Summer in the City

by Irene Vartanoff

  “Nevertheless, you’re living in a Christian country,” Father Goggin replied smoothly. “It might be sensible as well as kind to think about the spiritual concerns Edward has about resuming your relationship.”

  “Which are?” She fought to keep the hostility out of her voice.

  “We committed a terrible sin twenty-five years ago,” Edward said.

  “You can call it that. I don’t believe it was a sin,” she countered. Although she had known it was wrong to go behind his wife’s back with a secret affair.

  “We can’t take our happiness by hurting others. That’s why we had to end it then. Also why I can’t ignore Celia’s feelings now.”

  Edward was only thinking about his first family. She had hoped he was finally considering a future with her as his main priority in life. She fought off a feeling of despair.

  “That sounds very fine and noble, Edward. You’re asking me to care about the feelings of someone who called me a whore to my face a few days ago.”

  Father Goggin winced. “In the heat of the moment, as I understand it. She lost her mother only a few weeks ago.”

  She flashed him a look of disdain. “You want me to turn the other cheek?”

  Edward said, “It’s not like that. Celia needs time.”

  “Time is exactly what we don’t have. I am sixty years old. You’re seventy. We have to seize our happiness now.”

  Father Goggin interjected, “It would be generous of you to wait. I understand that you did not raise your daughter yourself?”

  “What of it?” she asked, narrowing her eyes. Where was he going with this?

  “Perhaps your lack of parental experience is what makes you less sympathetic to the hurt and confusion that a relationship between you and Edward would cause Celia at this difficult time.”

  She couldn’t restrain making an outraged sound. “That’s twisted logic if ever I heard it. Edward and his wife lived apart for years before her death.”

  She turned to Edward and put a coaxing hand on his knee. “There is no way to pretty this up or soften the blow. The truth about our past is going to hurt her no matter when Celia finds out. It might as well be now.”

  “I want to be right with God and with my family,” Edward replied stubbornly.

  Father Goggin looked as if he approved of that statement. He said, “If you don’t rush into a relationship, each problem can be overcome.”

  Edward took up the refrain, “It wouldn’t be long, darling.”

  She laughed angrily. “We’ve waited twenty-five years to be with each other openly. That’s long enough.”

  There was no point in letting them keep trying to persuade her. She had to leave before she started yelling or crying. She leaned over and kissed Edward on the lips.

  “It’s now, or never. Call me when you decide what you want to do.”

  She said a polite goodbye to the two men and left. Once she was sure they could neither see her nor hear her, Rona started cursing. She said the worst words she knew. Only when someone looked at her in shock did she realize she was in the nave of the church, tears streaming down her face.

  ***

  Susan was sitting at her desk when Linda suddenly appeared with an unfamiliar man. The week had worn down to Friday already. Susan was wrapping up some odds and ends, as it was almost closing time.

  Linda had a pleased smirk on her face. “You are to report to human resources at once.”

  Mystified, she stood. After she took a step away from her desk, the man sat down at her computer. Uh-oh. Not a security guard, but an IT guy. She walked away alone, leaving Linda and the man conferring over her desk. Well, it was probably her desk only for another few minutes.

  At the HR office, she was immediately escorted into a small, empty conference room. She waited. Twenty minutes went by. Finally, Elizabeth, Linda, and another woman, who was introduced as Kathryn Cyrus, the vice president of HR, came in. They all wore serious expressions.

  They sat down, carefully arranging themselves at the other side of the table. Kathryn Cyrus began, “You’re a temp here this summer. An unpaid volunteer. You’re actually an experienced forensic computer expert, aren’t you, Susan?”

  “Well, not exactly,” she said, “but I have worked a little in the field.” Linda suddenly looked ashen. Elizabeth, the consummate pro, appeared unperturbed.

  “Your usual assignment is to go into companies and find the hidden data that corporate intriguers try to cover up or squirrel away? Is that what you do?”

