His eyes shifted to the crowds below.Something had caught his attention.What I didn’t know, but Kat picked that moment to extract herself from the crowd and snag my arm.“Bathroom.Girl talk.Now.”
What could I do?I followed her into the lush powder room that created a transition between the office and the utilitarian portion of the space.“What?”
Kat was breathless, her professional mask set aside for me.“That man owns eight luxury hotels.One of them is a flagship they modeled the Burj Al Arab after.Not just that, but the industrial holdings and synergistic assets are immense.You know what this means, right?”
“Not a clue.What is a Berg Al-whatever?”
Her face went blank as she tried to figure out a way to explain it to me.“Fine.One man… just one…” she took a deep breath and recalibrated, “I need to go a bit more basic than that.Here goes, the cake out there.It’s cut into 24 pieces.One man holds a whole piece.The rest of this entire country gets the remaining pieces.That’s how much that guy is worth out there.”
Now I wanted cake.
“On a scale of one to ten.”
“Definitely an eleven.”
Well, shit.Now, I was really happy for her.“You mean Ringo knows someone with more money than—” I didn’t say God because what would he need money for?“The Catholic Church?”
Kat thought about it.“Maybe?”
Wow.“Can he buy the Sears Tower?”I still called it that.You can’t change decades of indoctrination.Willis didn’t roll off the tongue nearly as well.
“He probably owns a part of it.”
“Cool.Is that what has you freaked out?”
“No, it’s the fantasy.That’s the problem.”
I studied her.Out there she’d been the picture of classy executive.In here she was my bestie from Beverly.And she was scared shitless.“You worked your butt off for this fantasy.”
“Yes…”
She certainly didn’t sound sure of herself.“That scares you?”
“No, it’s the suddenness.I mean, last weekend I was just needling your boyfriend, making him walk on tip toe, and he just casually buys a company and knows—” Kat lost words for a moment.“—him!”
I tried the truth on for size.“He also murders people for fun.”
Her jaw dropped open, then she laughed at me.“Good one.”
So much for honesty.“He knows people.Is that wrong?”
Kat’s eyes got a little bigger.“It doesn’t happen.It’s not natural.Girls like you and I we work hard, fight our way to what we think is the top, get a half-decent life, but it’s still crap compared to… this.”Her arms waved around to indicate the posh bathroom and the accompanying posher office.
I raised an eyebrow.“It’s almost as if you won the lottery.Congratulations.”I wasn’t joking.I was serious.
She stared at me.“That’s it.You’re lucky.You are a walking, talking good luck charm.”
I crossed my fingers in front of her.“You’re going to jinx me.Stop.”
Kat sucked in her breath.“Right.We don’t talk about that sort of thing.Just enjoy it, right?”
I shook my head.“No.Youownit.That’s what you need to do.You’ve worked hard, you know your shit.Now go out there before someone wonders if you flaked on them.”
With a quick check of her eyeliner, Kat did just that.“You’re the best,” she shot at me before exiting.
Remember that when I put you behind my sister in the bridesmaid order.
I blew out a breath.I hadn’t told her about my Irish plans.There was time.I checked my makeup and slipped back into the crowd.This time I elbowed my way to the windows.It was much easier since the boats with the green dye cannons had all left.Now the river was dotted with pleasure cruise boats and tourist regattas giving them an up close and personal view of downtown.
