“No. This isn’t supposed to be part of… the relationship.”
“It’s not,” Susan said. “But you meant it. You meant that kiss.” She continued to look at him without revealing any feelings of her own. Then finally a light of understanding showed in her eyes and she said, “It’s suffering.”
“What?”
“It’s suffering you respond to.”
“Yes,” he said, turning toward the door. “I’ll, uh... I’ll be in touch.” Ready left feeling awkward and humiliated.
Chapter 13
At his office desk that afternoon, Will skimmed through a number of emails before lingering on one from Jeremy Chen: $100k that came in today put in index fund. Assuming $200k to follow? Call & we’ll discuss.
Will leaned back with a troubled expression. He checked the time. 5:00 p.m. It was 8:00 a.m. in Hong Kong. He called Chen’s cell phone.
“Hello?” came Chen’s voice from the other end.
“Where did that money come from?” Will asked.
“What? Oh. The usual place.”
“We didn’t have any arrangement.”
“I don’t know about your arrangements,” said Chen. “I just know the money came in.”
“Shit!” Will said under his breath.
“Is there a problem?” Chen asked.
“Yeah, there’s a problem. Go ahead and park the money in the index fund. I’ll call you later.”
Will hung up. He put his elbows on the desk and rubbed his eyes.
He opened the desk drawer and examined the new passport. “The whole point of this was to be able to go in and out without them knowing,” he muttered. He sighed and threw the passport back into the drawer. “Lee wasn’t bluffing. They’re running the show without me.”
He made another call to China.
“Wei, it’s Will.”
“Good morning, Will,” Wei said. “Or good afternoon, I suppose.”
“Did you pack up one of those special shipments?” Will asked.
“No. Lee’s guys did. They came in with a create and told us to put it in the container.”
“They just showed up?” Will said. “Did they say I OK’d it?”
“No. We just assumed you did. They said they’d have another one in four weeks.”
“No,” said Will. “They won’t. I’ll be there in four weeks, and I’ll straighten this out.”
After hanging up, Will leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. He stared at the ceiling for several minutes before the bank manager called with the next piece of bad news.
“Mr. Moore, I’m calling from Third Union about one of your accounts,” she said.
“What about it?” Will asked.
“You’re wife wrote a check for ten thousand dollars.”
“Doesn’t surprise me,” Will said. “Wait, Third Union? She’s not supposed to be writing checks on that account. That account is for...” Will stopped himself, and then said, “OK. Thanks for letting me know.”
The woman continued, “A man came in and cashed the check in person.”
“OK.” Will didn’t understand where she was going with this.
“Because of the amount, and because we were disbursing cash, we were required by law to alert the IRS.”
“Shit!” Will exclaimed.
“If I’d been here when the man came in, I would have called you before letting him cash it.”
Will let out a breath of frustration. “Who cashed the check?”
“A fellow by the name of Warren Lane.”
“OK,” said Will. “Thank you for letting me know about this.”
As soon as he hung up he Googled Warren Lane.
“Private detective,” he mumbled. “My wife hired a private detective.”
There was no photo of Lane on his website, but he managed to find one after a few minutes of searching. He spent a moment examining the long nose, the green eyes and the slicked-back hair. “Guy looks like a fucking prick,” he said.
Will’s mind turned back to his wife. I told her never to touch that account. And ten thousand dollars! What the fuck? The last thing I need is the fucking IRS looking into my accounts.
He didn’t question why she would hire a detective in the first place. He knew she suspected his affairs. But she had been willing to live with them for this long, hiding her doubts and fears behind that proud facade. He interpreted her silence as a sign of contentment.
He thought about Lane again. With a little prying, a private investigator could cause a lot of trouble. Will looked again at the eagle-like face in the photo. “Little fucking bastard,” he said. “I’m going to pay you a visit.”
He entered Lane’s office address into his phone and watched as the directions appeared on the map. It was less than a mile away. Will put on his jacket and headed to the elevator.
* * *
Warren Lane was just leaving his office as Will cruised slowly by. Will pulled his car to the curb and watched in his rearview mirror as Lane approached the driver side door of a red Audi.
Will got out and walked toward Lane. He examined the man from head to toe, noting the fine suit, the leather shoes and the cuff links. Likes money, Will thought. He looks like the kind who will sell himself to the highest bidder, and I’ve got a lot more money than Susan.
“Warren Lane?” Will asked.
Lane, irritated at the way Will had looked him up and down, shot him a dirty look and said nastily, “Who the fuck are you?”
The rudeness of his tone, his arrogance and vanity, and his ugly eagle face aroused in Will such a violent antipathy that before he could stop himself, he punched Lane straight in the nose and sent him to the pavement.
“What the fuck?” yelled Lane in astonishment. He put his hand to his nose to try to stop the gushing blood.
Will pulled him up by his lapels and slammed him against the side of the car. “Listen,” said Will, shaking with anger. “There are some people in this world you do not fuck with.” He tapped his fingers against his chest. “I am one of those people.”