  “Not an assignment. It just happened.” She wondered where this was leading. Nobody here had seemed at all interested in her past previously.

  “Then you might be capable of altering or doctoring files that you find?”

  She was puzzled. “So could anybody. I don’t understand what you’re asking.”

  Elizabeth took over. “You have been accused of a grave behavior. Perhaps you know what I’m referring to?”

  She had no idea where this was leading, but she was getting a bad feeling. “I don’t. I don’t have a clue.”

  Elizabeth said, “Last week, Linda gave you some papers to log in. She says you took advantage of the confidential information on them to forge her signature, and take two hundred and fifty dollars in petty cash. Do you admit you did that?”

  She would have laughed at how completely backward this accusation was from the real story, but the situation wasn’t funny.

  “Of course not. Linda connived to drain six hundred thousand dollars from the ad budgets of the last six months of four series of books. That’s the amount that has been double billed and then paid out to a nonexistent ad agency that’s a shadow company. A shadow company whose major officer has Linda’s maiden name as his last name. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but I don’t think so. Linda’s signature was on every paid invoice,” she said pointedly. “Maybe that’s just a coincidence, too.” She said all this in her usual polite tone, but she didn’t bother to act meek.

  Elizabeth looked at Linda in seeming shock. She said, “Linda, would you and Kathryn leave the room please?”

  Linda, looking suddenly scared, scurried away. Kathryn Cyrus didn’t move. “I don’t think it would be wise of you to interview Susan without me present as a witness. You’ve made a serious allegation, but she has made an even more serious one, one that I must report to Donna Warshevski and possibly to the authorities. In fact, my best advice would be to suspend this conversation until you both have counsel present.”

  “Meanwhile, Linda is undoubtedly rushing back to her office to destroy as many files as possible,” Susan couldn’t help pointing out urgently. She couldn’t keep the frustration entirely out of her voice. “Maybe that’s what you want her to do?”

  “Yes,” Elizabeth smiled, but Susan suddenly saw what a cold, calculating smile it was. “That’s exactly right. I want her to be caught in the act. Her office has been put under surveillance and her keystrokes, too. There should be evidence enough to fire her for cause in the next five minutes.”

  Kathryn Cyrus was outraged. “Why wasn’t I informed?”

  “I accepted Susan as a summer intern for just this purpose,” Elizabeth soothed. “Now please give us a minute alone. Your assistant has the surveillance on Linda well in hand.” Elizabeth sent Kathryn out of the room, as Susan tried to absorb what she’d just heard. She’d been used.

  “You hired me to find this,” she said, hardly believing the enormity of it.

  “Yes,” Elizabeth confirmed. She didn’t bother to smile. “My sister learned what you did at that company in Cleveland when they hired you as a mere temp.”

  “I only followed the obvious trail that led to corporate malfeasance.”

  “That wasn’t the only time, was it? In fact, you’re a curious person who can’t resist snooping. You have excellent computer abilities. That’s what we depended on.”

  Susan was abashed. “I didn’t mean to pry.”

  Elizabeth gave her an ironic smile. “Still, you did. In
the last year, Linda has been scaring away assistants or firing them. I began to wonder why.”

  “So you deliberately set me to work for the most unpleasant boss I’ve ever had, in the hope that I would be motivated to bring her down? To do a job without pay that a consultant or auditor would have charged you a hefty daily rate to do?” she asked, indignant.

  “I wouldn’t put it that way exactly.”

  “I would,” she said in chagrin. She had an awful, humiliating thought. Since they seemed to be talking frankly, she dared to voice it.

  “Is that why you asked me to lunch and granted me so many favors? So I would think of you as a—a friend? So I would feel under obligation to report anything I found out to you?”

  “Of course.” Elizabeth made an impatient gesture. “I didn’t need to know your opinion about our books. We have paid market research for that.”

  “Oh,” she said, feeling humiliated all over again, but this time personally.

