“Two years,” Kevin said sternly.
“Enough, tough guy,” Hugh said. “Think of the Thirteenth Amendment.”
“I’m impressed,” Walter said. “I didn’t know I was working with an abolitionist.”
Hugh buffed his fingernails against his chest. “Anyway, can you imagine how Kevlar asked his wife to marry him?”
Walter shivered.
“Assholes. At least I got a woman to marry me.”
“The kindness and goodness of the fair sex can never be under-estimated,” Hugh said, beaming at Casey.
“Down, boy,” Walter said to Hugh, and Hugh made a halo over his head by joining his thumbs and middle fingers.
Kevin checked his screen. The chip maker had fallen by a basis point since lunch. He threw his pen at the monitor. “I knew it.”
Casey jolted up in her chair.
Kevin turned to the girl, remembering to finish up with her. “See you tomorrow at five forty-five.” He picked up the phone to call the analyst. His tone switched completely—earnest, questioning, and calm.
Walter noticed Casey’s confused expression. She would get it soon—you didn’t get to become the boss without having some versatility in style. Casey remained in her chair, not knowing if she was being dismissed. At once, the phones rang and both Walter and Hugh picked up calls. Walter motioned to Delia, who was back at her desk. He covered the receiver of his phone and whispered, “Go talk to her. Ask her to walk you to Human Resources.”
Casey went to her, and Delia took over.
10 OFFERING
ELLA’S LONG DARK HAIR was pinned up with a barrette, and she wore a lilac-colored linen dress reaching down to the middle of her slender calves. They were at home, so she had no shoes on her bare white feet. Ella tilted her oval-shaped face, peering into Casey’s like a hopeful girl before a party.
“Maybe you can come with us today?” she asked.
Casey fumbled through her bag. There were exactly six cigarettes left in the packet she’d accidentally filched from Mary Ellen. The first thing she intended to buy with her paycheck was a carton of Marlboro Lights.
“I forget,” Casey lied, knowing full well that church began at nine. “When do services start again?” It was already eight in the morning, and Casey had been awake, showered, and dressed for nearly two hours. Before starting her job at Kearn Davis, it had been her habit to rise well before Ella did, prepare coffee, tuck away the sofa bed, read the classifieds, and draft cover letters. She’d been working for a week now, and on this Sunday, she’d wanted to be by herself while Ella and Ted went to church and ate their brunch at Sarabeth’s at the Whitney.
Ella told her the service times, then invited her again. Her innocence and vulnerability had the effect of making Casey feel hard and wizened. Ella appeared so easy to hurt, and this made Casey careful around her.
“We never celebrated your job properly. . .” Ella tried again.
“You keep saying that, but there’s no need. Really.” Casey didn’t want any more kindness or charity from her. Without Casey’s asking, Ella had handed her carfare and lunch money to tide her over until she got paid, bought her hosiery, and loaned her dress shoes to wear to the office. Casey’s debts mounted like a heap of laundry.
“And I really want you to meet Unu. He promised he’d come today.”
Casey nodded. In the past week, Ella had been mentioning her cousin who’d just moved into a rental across the street. He’d been an electronics analyst at Pearson Crowell—a second-tier British investment bank. Ella, who had no guile, couldn’t hide her wish for Casey to like Unu and vice versa. Twenty-seven years old, raised in the suburbs of Dallas, St. Mark’s, Dartmouth, the son of a businessman and a doctor—the last of four children. He’d just returned from a four-year stint in Seoul with Pearson Crowell before switching to a boutique firm in New York; he was also fresh from a quick marriage to and a faster divorce from a girl in Korea who had treated him badly.
Casey sat on the bench near the front door to put on her black espadrilles. She was headed to the roof for her cigarette, and slipped under her arm was the real estate section of the paper. As soon as she’d put together the security deposit and first month’s rent, she’d move out. In anticipation of her departure, Ella had concocted a fantasy that Unu and Casey would fall in love and join her and Ted at church every Sunday. They’d both be couples and do things that couples do. Casey thought it was sweet but ultimately far-fetched. So when Ella got that gleam in her eye talking about Unu, Casey would answer politely, “Your cousin sounds nice.”