“He’s a second-year radiology resident at UCLA?”
“That’s what the background check revealed.”
“What’s he look like?”
Mariel shrugged. “Describing men is not one of my strong suits. He looks like what he is: a young doctor in training.”
“Would you say he’s good-looking?”
Mariel shrugged again. “I suppose in a stereotypical way. About six feet or thereabouts. Sandy blond hair. Reasonably athletic figure. He’s neither fat nor skinny.”
“Did you find him attractive?”
“He’s not my type, Zachary. It never crossed my mind one way or the other.”
Mariel’s tone and the use of Berman’s first name caught his attention. It reminded him of another of her characteristics that rubbed him the wrong way. Often he had the sense she was reprimanding him, even in intimate circumstances, hardly a turn-on. It had been one of the reasons he’d dumped her when he did. With her, everything was mechanical, even lovemaking.
“Well, I think I should meet the guy, find out if he’s here just because of Pia or because of Nano.”
“The background check didn’t come up with any ties to industry, other than his being a radiology resident.”
“Radiology, just like medicine in general, is going to benefit big-time from nanotechnology,” Berman said. “But I agree with you. The chances that he is an industrial spy are minimal. However, I want to meet him. I’d like you to get Pia to bring him to dinner tonight at my house. Make sure she understands it is a command performance. She had refused an invite on her own, but I think she will come accompanied.”
Mariel swallowed hard. She was shocked. A minute earlier she was enjoying Berman’s undoubtedly jealous response to Pia’s guest, and now he was inviting the man and Pia to his home, a place where Mariel had never been invited.
“Tell her that she and her houseguest should arrive at eight,” Berman continued. “But make sure she realizes it is a social event. Tell her it has to be tonight, because the rest of the week I’m going to be busy charming the socks off our important Chinese visitors.”
Mariel got to her feet, clutching her clipboard against her chest. She looked Berman right in the eye but didn’t say anything. She knew Berman was taking advantage of her and deliberately humiliating her. Here she was, one of the principal people of Nano and key to its biomedical R&D program, and he was treating her like a gofer, asking her to arrange some weird, sick rendezvous. From sore experience she knew what Berman really wanted.
Without another word Mariel headed for the exit. Before she got there, Berman called out to her, and she stopped without turning around.
“So you’ll pitch it like I described, okay? A social event among friends. And it has to be tonight.”
Mariel hesitated, thought about turning around and telling Berman to do his own personal errands, but she didn’t. Despite his behavior toward her, she was still enamored of the man. Instead she shifted her resentment and spite to Pia, the bitch.
CHAPTER 10
George whistled and shook his head in disbelief as he and Pia sat in her car in the cobblestoned turnaround of Berman’s imposing post-and-beam timber home.
“What a house! It looks more like a hotel than a private home. This nanotechnology stuff must really pay off.”
All that day while Pia was off at work, George busied himself on the Net, reading about nanotechnology in general and microbivores in particular. He’d become something of an armchair expert. He’d even made it a point to read the article by Robert Freitas that Pia had suggested he’d find interesting.
“It’s such a waste since his family isn’t even here,” Pia said. She was as impressed as George, especially with all the rough-hewn masonry and soaring gables. Set at the top of a wide stone staircase, it dominated the environs like a medieval castle.
“Were you surprised at the invitation?” George asked. He had been nonplussed to have been specifically included. He had no sense of what role Berman played in Pia’s life, and no idea what to expect. The one thing he knew for certain, if push came to shove, there was no way he could compete on a level playing field with a man with his resources.
“I was more than surprised. I was shocked,” Pia admitted. It was the last thing she’d expected, especially since she’d ignored Berman’s increasingly insistent texts the day before. All day she had worried that Berman would suddenly appear in her lab and there’d be a confrontation. But it hadn’t happened. In fact Pia hadn’t seen him all day. When she’d asked, she was told that he was involved with a luncheon for a newly arrived contingent of Chinese guests.
“I tried to beg off at first,” Pia continued, “but Mariel was adamant about the invitation, and she was an absolute bear all day, like she’s never been with me. It was as if I had screwed up some experiment, which I haven’t. She reminded me at least ten times not to forget about tonight. She was very curious about you as well. ‘Is your friend enjoying his stay?’ ‘Does he like your apartment?’ ‘Don’t forget that Mr. Berman wants to meet him….’”
“And you don’t know why he wants me to be here? I feel a little nervous.”
“No, George, I have no idea why he wants us here. But I tell you, I’m glad you are with me. If you weren’t, I wouldn’t come within a mile of this place.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I didn’t mention it because I was afraid you’d get upset, but there was a bit of a come-on between us before Berman left on his most recent trip. It happened after a perfectly innocent dinner. Let me put it this way: Berman and I shared a few meals that were all business. Then it suddenly changed, and not from anything I did. I resolved I never was going to be alone with him again, pure and simple. I mean I still respect him for the visionary entrepreneur he is and what he’s accomplished in nanotechnology, but I didn’t come out to Boulder for a relationship with anyone, and certainly not with a married man.”
George nodded. He’d expected there had been something between Pia and Berman, what with the car and Mariel’s strange comments. He appreciated Pia’s candor but couldn’t help but wonder if she was telling him the whole truth.
“So,” Pia continued, “I’m glad you are here because I’ve wanted to see this place. I’ve heard about it around the proverbial watercooler, but never imagined I’d get to see it. I might not want a relationship with the guy, but he does interest me. He’s unique, and a major contributor to medical science, like Rothman was, just not in the same way.”
George smiled inwardly. Pia saying she was glad he was there was more than justification for his trip to Colorado. Maybe it had actually been a good idea. Earlier that morning, when Pia left the apartment without a word, he had despaired that it hadn’t been, especially when she reappeared late that afternoon without apology or even a word of explanation.
“Come on!” Pia said suddenly. “Let’s get out of the car. He knows we’re here, he let us in the gate ten minutes ago. Just try and relax and enjoy yourself. You’re good at small talk, which I’m not. And you’ve been saying you wanted to go out for dinner.”
Pia climbed out of the VW and George followed, clutching the bottle of wine he had brought as a gift. George had spent ten minutes looking at the reds at the nearest liquor store before dropping almost $100 on a bottle of Sonoma Syrah, money he could little afford.
As George neared the top of the stairs a few steps behind Pia, he saw that Berman had already opened the enormous, oversize wooden entrance door and was standing on the threshold. He was dressed in a snugfitting Italian gray herringbone silk jacket over a silk mock turtleneck. From the bulges in the right spots, George guessed he was a weight lifter. George’s confidence sagged. The man was not only rich but good-looking to boot.