  Elizabeth gave her a dispassionate look. “Like many naïve women, you major in denial. You’re a talented forensic computer investigator, but you’re only asking for unpaid temp jobs. How self-denying is that?”

  “Silly me. I thought we might have become friends.” Her eyes were filling with tears but she fought not to shed them.

  Elizabeth showed her impatience. “Exactly why we’re too different. You’re absurdly trusting. I’m not.”

  Susan bit her lip, not wanting to whine any more about the personal relationship she’d mistakenly thought they were building. There was one thing more. “You didn’t answer my question. Are you involved in this fraud on the company?”

  Elizabeth looked at her coolly. “What do you think?”

  “You probably guessed. It’s such an obvious kind of embezzlement. You’ve let it continue, in order to serve your own purposes.”

  Kathryn Cyrus returned at that moment. She’d forced down her chagrin and was determined to do her job to the letter. “I don’t think we need you here anymore today, Susan. Why don’t you go home and enjoy your weekend? I’ll call you on Monday morning. Thank you.”

  Her dismissal was pointed. She rose. “All right. I understand.” She couldn’t resist adding, “I had thought better of you, Elizabeth. And of Coquette.”

  She walked out of the HR office. She was allowed to return to her desk without the further humiliation of an escort because they already had an IT guy going through her files, she supposed. There would be no chance to alter or damage anything. When she arrived at her work station she laughed silently. Her computer had been removed entirely. It would take the IT department a significant amount of effort to find her erased files, but there was no point. She had given Elizabeth plenty of documentation. Linda was even now giving her more. She could hear Linda objecting in a tone of hysteria to someone in her office. “What are you doing? You can’t take those. Don’t touch my files.”

  She winced as she gathered up her sweater. Now was not the moment to say her usual forced cheery goodnight to Linda. She did not want to see the pain on Linda’s face. There was no joy in the other woman’s fall.

  Maybe that was why Elizabeth called her self-deluding. She wanted the world to be a good place even though she knew very well it was not.

  She had a lot to think about. Not about Coquette, although it stung that she had been used. It stung even more to think that even at her age she could not differentiate false friendship from what was sincere.

  She leaned down and opened the drawer that contained her purse. Then she removed the small copy of Nancy’s wedding photo from the desktop. She was done here, apparently.

  As she left the building, she looked back at the façade and thought about all her silly dreams of working in publishing. Aside from some distinct quirks, publishing had turned out to be like any other business. Some people were task focused, like the editors. Others were looking for a way to bilk the system, like Linda. Still others, possibly Elizabeth, were intent on using people’s follies to increase their own power. Susan suspected that when this mess got reported to Donna Warshevski, Elizabeth would play a starring role and Susan would not be mentioned. She sighed and hailed a cab. She was done here.

  Her fantasy that maybe she could find a niche for herself in New York had blown up in her face. After all her years of living, she still couldn’t tell the difference between a new friend and a manipulator. It hurt. She wasn’t cut out for this tough town. She should go home to Ohio where she belonged.

  Chapter 26

  Rona hadn’t heard from Edward. After leaving a message telling him of the party, she made no more effort to contact him. What was there left to say? Either he would choose coddling Celia and kowtowing to his family and his religion, or he would choose her. He knew her phone number.

  Of course she was in a stew. Was he done with her? Was her refusal to wait a year—or worse, an unspecified time—until dear little Celia’s sensitivity abated a sufficient reason to make Edward back away for good?

  Twenty-five years ago, Rona had not been in a position to fight Callie openly for Edward. There had been too much to lose. The scandal alone would have undone them. Perhaps Edward did not even realize how determined a fighter she could be. She was not the type of person to meekly take it on the chin, not from anybody. Edward’s daughter might have a batch of personal problems. Rona suspected that she did, given her lack of an involved life at her age. Too bad. Getting Celia’s approval or even being nice to her, let alone being a stepmother to her, was not important to Rona. She already had a daughter. Nancy.

