be impossible to ignore the large-eyed boy staring at her.
She silently made a shooing movement with her hand, but he didn’t seem to get the message and didn’t move a muscle.
Then Stella and Margie rushed into the room, complaining in loud whispers.
“You’re not supposed to be here!”
“Mom said you couldn’t come in here!”
Their scolding didn’t seem to make an impression on the boy, who didn’t even look at them. What followed was a flurry of half-whispers and whined complaints as the girls took their little brother by the hand and escorted him out of the room.
When the door closed again, London saw that Lapham’s cat was tilting his head luxuriously backward so that his master could scratch him under his chin.
“I wasn’t aware that you had children,” Lapham said.
“I don’t,” London said.
“No? I could swear that I just heard …”
“Those are my older sister’s kids,” London said. “I’m staying at their house for a few days.”
“So you have no children of your own?”
“No.”
“And you’ve never been married?”
“No.”
London felt a bead of sweat break out on her forehead, and her palms felt suddenly clammy. Probably without meaning to, Lapham had touched on a topic that pushed her buttons, especially today.
“One of these days your biological clock alarm is going to go off,” Tia often told her. “Then you’ll really be sorry.”
London didn’t like being reminded of that.
“I was just having a look at your curriculum vitae,” Lapham continued. “You’re an interesting young lady, London Rose.”
London squinted with surprise.
“Uh, thank you,” she said.
The cat rolled over on his back and Lapham began to stroke his stomach.
“I’ve read your employee evaluations,” he said. “Your supervisors have nothing but wonderful things to say about you. Which is all very remarkable, considering your modest beginnings. You don’t even have a four-year college degree.”
London felt a twitch of defensiveness. Her lack of much formal schooling was something of a sore spot for her.
But Lapham continued, “And yet you seem to be extremely well-rounded, with a rich understanding of culture, history, art, and music. You also have a keen business sense. In fact, your supervisors say you’re as knowledgeable as many people with advanced degrees in liberal arts and languages and business. You’re even fluent in several languages. How have you managed to make so much of yourself?”
London felt a little dizzy at this last question.
Just now her sister had criticized her for not wanting to grow up.
But this man was praising London for things that Tia couldn’t possibly understand or appreciate.
It felt good, but puzzling.
What’s going on? she wondered.
“Well,” she answered cautiously, “I do have a two-year Associate of Science Degree in Hospitality and Restaurant Management from Ketchum Community College right here in New Haven.”
“How were your grades?” Lapham asked.
“Good,” London said.
“Oh, let’s not have any false modesty. You graduated with a perfect GPA.”
London tried to keep her mouth from falling open. Apparently, Lapham had taken more than a “look” at her curriculum vitae. He’d studied it in some detail. But if he knew so much about her, why was he asking her all these questions?
“What came next?” he asked.
“Well, as soon as I graduated, I started working in a variety of jobs in the hospitality industry. Finally I applied to work for Epoch World, and I got the job. I fell in love with hostessing and worked really hard. I learned how to fill in for this person or that, picking up a lot of skills along the way, from bartending to bookkeeping.”
“Quite the jack-of-all-trades, weren’t you?”
“I guess you could say that,” London said, finally throwing modesty to the winds. “I could lead tours, pair the best wines with any meal. Once I was able to give directions in a city I’d never even been to before.”
London still couldn’t see Lapham’s eyes, but his cat seemed to be gazing at her with approval.
“Excellent,” Lapham said. “But where did you come by your skill with languages?”
London couldn’t help but chuckle a little.
“When you’re a little kid and your parents are flight attendants, and you’re being yanked all over the world from one country to the next, you’ve got to learn some of the local lingo just to play hopscotch with other kids. You could drop me into any country in Europe and I’d manage to get by.”
Lapham laughed aloud.
“You haven’t told me anything I don’t already know,” he said. “But it gives me a lot of pleasure to hear it directly from you. You mustn’t underestimate yourself, London Rose.”
London felt a thrill from head to toe.
Only