“You know,” Pete began, “you should bring this movie with you. That’d really draw a crowd. I wasn’t even aware the knockout round of that match still existed.”
I raised my head but didn’t look at him. “It’s manufactured for a Kinetoscope, Pete. It can’t be viewed by a mass audience. Also, it’s not even mine, so that’s out of the question.”
“I’ve got a guy.”
I gradually turned around at that statement. “You’ve got a guy. A guy forwhat?”
“That’s 35mm, yeah? A contact of mine in Midtown professionally digitizes old film footage. We could get a screen set up and project it at your table.”
“You haven’t been able to drive 2.9 miles to pick up some boxes since last weekend, but you’vegot a guywho will digitize 120-year-old footageovernight? Pete, get out so I can lock the door.”
Chapter Three
“I BLAMEyou for all this,” I said on the phone as I hiked up the stairs to our fourth-floor apartment.
My antiquing buddy, Aubrey Grant, formerly of New York, who now ran a historical home in the Florida Keys, scoffed loudly over the line. “How’s any of this dysfunctional mess my fault?”
“You convinced me that sponsoring the fair was a good idea.”
“It was! I didn’t know they had so many new team members this year who apparently can’t find their own fucking asses with a flashlight.”
“I dumped five grand into this event, and you aren’t even coming up for it.”
“Also not my fault.”
“I beg to differ.”
“Are you getting winded from stairs?” Aubrey asked.
“I’m mad at you—would you focus?” I took a breath before starting up the final set.
“The nonprofit board decided not to fund my trip to the city. I have to save my vacation time for apartment hunting in August.”
“Youdoremember that August in New York City is like slowly suffocating in a bag of hot garbage left in the subway, yeah?”
“Have you ever smelled low tide in ninety-degree weather with 90 percent humidity?” Aubrey countered.
“Why are we arguing?” I asked.
“You called me to complain about Polo Bro making a pass at you, and it just deteriorated from there.”
“God…. Part of me is kind of glad this whole van fiasco happened.”
“Why?”
“Calvin will be with me tomorrow.”
“Since when do you let your beau fight battles for you?”
“I don’t. But Calvin’s biceps are bigger than Pete’s head. So.”
“I guess that’d make a horndog think twice.”
I stopped outside the door at the end of the hall, reached into my messenger bag, and retrieved a set of keys. “I just got home,” I said as I unlocked the dead bolt and stepped inside. “I’ll let you—God, what is that amazing smell?”
“Do I need an app update on my phone in order to smell this part of the conversation?” Aubrey asked.
“Bitch.”
