“I can’t, Gary. I’m sorry.”
“I understand,” he said, graciously accepting her refusal. “If you change your mind…”
“I won’t,” she assured him.
“Clearly you have a husband who makes you happy,” he said. She wavered, and he continued, “Which is exactly what you deserve, Marge. A woman like you deserves a husband who treats her like a queen. Makes sure she’s feeling loved and taken care of every moment of every day.” He took her hand. The warmth of his touch seeped into her hand, and instead of pulling back, she thought it felt good to be touched like that. With reverence. With respect. “Just promise me you’ll think about it,” he said.
She found herself nodding.“Thanks, Gary. You’re very sweet.”
“Not sweet,” he corrected her. “I think smitten is a better word.”
And like a kid of fifteen, she actually blushed!
Oh, how silly she was being!
He leaned in, then, but before their lips touched, she broke the spell by turning her head away.“I couldn’t,” she said quietly, and so instead he kissed her hand.
What a perfect gentleman, she thought once he’d left. She felt all fluttery, and her legs had turned to jelly.
Just then, her phone chimed, and she picked up.“Yes, Tex?”
“I got your letters back,” he announced, sounding a little breathless. “Every last one of them.”
“Well, that’s good,” she said absentmindedly, looking at the hand where Gary had placed that kiss. She could still feel the touch of his lips.
“And I promise you this will never happen again, Marge.”
“It better not,” she said.
“Though I think Mrs. Jackson made a copy of one of the letters. The one about the tampon? She seemed really intrigued by it. Couldn’t stop asking questions.”
In spite of herself, she had to smile.“Oh, Tex,” she sighed.
[Êàðòèíêà: img_4]
Harriet listened to Tex explaining to Marge about their letter retrieval expedition. She was thoroughly bored with the entire incident by now. How silly humans were. And how petty. Just because a couple of letters had escaped into the wild they had to go and make a big fuss about it. Who cared about some old letters from thirty years ago? And besides, it wasn’t Tex’s fault, was it? In fact it could have happened to anyone.
“Humans,” she told her boyfriend. “They just love to make a mountain out of a molehill every single time, don’t they? Drama, drama, drama.”
They were back at the house, with Tex pacing the living room, and Harriet and Brutus on the couch. Which is when Harriet caught Brutus staring at her for some reason. Her heart stopped.“What is it? Is something wrong with me, precious?”
“There’s something on your nose,” said Brutus.
Her heart stopped—or at least that’s how it felt.
“What is it?! Tell me!” she demanded.
“A spot,” said Brutus. “Just a tiny spot, really.”
She uttered a wail of despair, then flew off the couch, and up the stairs. In the bathroom, she jumped the sink in one swift movement and moments later was staring at her reflection in the mirror. And that’s when she saw it. A big red spot had appeared on the bridge of her nose.
“Nooooooooooo!” she cried in agony.
It wasn’t a small spot, like Brutus said. It was a big spot. In fact the spot was all she could see, as it seemed to cover her entire face!
It was red, it was angry, and it looked as if someone had slashed her face with a sharp razor.
And with her photoshoot only days away, it was the worst possible moment for this horrible blemish to appear on her lovely visage.
Brutus, who’d silently snuck into the bathroom, glanced up at her. “It’s not so bad, is it?” he asked—the traitor!
“It is bad!” she wailed. “It’s horrible. It’s a tragedy—the worst thing to happen to me ever!”
“It’ll pass,” he said. “Just you wait and see. This time tomorrow it’ll be gone.”
“No, it won’t. It’ll keep on growing and growing and growing—like a pumpkin. And just when I’ve got to be ready for my shoot, I’ll look like a monster! A terrible, hideous monster!”
“No, you won’t. And besides, these photographers have all kinds of tricks to deal with these contingencies. I’ll bet he’s got a cream or whatever to cover that spot right up. And then of course there’s Photoshop.”
She was only partly reassured by his words.“It’s the end of the world,” she told him in a quiet voice as she prostrated herself across the sink. “The end of my life!”
CHAPTER 14
[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]
Interesting things had been happening at Advantage Publishing all day long, and the number of people in and out of Madison’s office was growing by the minute. The man certainly led an interesting life!
And all throughout the events that unfolded, Danny kept us informed.
Shortly before lunch, a man named Wayne Piscina had been fired. According to Danny some old homophobic and racist tweets had surfaced, which led to a big furor online, and Wayne, who worked as an assistant photographer, had to go.
Next, a rumor circulated that Advantage Publishing and Madison himself were being sued by a model. The model’s name was Ona Konpacka, and according to Danny the woman’s face was permanently disfigured because of a botched cosmetic procedure. Danny showed us pictures of the woman, and it has to be said she was gorgeous. Now, apparently, not so much—though there were no pictures to indicate the damage that was done. No before and after.
“Apparently she had a bad reaction to some fillers that were injected into her face,” Danny explained to an eager audience of four. “The fillers permanently altered the shape, and now she won’t leave the house. Her career is ruined, her life is over, and she’s suing Advantage Publishing and Madison for millions.”
“But why? It’s not Madison’s fault that the surgeon botched the procedure,” said Scarlett, who kept touching her face as Danny related this horror story.
“Oh, but she’s suing the surgeon, too, of course, and the clinic. But she says Madison personally told her to get the procedure, since he wasn’t happy about the way she looked, and said she could stay relevant only if she had some minor alterations. And also, he was the one who recommended this particular clinic.”
“Poor woman,” said Scarlett as she studied Miss Konpacka’s face. “Imagine having your face destroyed by some horrible butcher. She’ll never work again?”
“As far as I understood, the structure of her face is so different now even her own mother doesn’t recognize her anymore,” said Danny. He seemed to relish relating the details of this latest example of a cosmetic procedure gone wrong.
“A boyfriend once told me to get fillers, and I declined,” said Scarlett, gently fingering her lips. “Thank God I did. Though I had some minor work done, I never did fillers.”
“And you better not,” said Gran. “Look what happened to this model.” She glanced over to Madison, who was pacing his office, screaming something into his phone, which was one of those wireless models, with something stuck in his ear.
Up and down his office he went, and even though we couldn’t understand what he was saying, it was obvious the man was under tremendous pressure.
Natalie was also studying her boss, and I thought I could detect from her body language that she felt for her former lover and baby daddy. Now that he was in trouble, she was clearly eager to kiss his head and make the trouble go away.
And behind Natalie, Tom was staring at the PA, and it was pretty obvious what he was thinking: that he wanted to be the one to shower the girl with kisses and make all her trouble go away. But from the young man’s demeanor, it was also clear he didn’t think that would ever happen.
Danny had left, to spread some more gossip around the office, and take bets, and Scarlett and Gran, even though they should have been correcting spreadsheets, were conferring about the next step in their rescue operation.