could have made the cover of GQ.
“Lots of beer,” Craig chimed in. He was a junior designer, but he acted like an intern. His dad worked for AIAB, though, and had referred a lot of business to Vesuvius.
“What?” she asked. What did David expect her to say, that it was okay to drink on the job? Meanwhile, she had to get these plans done and didn’t have the time to swallow a bagel?
“So Balucci’s is okay with you?” David asked.
She got a little hot under the collar. “Actually,” she said. “I could use some help on this.”
David frowned. “You don’t want to go to lunch?”
Now she was more confused than ever. Rather than getting herself into deeper trouble, she decided to say nothing at all.
“Lucas,” Mark said. “It’s our treat. For the presentation. If you hadn’t done it, one of us would have been in the hot seat.”
“Really?” she asked. They’d never asked her to lunch before. Usually, they just sneaked out one by one. She never imagined they all met up at the same place. “You guys always eat together?”
Simon nodded. “Some of us aren’t machines.” Simon wanted her job, and had made no secret about sending out his résumé when Jill stopped delegating to him and hired Audrey. There was a note she didn’t like in his voice, envy or contempt or both. She decided to ignore it.