  By involving his priest Edward had made it clear he didn’t want Rona to pressure him. Yet she had anyway.

  She was holding a full wine glass as she looked at her living room, which a few days ago had been neat and orderly. Now, it looked as if a whirlwind had struck. New newspapers were piled everywhere. She had brought home somebody’s collection of old magazines that they were going to throw out, not even recycle. She had gone on several aimless antique shop excursions, and now little items sat in boxes waiting to be unpacked. She had even dragged home a small table she had found on the sidewalk. It should have been perfect in her living room. Once again, there was nowhere to put anything.

  In one moment of clarity, she recognized that this outward chaos was the manifestation of her inner turmoil. Of her need to protect herself from the pain she was afraid Edward was about to inflict on her. He hadn’t called her once this week. Not once.

  She picked up a little vase she’d found in an antique shop and carefully turned it, admiring the enamelwork. How pretty it was.

  ***

  Bev was pacing. What was she to do? Todd wanted her back. He’d even tried to coax her to his hotel room to have sex that night they’d gone out to dinner. She wouldn’t play. She had to keep him hot, needing her.

  He’d been nice to her yesterday, bringing her a new bottle of her favorite perfume. She’d forgotten it when she flew up from Florida. Todd had bought a big bottle, no one-ounce cheapie for him. He did know how to treat her right when he wanted to. Their whole married life had been a struggle to make sure he treated her right. All those women. So much trouble. He was more careful now that their girls were older. He didn’t want them to know their dad had a roving eye. But he kept chasing, damn him.

  Maybe he’d turned over a new leaf. He swore he wouldn’t stray again. This time, she believed him. He had said it so sincerely. He even had tears in his eyes.

  He had to back down about that baby. It already had a mother—and a father who wasn’t Todd. He needed to accept that he couldn’t father boys. Adopting his girlfriend’s baby would cause a major scandal and threaten their position in the community.

  He couldn’t ever be wrong. He had to be the authority on everything. She’d enjoyed the look on his face when Rona had made him climb down off his high horse the other day. Rona was a tough broad. She was used to getting entire classrooms full of dickheads to behave. To her, Todd was just one more.

  ***

>   Susan walked around for a couple of hours, going over and over the events at Coquette. It wasn’t a profitable way to spend her time. She ended up feeling downhearted and used. She knew she should shrug it off, yet this latest betrayal put the cap on her disillusionment. She’d had the fantasy of being in publishing for so long. A lifetime, it seemed.

  She tried to interest herself in more shopping, to no avail. The joys of discovering new objects or exploring new high-end shops had completely faded. She’d seen enough. As much fun as it had been when she’d first come here, the shopping had turned out to be unimportant compared to the other developments of the summer. Maybe making her apartment so comfortable had been a mistake. She wouldn’t have been forced to take Bev in if she herself had still been sleeping on an old futon on the floor. Well, she was past her resentment now. Bev had gotten a bad deal from Todd and was simply trying to leverage a better one. As for Bev’s betrayal with Rick, Susan could hardly fault her now, could she? Susan had been repeatedly unfaithful with Michael, and she intended to keep on until she had to return to Ohio.

  The city was experiencing a heat wave. Walking on the hot, hard pavement wasn’t much fun. She hailed a cab and took herself and her glum mood back to hide in her apartment.

  “What’s up, kid?” Bev asked in a friendly tone as she dragged in. “You’re home early. No hot date with Mikey?”

  “Not until later. He has to work.”

  Trailed by Bev, she walked into her bedroom. She put down her purse and started looking for something cool to wear. She was hot and tired from being outside. They had window air conditioners in each room, but the apartment was on the top floor and inevitably got stored heat from the roof. It radiated down, pressing on her.

  She stripped off her office pantsuit. She wanted no reminders of her job at the moment. She threw on some Capri pants and a colorful top, hoping Bev would drop the topic. She slipped her feet into sandals.

  Her low mood made her come out with a confidence. “Rick and I are probably getting a divorce.”