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“Hello!”
“Kingsley, daring.”
“Hi Amelia.”
Either things had gone really well, or my head was a bout to roll. It was hard to tell when Greene sounded like she was happy. It could be a clever ruse. She was quite Machiavellian that way.
“Great news!”
I could actually feel my shoulders relaxing as all the tension drained from my body as quickly as it had come.
“What’s that?” I asked, cautiously optimistic.
“The demonstration went wonderfully, they absolutely loved you. They called me yesterday afternoon and made quite a generous offer. Even I was surprised, which I don’t have to tell you is really saying something!”
“That is good news,” I agreed.
“In other news - ”
“Good news?”
“Wait and see,” she admonished.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“That’s better. In other news, we have pushed the launch date for the Greene Planet Pilgrim forward. It will now be on lots on July 3rd to give people who pre-order time to get theirs before heading out for the long weekend. The pre-orders have been just flooding in.”
“The advertising is out?” I asked, my head spinning.
“Last week dealing. Stars and Stripes, fireworks, the whole deal really pushed the holiday angle. People buy a lot when they are feeling patriotic.”
“Not to mention that it actually is,” I pointed out.
“Oh, of course it is,” Greene agreed, “the fact that you’re a West Point graduate doesn’t hurt either.”
“Is that why you wanted me to do the presentation?”
“Partly. It really was good for optics. Though you also just know the design better than anyone. It was the product of your head and your hand.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” I said, trying not to pass out from the rush of it all. July 3rd was two days away.
Chapter Eleven - Ada
She didn’t tell me her name. I didn’t even think of it until we were well underway. I took some busses in my head, still in a post-sex haze, the endorphins far from running their course through my system. Were I given but one guess, I would say her name was Clementine. Though that seemed unlikely in that day and age, as well as cruel. The song teasing she would get alone would be awful.
No, it was something more sophisticated and aristocratic. I scratched Clementine from my mental answer sheet and instead put in Lysistrata Mordant. Yes, that looked right. She was the sort of ball and champagne beauty that would have been the toast of the country club set had she been born in Vermont instead of New York.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Lyssa,” the driver said, glancing in the rear-view mirror.
“Short for Lysistrata?” I inquired, knowingly.
“Yeah, how did you know?”
“Lucky guess. It also makes sense you wouldn’t use the whole thing.”
“Or I would get constant jokes about the dirty play by Aristophanes.”
“I don’t know about dirty. Bawdy for sure, though, and either way, he got his point across.”
“Indeed, he did. If only people had those kinds of guts now,” Lysistrata Mordant lamented.
I had given her directions to Amy’s place instead of my own without even thinking about the whole bridge situation, but the enchanting Ms. Mordant, which really was a cool name, insisted that she didn’t mind and would drive wherever I said. I wondered how much Kingsley was paying her to make her so happy to serve.
The door was opened for me by the most elegant woman I had ever seen, resplendent in and impeccable in a black suit and white shirt so form fitting they left little to the imagination as to her lithe, strong form. I made my way, my steps still a bit unsteady from the after-breakfast pounding Kingsley had blessed me with, up to the door of Amy’s brownstone.
“Wow, someone just got fucked,” Amy said, leading me through the door.
“Twice,” I enthused.
“I take it your date went well.”
“He made me breakfast!”
“And then boinked you insensible. It’s love, alright.”
“Is Matt around,” I asked, casting my gaze about nervously.
“He’s in bed. Spill.”
“He came in me. I more or less ordered him to. In my defense, it had already happened accidentally.”
“Accidentally on purpose?”
“No, accidentally, at least I think so. Anyway, afterwards. After the first time, he said it was fine no matter what happened. That he wanted to have a baby with me and all kinds of other beautiful things. He wants me, Amy. For real. We are back together, like, officially.”
“I take it he doesn’t know that you already have a baby together.”
“Not exactly. I wanted to tell him but could never really figure out how. I figured he would be mad at me for not telling him the time.”
“Of course he will. It is kind of big news. But from what I know of him, he is not an idiot - ”
“No, it at all,” I agreed.
“Exactly, so it also seems quite likely that he will realize exactly why you didn’t tell him and what a struggle it has been for you to raise Matt by yourself. If anything, he will love you more, not less.”
