Casey looked over at Dr. Shim to see if he could hear any of this, but he was talking with Unu and it was difficult even for her to hear Ella over the loud music.
“What do you mean, he was fired?”
“Well, he resigned. But basically, he was fired. Ted Kim was fired from the great Kearn Davis. Having sex with Delia on the trading floor. She had to ‘resign,’ too. Ha! Security had tapes of them. Isn’t that hilarious?” Ella guffawed unnaturally.
“What?” Casey blinked. There were security cameras throughout the trading floor. Everybody who worked on the trading floor knew that. Why was Ted even on the trading floor? “Wait—what happened?”
“They were having sex, Casey. S-e-x. I didn’t see the tapes, though. Don’t need to. But I can guess what happened. I know how Ted likes it. He likes for me to sit on his lap. I read in Cosmopolitan magazine that men who are bossy like to be dominated in bed. Did you know that, Casey? But I don’t want to dominate anyone in bed. I can’t even imagine. . . But I’m sure Delia knows how to please a man.”
“Ella?” Casey shouted. Ella was crying now. Who was this person talking? She didn’t even sound like Ella. “Hey, hey, what’s going on? How much wine did you have?”
“None. I’m not supposed to drink when I’m taking Tylenol.”
“Are you taking Tylenol?” Casey looked closely into Ella’s eyes but didn’t know what to be looking for. When you were stoned, your eyes looked darker because your pupils were dilated, but she couldn’t imagine Ella getting high. Tylenol wouldn’t make you sound as though you were drunk. “Ella? How much Tylenol did you take?”
“Yes!” Ella answered, closing her eyes, then opening them abruptly. “I’m taking lots of Tylenol.”
“Ella, how much Tylenol did you take?” Casey spoke very slowly. Tylenol couldn’t kill you, she tried to tell herself.
“I don’t remember.” Ella smiled like a child and leaned into Casey. “Hi, Casey!” Her expression was growing more blank, and she no longer looked awake, although her eyes were wide open. Her left hand flopped off the stroller handle like a doll’s. Reflexively, her hand returned to the stroller. “Ted said he’ll get something else. These things die down, apparently.” She sounded as if she were parroting something he’d told her.
“What are you talking about?” Casey glanced over at Dr. Shim, wondering when she should pull him over, but she didn’t want to upset Ella.
“His job. Ted said he’ll get a new job.” Her voice grew singsong. “He said we have lots of money in the bank. I mean, he has lots of money in the bank. I don’t have any money of my—” Ella slumped over, her hand jerking the stroller away. Irene woke up with a scream.
“Dr. Shim!” Casey cried, moving toward Ella. “Dr. Shim!” Ella’s head fell heavy on Casey’s shoulder.
Unu grabbed the stroller as it wheeled past him and pulled Irene out. “It’s okay, Irene-y, it’s okay. . .” The baby settled down quickly, returning to sleep on Unu’s shoulder. He patted her small back, not understanding what had happened to Ella.
“Ella?. . . Ella?” Dr. Shim repeated calmly. He pulled back Ella’s eyelids. “Call 911,” he said. “Right now. Someone call 911 right now. Right now. Right now.”
11 SOUVENIRS
AND HOW IS B SCHOOL?” Kevin Jennings asked. “Is it all that you expected?” He chuckled.
“I love school, Kevin. Of course, it isn’t thrilling like working on a trading floor, and I miss you guys. So very, very much.” Hands clasped over her heart, Casey bowed her head in a gesture of remorse.
A chorus of “Aaawww” rose from the men.
Casey was seated at the head of the table as the guest of honor. Her belated send-off dinner was being held at the private room of Kuriya on Fifty-sixth Street—a steakhouse known for cooking Kobe beef on hot stones. It hadn’t been easy to get both the Asian and Japan equities sales teams together, but Walter Chin had arranged for eight institutional salesmen, five traders, and two assistants to attend Casey’s farewell party.
Kuriya was Casey’s favorite expense account restaurant in New York—a place where dinner cost approximately two hundred and fifty dollars a person. Her favorite item on the menu was the shiso rice, which you had to order separately because nothing came with your steak. The price tag for a scoop of rice tossed with Japanese mint and black sesame seeds: six dollars. She’d never been there on her own coin and didn’t expect to anytime soon after tonight. There were sixteen people there including herself. It didn’t help to think like this, because expensive meals were part of Wall Street culture, but it was hard for Casey to get used to despite having been served by waiters at eating clubs at Princeton and going to Virginia’s house for dinner, where her mother pressed a bell under the table with her foot for the maid to bring the next course. Tonight’s dinner would cost four thousand dollars, with the salesmen and traders splitting the tab （they never asked the assistants to pay）， and of course, Casey couldn’t help but do the math of equivalents: the tab for this send-off dinner would have wiped out a quarter of her credit card debts, more than three months of rent for her old studio apartment, more than ten months of groceries for her and Unu, four new suits from Sabine’s, one month’s salary for her father, and so on.