Part 28 (1/2)
”Hi, Russ. How is he?”
”He's better. I don't understand why he got so upset yesterday. Stacey said he didn't eat all day, and he refused to go to work this morning.”
Judith felt awful. It wasn't unusual for Victor to get a little agitated when his routine was disrupted, but it rarely lasted more than a few hours. ”Did you call our mom?”
”Stacey did. She got Victor to come to the phone and listen, but it didn't do any good. He kept going to the door and looking out.”
”Poor guy.” She wished now she had caught a morning plane back from Chicago. She would do that next time. Carmen would 194 understand. No matter how much fun they had in the extra hours, it wasn't worth the anxiety it caused her brother.
She signed in and started down the hall to Victor's room. The moment he saw her in the doorway, his face lit up and he blushed.
”Hi, Vic. Did you miss me?”
Stacey joined them, scooting past her in the doorway and carrying a small stack of Victor's laundry. ”He sure did. But I bet he's okay now. Aren't you, handsome?”
”You want to go get some ice cream?”
”Sure he does. He likes ice cream.” Stacey pulled his jacket from the closet and handed it to him. ”Put this on.”
When they stepped out into the cool air, Judith hooked her arm through her brother's. ”I'm sorry I didn't come yesterday. I was in Chicago with that pretty lady I told you about.” If there was one good thing about Victor's emotional immaturity, it was that he never held a grudge. The instant his needs were met, he was appeased. ”You're not going to believe this, but I'm already in love with her.”
They crossed the street and walked up to the ice cream store.
Judith led the way inside and ordered a cone for each of them.
Grabbing several napkins, she guided him to a small table near the wall.
”We need to get Mom over here to see you, Vic. She'd like your room. And you could show her your pictures and where you keep things. Would you like that?”
What Victor liked was vanilla ice cream. His cone was already half gone, while Judith had eaten only a few licks of hers.
”One of these days, I'm going to bring my girlfriend to see you. You'll color something for her, won't you?”
She grinned as he looked at her, his chin covered with melt-ing ice cream. It was one of those moments she almost expected him to answer.
”She's going to like you.”
195.
Victor finished his cone and Judith handed him the rest of hers. Nothing made her feel better than to see him happy.
Carmen pressed the b.u.t.ton on her phone to beep Cathy at her desk. ”Can you help me in here?”
Moments later, her a.s.sistant darkened her door.
”I've got the Franklin files, but I need the Southwest data,”
Carmen said.
”That report isn't due until the end of next week.”
”I'll be in Tokyo at the end of next week. I want to work on it on Friday.” She had decided to keep the Philadelphia meeting on Thursday and work from Judith's apartment the next day.
”You have a conference call with Berger and Gould on Friday at eleven. That's noon for you.”
”I know, but it's not going to take all day. I want to get ahead as much as I can.”
”Aren't you spending the day with Judith?”
”She has to work. I thought if I took the Southwest data, I could get that report written at her place.”
Cathy nodded. ”Okay, I'll see if Kristy has it. You want it on your laptop?”
”Yeah, but I need printouts too . . . the crosstabs.”
”You're going to carry all that?”
Cathy was right. The last thing she wanted was to lug those notebooks on the plane and then on the train. ”Can you overnight them?”
”To Judith?”
”Yeah.” Carmen retrieved Judith's business card from her desk. ”I'll let her know they're coming.”
The intercom beeped. ”Carmen?”
”Yes?”
”Art Conover's on line two.”
Carmen rolled her eyes and flipped her middle finger at the 196 phone.
”Should I take a message?”
”No, I'll talk to him.” She sat down at her desk and looked back at Cathy. ”I'll come find you when I'm done.”
She burned a few seconds before answering, hoping Art would grow impatient and hang up. Finally, she pressed the b.u.t.ton on her speakerphone. ”Art?”
”Carmen. Good to talk to you. How are things in Chicago?
You folks getting any spring weather?”
”Eh, springtime's overrated. What's up?”
”I just wanted to follow up on what we talked about in New York . . . see if you'd had a change of heart about joining forces.”
”I can honestly say I haven't thought about it at all, Art. We're just not providing the same service.”
”That might be true now, but it's going to change soon.”
”f.u.c.k you.” Carmen mouthed the words silently, snarling at the phone.