I will miss you tonight,Elizabeth.
She smiled, and to her surprise, drifted rightoff.
Saturday morning, Elizabeth went out for her customary five-mile loop along the Esplanade. A thin layer of ice covered the grass at the edges of the path. This early, only a few other joggers exhaled matching white clouds from their chapped lips as they hurried over the Boston University Bridge. Running typically freed her from the chains of stress that wound around her life, but today, not even the adrenalinehelped.
A block from her apartment, a man called out to her. “Miss Bennett, a moment of yourtime.”
She skidded to a halt. Cold black eyes peered at her, deep set in a non-descript face. With her finger on her watch’s panic button, she asked, “Who areyou?”
“Salvador Perez. I work for Carter, Pastack, and Hayes. Leonard Hayes would like you to come in for an exit interview. The legal department has copies of the non-disclosure you signed when you started that you are to review in front of them. There are also several post-employment agreements they’d like you to sign. If you do so, you’ll be given a small severancepackage.”
“Are you following me?” shedemanded.
“Your address was in your employment records, Miss Bennett. I was waiting for you to emerge,yes.”
“I’d like you to leave. I’m well aware of my non-disclosure agreement. I haven’t—and won’t—violateit.”
“You spoke to the Red Sox.” Perez took a step closer toher.
“Get the hell away from me before I call the police. The Red Sox calledme.I told them if they had any questions, they should contact the office because I couldn’t tell them anything—exactly what my non-disclosure agreement requires me to do. I have nothing else to say to Carter, Pastack,orHayes. I’m trying to move on with my life, and no severance package is worth going back to thatplace.”
Sprinting towards the building, Elizabeth was relieved when she tossed a quick glance behind her and saw that Perez made no move to followher.
After a shower and a quick snack, she returned to her work. Numbers swam in her head. Some clients, like the Red Sox, she could remember with almost perfect clarity, and she wanted to recreate their returns as best she could. The snow started to fall around mid-afternoon, but she barely noticed. Her back ached. The tension behind her eyes spurred heron.
After dinner, she brought her laptop to bed. Surrounding herself with tax forms that she’d printed out from the Internet, she checked, rechecked, and verified. The baseball team had paid more than three million extra in taxes. Why? She was so distracted by the numbers that she didn’t see the caller ID when she answered thephone.
“Hello?”
“Elizabeth. I have missed hearing your voice.” Alexander’s deep tones sounded odd, echoing over the line, but the joy in his voice was hard tomistake.
“Oh, hi. Are you still in London? You sound so faraway.”
“As do you,chérie. But not physically. You’re distracted. Anotherbook?”
“No, I’m—” If Alexander knew, he’d interfere. Rich and powerful men were like that. Her father could never leave well enough alone either. “It’s nothing. It was a longday.”
“What did you do? And, if you would indulge me, are you inbed?”
“Excuseme?”
Alexander cleared his throat. “It’s 7:00 a.m. here, Elizabeth. I’m sitting here in my hotel room after another sleepless night aching to know what you’re doing. What you’re wearing. Anything about you. I cannot stop thinking aboutyou.”
“Alexander, we can’t do this. I’m...what I mean to say is that...shit. Men like you don’t date women likeme.”
“Women like what? Intelligent? Witty? Am I some sort of cretin? An ogre with such poor manners that I would embarrass you atdinner?”
“No, but I’ve been in your type of social circle before. You need someone who’ll stand up to scrutiny in the press. Someone who doesn’t live on Hollander Street and shop at Goodwill. Regardless of my former station in life, right now I don’t have a job, and my bank account ishemorrhaging.”
And I’m involved in a sticky situation with your accountingfirm.
“I do not care what your financial situation is,” he snapped. Then he sighed, and his voice softened. “That came out wrong. I care very deeply that you are struggling, Elizabeth. But not for the reasons you believe. Do you know how long it has been since I found a woman I could converse intelligently with? A woman who did not want me only for my bank account? My position inlife?”
“I don’t know. The society pages aren’t my home. They’re yours. Didn’t you date Pippa for a time? How am I supposed to followthat?”
“You don’t have to. Pippa is a lovely woman, but she and I have nothing in common. Ididaccompany her to the theater once at my mother’s urging, but we didn’t hit it off. Nary a peck passed betweenus.”
“You don’t have to justify yourself to me, Alexander. I’ve no claim on you.” She didn’t want to hear about hisdates.