He slammed Lane against the car again and then let him go. On his way back to his Mercedes, Will brought the heel of his hand straight down on Lane’s driver side mirror, detaching it from the car.
“And I am another,” Lane said under his breath as he watched Will’s car pull away. He noted the license plate number. “You just found yourself a world of trouble, buddy.”
He looked down at his lapel and frowned at the blood. He tried to wipe it off, but his bloody hand only spread the stain. “Goddammit,” he said.
Chapter 14
The following morning, Ready awoke in his car at 8:00 a.m., half a block from Will and Susan’s house. For the next two hours, he sat and watched the door, drifting in and out of sleep. When Will finally left the house, Ready followed him to the airport and watched him drive into one of the overnight lots.
He called Susan and said, “Will’s at the airport. Is he going out of town?”
“Yes,” Susan said. “He’ll be back tomorrow afternoon. I should have told you.”
Ready hung up and said aloud, “Looks like I have a day off.” He picked up a cup of coffee and a sandwich on his way back into town, and then drove toward Ella’s house. He passed several open parking spaces and drifted slowly by the front of the house, peeking inside like a shy high-school boy hoping to catch a glimpse of the girl he has a crush on.
There was Ella, in a navy-blue T-shirt and dark-green sweat pants, looking out the window next to the front door.
Ready parked and stood by the car watching her. Her face lit up when she saw him, and she waved him into the house. At the door, she pulled him in and threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.
“If I had your number, I would have called you,” Ella said. “Will’s out of town.”
“Wanna go sailing?”
“Really? Yes. Should I put on a bathing suit?”
“If you want. The water’s a little cold, but the sun is nice.”
“I’ll be back in a minute.” She ran upstairs. Ready went to the liquor tray and poured himself a shot of Scotch.
Ella came downstairs a few minutes later wearing the same T-shirt and sweats. “Is it OK if I wear this?”
“Where’s your bathing suit?”
“Under here.”
“All right. You ready?”
Ella slipped a bottle of sunscreen into the pocket of her pants and said, “Let’s go.”
As they walked to Ready’s car, Ella slid her arm through his and whispered in his ear. “Warren?”
“Yeah?”
“When we get to the car...”
“Yeah?”
“Open the door for me.”
“OK.”
“Then wait till I get in. Then close it.”
“OK,” Ready whispered. “Is that the right way to do it?”
“I laid awake last night thinking about you taking me somewhere. I pictured you opening the door for me. It’s probably not your style, but it was a nice daydream.”
He opened the car door and she smiled as she got in.
As Ready walked to his side of the car, Ella turned and looked at the empty fast food bags and beer bottles that covered the back seat. She touched the divider between the front seats, then examined the greasy residue on her fingers and smiled.
When Ready got in, she said, “You don’t have a girlfriend, do you?”
“How could you tell?”
“She wouldn’t put up with this,” Ella said, waving her hand toward the garbage in the back seat. “Can I see what’s in your glove compartment?”
“Go ahead.”
Ella opened the glove box. “A bottle opener, some napkins, and… what are these?”
“French fries, I think.”
“Just in case you get stuck on the freeway? How long have these been here?”
“I don’t know.”
“OK, after we go sailing, we’re going to the car wash. They have one of those giant vacuums.”
* * *
Half an hour later they were on a little borrowed daysailer, trolling slowly out of the marina under the power of an electric motor.
“I’ll put the sail up when we’re a little further out,” Ready said. “The wind’s against us. Hold this.” He gave her the tiller. “Just keep it straight.” Ready crept forward to the cockpit and returned with two bottles of beer.
He offered one to Ella. “No thanks,” Ella said. “Too early for me.”
“It’s already open,” Ready said.
“Why don’t you drink them both?” Ella suggested.
“OK. Have you sailed before?” Ready asked as he took a sip from one of the bottles.
“Not since I was a kid,” Ella said.
“We’re going to head straight out toward the Channel Islands, then turn west.”
They set out against the wind, and after ninety minutes, they were several miles from shore. The sun was bright and the air was warm. The sound of the wind and waves rushing by was too loud for conversation. While the rudder and the sail consumed Ready’s attention, Ella sat near the front of the boat, looking quietly out to sea.
She felt the boat turn, and gradually, land appeared again on the horizon. Ready let the boom swing out to ninety degrees, and the wind filled the sail. The air became still and the noise of the waves disappeared.
Ella turned to see Ready watching her. “I didn’t know you had a reflective side,” he said.
“It feels so much hotter without the wind,” Ella said, ignoring his comment. She took off her shirt and pants. “Why aren’t we moving?”
“Dip you toes in the water,” Ready said.
Ella joined him at the back of the boat and dipped her toes in. “I had no idea we were going that fast.”
“We’re going faster than we were before. You just don’t feel it, because we’re going with the wind.”
Ready took a sip of his beer as Ella turned and brought her legs back into the boat.
