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I feel for the card in my hand. It did really happen. I have the business card of Mr. Vincenzo Felici, whoever he is.
I’ll have to look him up. I shiver as the snow swirls around me. It takes a second to work out why I’m so cold.
It slaps me in the face a moment later. I left my coat in the elevator. Shit. That’s just fantastic. When the building is shutting down and he’s leaving the country. Fabulous.
Five
Ophelia
Irun inside and up the stairs to our place, getting inside and catching my breath, glad to be out of the worst of the cold. I manage to avoid the super which is at least something.
Cathy isn’t back yet but that’s not surprising. I’ve been gone less than an hour. I remember the envelope in my handbag. I pull it out and unfold the check.
It can’t be right. I look at the numbers, reading them ten times in a row. It’s impossible.
Five thousand dollars. That’s not just enough to clear the rent arrears. It’s more money than I’ve seen in my life. Holy shit. That can’t be right. Can it?
I read it again. Five thousand dollars, payable to me. My account isn’t going to know what hit it. Even after I split it with Cathy, that’s two and a half thousand each. It’ll keep us going for … I can’t even work out how long.
Did he mean to give me that much? Surely not. It can’t be possible.
I pull the business card out of my pocket. There’s only one way to check. I could call him.
I start typing the number and then I freeze. What if he didn’t mean to put that much? What am I supposed to do? Rip up the check?
I could just cash it. His fault for not checking the number. Not say a word. Hope he doesn’t notice. I don’t owe him anything, do I?
I dial the number and wait. There’s a tone at the other end but he doesn’t pick up. After a couple of rings, I’m invited by a computerized voice to leave a message.
“Hi, this is Ophelia. We met this evening. I just wanted to check that this check is right. If you see what I mean. Only I just checked the check. Shit, should I say check more or what? Check. Check. Check. Anyway, I’m babbling. I didn’t want to cash it without check … without confirming with you that it’s the right amount only it’s an awful lot of money and I want to do the right thing. Shit, now I’m really babbling.”
I take a deep breath but it gets no better. “Anyway, you can reach me on this number to let me know. I won’t do anything with it until I hear from you and thanks again for getting me out of the elevator. FYI, just for the future, finding out someone’s address that quickly is a bit stalky. Just thought you should know. But seeing as you know it, if you could get my coat back to me, that would be great. Yeah, so bye, and have a good time abroad. Send me a postcard, hah hah. Yeah, so bye. Again.”
I force my hand to hang up, putting my head back and letting out a deep groan.
“That was the dorkiest message I think I ever heard,” a voice says behind me.
I spin around and Cathy is standing in the doorway, arms folded, smiling at me. “Care to explain?” she asks, closing the door behind her. “What turned Miss Erudite into Miss Foot in Mouth?”
“Was it that bad?”
“It was eccentric, let’s put it that way. Who were you calling?”
“Therein lies a tale. Settle in and I shall tell it.”
She plonks herself into an armchair, looking up at me expectantly. “Go to it.”
“So I got there and let myself in and got into the elevator.”
“Go you. That can’t have been easy.”
“Yeah, well it didn’t help my phobia that I got stuck in there.”
“Holy shit, really?”
“Yeah. Stuck between floors until this Italian God in a black suit rescued me like something out of The Godfather mixed with Superman.”
“Odd mix of references but I’ll allow it.”
