set it back in place. “I should let you return to your Saturday.”
“Trust me, this has been a wonderful diversion,” she said, rising from the table with him. “And thank you for the opportunity.”
“One last question before I go.” He stared off for a moment, thinking. “Would it make any sense at all for me to start from scratch?”
“From scratch?”
“Buy a new apartment in a totally modern building and go from there.”
“That’s one possibility, of course,” she said. If he went that route, it would be an even bigger—and more lucrative—project for her in the long run, and yet it would entail a lot of upheaval for him, which he might not appreciate once he found himself in the thick of it. “Why don’t you start pulling those clips I mentioned? Once I have a sense from those, we can discuss all the options.”
After closing the door behind him, she listened to his footfalls recede. Stepping back, she studied the temporary door. It looked sturdier than the old one and yet hardly crowbar resistant. A wave of panic plowed into her from behind. She would be all alone tonight in the apartment. And every night going forward. She knew she had no choice but to suck it up and take the necessary precautions.
She checked her watch. It was time to trudge to the Apple store in order to purchase another MacBook Air. But there was a matter she had to deal with first—the idea that had wiggled into her brain while she was talking to Baby.
She dug in her purse and pulled out the card Sasha Glen had given her last night. After mentally rehearsing what to say, she made the call.
Sasha picked up on the second ring. There were bustling background noises, as if she might be in the midst of a shopping spree.
“Hello, this is Kit Finn. We spoke at the gallery in Chelsea.”
“What can I do for you?” Sasha asked. Pleasant, but not nearly as eager to chat as she’d been last night.
“I wanted to follow up on our conversation. A client I was about to take on just called to say he was being transferred to California and won’t need my services after all. You had said you were looking for a decorator and I’m open to talking if you’re still interested.”
“Hmm,” Sasha said, as if the idea had lost its luster overnight. “You’ve caught me at an awkward time.”
Damn, Kit thought. She’d convinced herself the woman was nosy enough that she would jump at the opportunity.
“I’m sorry to call out of the blue this way. I have your card so why don’t I send you an email with my info. If you want to chat at a later point, feel free to follow up.”
An excruciating pause followed.
“It’s not that I’m uninterested,” Sasha said. “I’m just in the middle of something. Can I have you come by my place and take a look?”
“Of course,” Kit said, surprised by the turnaround. “When would work for you?”
“Unfortunately weeknights are bad because I’m usually dining with clients.”
“Well, weekends are fine for me. Would . . . tomorrow work?”
“Not now,” she said, and it took Kit a moment to realize the woman was addressing another person. “Uh, yes, tomorrow’s good. Let’s say two.” She rattled off her address and then announced she had to go.
When the call was over, Kit stood for a few moment in the middle of her living room, grasping the phone in her hand. She wasn’t sure how much information she would glean from the meeting, but it was a start at least. She was doing something.
The rest of the day was a crazy rush, and her body practically vibrated with anxiety. Where are you now? she wondered, thinking of X. If it was indeed him who had broken in, she prayed that he’d moved on, having realized she’d deleted any client information of value to him. But she kept sensing him, the man hiding behind the curtain.
After a trip to the mobbed Apple store on Prince Street, where she purchased a new laptop, she took the subway to a store that sold security supplies, which she’d researched online before leaving her apartment. A home security system remained out of her price range, but she needed something to make her feel safer. The store claimed to sell affordable devices that could provide a small amount of comfort. She ended up buying three hanging door-handle alarms. They supposedly emitted an eardrum-splitting sound if someone so much as