“Your skin is really pale,” Ready said. “Shouldn’t you wear sunscreen?”
“Fair, Warren. My skin is fair. Pale means sickly looking. Fair is light but healthy. I have some,” she said, picking up her sweat pants from the deck. “It’s the only thing I brought.”
She squirted sunscreen onto her hand and began to rub it into her arm as she watched the planes take off from the airport a few miles ahead. Ready felt her withdraw. “What are you looking at?” he asked.
She shook her head and said nothing.
“Can I do that?” Ready asked, referring to the sunscreen. He lowered the sail and released the boom. The wind was audible again as the boat slowed. He took the bottle of lotion from her hand. “I’ll do your shoulders.”
She turned her back to him and held her hair above her neck. At his touch, she straightened her back and the hair on her neck stood up. “You’re like a cat,” Ready said, as he rubbed the lotion down her spine. “Wherever I touch, your whole body reacts.”
She turned suddenly to face him and the unhappy look on her face surprised him.
“I don’t know why I respond to you the way I do.” She shook her head and looked as if she were about to cry. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. I was going to leave, Warren. I had a ticket back to New York. That was my plane.” She pointed at the white plane a mile south of the airport. “United Airlines. Two-thirty to Los Angeles.” She wiped a tear from her eye, and Ready’s anxiety rose at the thought of her going away.
“Why were you going to leave?”
“I can’t stay here with Will. That house makes me crazy. I have to get back to my life.”
“Did you tell him you were leaving?”
“No,” said Ella.
“You were just going to fly away?”
“Yes,” she nodded. The rims of her eyes were red, and Ready could see she was struggling to control her emotions.
“Why didn’t you go?”
For a long time, she was afraid to speak. Finally, abandoning her defenses, she looked at him directly and said, “I was waiting for you to come back.”
Surprised by her confession, Ready asked, “How long were you going to wait?”
Ella looked as if she didn’t understand the question, but after a moment, she said, “Until you came back.” She kept her eyes fixed on him, as if awaiting the blow she refused to defend herself against. Ready said nothing.
“Does that scare you?” Ella asked. “Because it terrifies me.”
“I don’t know,” Ready said.
“You don’t know?” Ella asked with some annoyance. “You don’t know if it scares you? Or you don’t want to think about it?”
“I don’t know,” Ready repeated. He looked around the boat as if searching for an exit. “Don’t put your life on hold for me. I’m not all that.”
“But maybe you are,” Ella said. “I want to find out.”
“Here,” Ready said, handing her the tiller. “Take this too.” He handed her the main sheet to control the boom. “I’m going to raise the sail. You’ll have to work to pull the boom in. If you feel the boat leaning too far either way, let the rope out.”
“I don’t know how to do this, Warren.”
“There’s nothing to crash into out here. Just let go of the rope if you feel the boat tipping. The wind will straighten everything out.” Ready walked to the front of the boat and took two beers from the cockpit.
“Where are you going?” Ella asked.
“Away.”
“Don’t just leave me here. I was talking to you. Warren!”
Ready sat alone on the bow for the next half hour, facing
away from Ella, drinking beer and watching the shore consume more and more of the horizon as it approached. Ella glanced at him every few seconds during her first minutes in control, hoping he’d come back to finish their conversation; but after a while the rudder and the sail consumed all of her attention.
When she drifted off course, she needed tremendous arm strength and leverage to pull the boom in toward the boat. Over time, she learned to correct her course and let the sail out to ninety degrees, where it required less management and gave more speed.
Each time the boat straightened out, she again had the sensation they had stopped moving, and she occasionally dipped her hand into the sea to feel their speed. Each time, she was impressed.
Ready returned to the tiller to guide the boat around the seawall and into the marina. They didn’t speak until Ready asked her to tie up to the dock. Her cheeks were red from the sun, and her back and arms ached from the strain of managing the boom. As he stepped onto the dock, Ready stopped in front of her and said, “I’m sorry. I’m doing my best.” A hint of her natural brightness returned. She took his hand and they walked together to the car.
Ella drove, and they stopped at the car wash on the way back to Goleta and got rid of all the beer bottles and fast food wrappers in the back seat. When they pulled up in front of the house, Ella smelled like French fries, and Ready smelled like stale beer.
“You want to come in?” Ella asked.
“What if Will comes back?”
“Beat him up.”
“He’s a pretty big guy,” Ready said.
“But you’d give him a good fight if you really loved me, wouldn’t you?” she teased.
Ready looked doubtful.
“Oh, I can see the conflict in you.” She smiled broadly. “‘Am I more horny, or am I more scared?’” She laughed, and then said, “He’s not coming back, Warren. He’s out of town till tomorrow. You would have remembered that if you hadn’t had six beers.”
She put her hand on the inside of Ready’s thigh and whispered, “You know what we’re going to do when we get inside?”
“What?”
“Nothing.” She kissed his cheek and smiled and said, “You’re not getting anything for the way you treated me out on that boat.”
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