“A stirring,” Spike said.
“A stirring?” Tony said.
“Harold’s words, not mine.” Spike told us he was going in. “Harold, if you can distract her, I’ll try and sneak the tablet out,” he said. But the end of his sentence was drowned out by a scream so ear-piercing, I nearly swerved into the next lane.
Rosie yelped.
Tony and I looked at each other.
“Guess she saw the video,” Tony said.
Twenty
By the time we got back to Boston, I was already late for dinner at my parents’ house. I called my dad and let him know I’d be there, hopefully within the hour, as I turned onto Avery Street, where the Ritz-Carlton was located.
“I’m sorry. It’s work stuff,” I told Dad.
“Anything I can help with?”
“Not unless you’ve developed an expertise in anonymous online activity.”
“Is your client getting threats?”
“Nope,” I said. “Just a one-star review.”
“Hmph.”
“I’ll explain tonight,” I said. “Oh, and Richie can’t make it.”
“I know,” Dad said. “He called to apologize. I’d just reschedulethe whole thing. But your mother insists. She’s made her signature scrod.”
Mom’s scrod. It keeps getting better and better.I told Dad I’d be there as soon as I could. We hung up.
“You sure you don’t want to switch places?” Tony said.
“Don’t tempt me,” I said.
“How bad can dinner with your parents be?”
“With my dad, it’s a joy. With my mother added to the mix, and my sister, Elizabeth…well, let’s just say I’d rather forcibly keep Melanie Joan from further destroying her own life.”
“Wow.”
Rosie was on Tony’s lap. She’d plopped there halfway through the drive home, but Tony hadn’t pushed her away. And when I’d tried to shoo her into the backseat, he’d told me not to worry about it.Getting shed on is the least of my troubles,he’d said, that preternatural calm of his slipping away.
As it turned out, Tony’s business had been on a downturn for a while, and the process had accelerated in the aftermath of the most recent writers’ strike. Several of his clients’ projects had fallen through. Some of them had left the movie business for good. At this point, Melanie Joan’s career was Tony Gault’s one reliable asset. And now that was in serious danger. This confession had thrown me for a loop. I hadn’t known how to respond.I’m sorry,I’d tried.I had no idea…
It is what it is, he’d replied.Forget I ever said anything.
For the rest of the ride, he’d been quiet.
I glanced over at him now, staring out the window and petting Rosie as though she were a worry stone.
“We’ll fix this,” I said.
He gave me a tight smile. “I have faith in you.” I didn’t like seeing him like this—thoughtful, concerned. Unbothered by dog fur. Much as I’d lost touch with Tony, his shallowness was one of the few things I could depend on—proof that some things in the world never changed.
I pulled up in front of the Ritz just as Spike was exiting through the revolving doors. Tony lifted Rosie from his lap. “This pooch is very comforting,” he said.
