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“It’s none of your business what I do or don’t eat,” she pouted. “What do you care anyway, as long as I get the work done?”
Steven’s face grew red and the veins stood out on his neck until it looked as if he might explode.
“That’s my cue. I’m outta here.” Jared melted out the door.
“I think I’ve shown I care what happens to you,” Steven said evenly. “Now I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that, and I’m going to ask my question again. Did you eat breakfast today?”
“You don’t understand. I can’t eat. My stomach is upset.”
“What about water? Did you drink anything today? Why am I bothering to ask?” Steven disappeared and came back moments later with two bottles of water.
“Thank you. But it’s not like I was going to die.” She forced down a sip of water. “I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time, without any help from you or anyone else.”
“And evidently doing a poor job of it.” He started pacing, stopping every so often to glare at her until she obediently swallowed some water. “I meet you after forty-five years, and it turns out you’re only alive by lucky happenstance.”
She started to protest again. But he shot her another look, and she took another sip of water instead.
“We still need to talk, but I can see this is not the time for it. And I suppose you turned off your cell phone. Alexander and Johanna came by. They wanted to take you and me to lunch, so we went without you.”
“But I thought you were going to lunch with Ellen?”
“She had to work through lunch.”
Anne’s heart did a happy dance, but she gave it a swift kick in the pants. “I’m sorry that didn’t work out.”
He scowled. “Drink some more water.”
“This is silly. I know you have more important things to do than to babysit me while I drink water. You go, and I promise to drink it.”
He sat down next to her and pulled her computer toward him. “You’re right. I do have work to do. I just don’t have anything more important to do. So I’ll work right here until you finish drinking.” He began sorting his email.
She told herself he was being aggressive and controlling. But if she were honest, she’d have to admit it reminded her of something her husband would’ve done. Tom had often commented that Anne was awesome at taking care of everyone except herself.
She sighed and forced another gulp into her protesting stomach. Staring glumly at the daunting bottle and a half of water in front of her, she knew she could never down it all. Not if she wanted to keep it down. She picked up the water bottles and said, “I think I’ll just take these to the lounge area. Maybe if I had some crackers, I could drink more.”
Without taking his eyes off the computer, Steven reached into his pocket and pulled out a package of her favorite cheese crackers from the vending machine. He waved them in the air, until she snatched them from his hand with considerable irritation.
She snacked on the crackers and drank her water until all of one bottle and most of the other was gone. But he continued working on her computer, ignoring her completely. She turned on her cell phone and found two missed calls from Johanna, two from Steven, and one from Sam. She decided to return Johanna’s call first.
“Hi Johanna.” At Steven's glare, she grabbed the water and took a swallow.
“Hello Anne. We are so sorry we missed you at lunch. But we have tickets to go to a jazz club show tonight. Do you like jazz?”
“I love it—that’d be fun.” She really needed the distraction. Anything to stop thinking about Steven.
“Dress warmly. To get good seats, you have to arrive early and be in the front of the line.”
Excited, she hung up and called Sam, swallowing more water to pacify Steven as she waited for her to answer.
“I need to apologize,” Sam said. “Sorry I didn’t believe you the other day when you said you weren’t with Mr. Gherring. After I saw his picture in the social column this morning, I knew you were telling the truth.”
Her mouth went dry. “What picture?” She peeked at Steven to ensure he wasn’t listening in.
“You should see it. He’s with this beautiful girl with amazing long, straight hair. She looks kind of exotic. He has his arm around her and he’s actually smiling. You know, he looks like he’s posing for the cameras. Usually, he looks really grumpy in the pictures or else they get a candid shot when no one is looking. And here, I’ll read you the caption.
Steven Gherring is always shopping for new talent. This one is actress, Ellen Dean, from the new play, ‘Rainbow Junction.’ Don’t they look cozy? Maybe New York’s most eligible bachelor will be off the bachelor list soon.”
She prattled on, full of excitement. “Do you think he’s really going to marry this girl? Everyone was kind of pulling for you before, but this girl’s really beautiful. They’d have amazing-looking kids together.”
