A Week as Andrea Benstock
- Автор: Блок Лоуренс
- Год: 1975
- Язык: английский
- Год: Arbor House
- ISBN: 978-0-87795-100-1
- Жанр: Романы для взрослых
Электронная книга - «A Week as Andrea Benstock». Краткое содержание книги:
She could always borrow a copy from the library.
If they didn’t have it at her branch they could order it from downtown.
She tore out the flyleaf and shredded it, then dropped the scraps of it and the rest of the book into a litter basket.
After the final curtain they walked a few blocks to get clear of the crowd, then took a cab to a bar on Central Park South just down the block from their hotel. The room was done in dark wood and red leather. A pianist did a competently unobtrusive job with show tunes and standards. They talked easily about the show and about people they knew.
“I suppose you got to the theater all the time when you lived here,” he said.
“Hardly at all.”
“Really?”
“I couldn’t afford it, in the first place. I was a working girl. And the crowd I ran with, we didn’t go to plays much.”
“Funny to think of you running with a crowd.”
“Well, you know what I mean.”
“Uh-huh.” He signaled for another drink. She still had most of hers left. He said, “I think we probably take more advantage of cultural events in Buffalo than your average New Yorker does. There’s less to do but we grab everything that comes along. Gordon Kramer was telling me today that he hasn’t taken his wife to a Broadway show in almost a year. Of course they’re out on Long Island and with a baby-sitter and dinner and all it costs him a hundred dollars to spend a night on the town, but he could afford it if he wanted to. And Joel Lieberman, they live right in Manhattan and hardly ever get to a show. He says there’s no urgency, you know if you don’t go one night you can always go the next night, and so as a result you don’t go at all.”
The waiter brought his drink. He raised his glass to her, took a sip. “I might get just the least bit high tonight,” he announced.
“You might even be on your way already.”
“It’s entirely possible.”
“You had a good day today, didn’t you, darling?”
“I had a wonderful day. And I’m having a wonderful evening. Something I haven’t told you yet. They offered me a job. Kramer and Lieberman.”
“Oh?”
“Very offhand, but it was a real offer. ‘If you ever get sick of it up there in Alaska, you’re the kind of person we’d like to have with us.’ Hell, it wasn’t a job they were offering me. It was an invitation to come in with them.”
“Are you considering it?”
“Not for a minute. And I’m sure they knew I wouldn’t.”
“Then—”
“God, I wouldn’t want to move to New York! Kramer lives in a house like ours except that he paid about twice as much for it and it takes him over an hour to get to the office in the morning. And Joel pays a good deal more each month to rent a four-room apartment than I pay to own a four-bedroom house. Not to mention that he’s living in a jungle and he has to send his kid to a private school. Would you want to bring up Robin in New York City?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Neither would I, and even without kids I wouldn’t want to live here. It’s just like everyone says, a great place to visit, and that’s as far as it goes.”
“That’s how I feel.”
“But the thing is—” he was signaling the waiter again—” the thing is that I never seriously considered the job and I don’t think they expected me to. But what they’re really saying, without saying it, is that they like me and they like the way I operate.”
“Well, I don’t blame them.”
“No, there’s a point to this, honey. They like me as a person and as a lawyer and they’ll be anxious to steer their upstate business my way. And they’re well connected, you know. They’re a couple of guys not much older than me who went out on their own and are doing damned well for themselves. Their upstate business comes to a few dollars, and if you get their business you’ll get bits and pieces from other people too.”
“I don’t understand. Don’t you already get their business?”
“Ah,” he said. He winked elaborately. “Does Gordon, Weissbart & Gordon get their business? Yes. But do I, Mark Alan Benstock, get their business? No.”
“Oh.”
“Oh is right.”
“You mean if you decide to go off on your own—”
“That’s exactly what I mean.”
“Have you been thinking about that again?”
“Uh-huh.” Her hand lay on the table, and he extended his index finger and traced designs on the back of her hand. “Thinking a lot about it.”
“For a while, it sounds like.”
“For a few months.”
“You’re doing well where you are. And they like you.”
“Oh, they love me. And I’m doing quite well. And there are too goddamned many little Gordons and Weissbarts in the wings.”
“You’d go on your own?”
“I’d go in with a partner.”
“Jeff Kaiser?”
“Why Jeff? No, nobody from the office. That wouldn’t make much sense. I’d want someone who would bring in business I wouldn’t get otherwise, somebody who would give the partnership an extra dimension. Not from my office, and not even Jewish, as far as that goes.”
“You have someone in mind.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Do I know him?”
“You’ve met him a couple of times.” He sipped his drink. “As a matter of fact, he was the one who broached the idea. He wants to be on his own because he’s not getting anywhere in his present connection, and he came up with the suggestion. And it’s funny, because I was not only thinking in the same terms but I was thinking he was the man I’d ask first.”
“You’re not saying who he is.”
“Oh, I’ll say sooner or later.”
“Cass Drozdowski.”
“You must be psychic. How in the hell—”
“It just came to me. You think it would work? You know, it just might. The two of you would complement each other in a lot of ways.”
“With his roots in the Polish community—”
“I didn’t mean that. I mean in terms of personality. You’re the brilliant Jew and he’s the solid Pole. And at the same time you’re very thorough and painstaking and he’s, what’s the word I want? Mercurial.”
“You can see it, can’t you?”
“Yes, I think I can. If you decide you really want to have your own office.”
“And I think I’m very close to that decision. Closer now than I was ten minutes ago.”
“I think you probably are. Would I have to become bosom buddies with Ellie Drozdowski? Not that I could possibly compete with her in the bosom department. I don’t mind Cass but she’s a little hard to take.”
“You two wouldn’t have to see all that much of each other.”
“I remember that New Year’s party at their place “
“I was just thinking that.” He lifted his glass to his lips but it was empty. “I think I’ll have one more. You don’t mind, do you?”
“Why should I mind?”
“And will you have one with me? To drink to the future?”
“I can hardly refuse that.”
They had another round of drinks. He paid the check and left a large tip, and when they were outside he turned east instead of west. “No, our hotel’s the other way, darling,” she said.
“I know.”
“But—”
He took her arm and led her down the block to where the carriages were parked. “Always wanted to do this,” he said. “Once around the block, James. Pip pip, old top. Pop, pop, old tip. I’m not a nasty drunk, anyway. You’ll have to grant me that.”
“You’re a sweet man, drunk or sober or in between.
I’ve always wanted to do this. How could you possibly have known? And it’s every bit as much fun as I hoped it would be.”
“It’s been a good day, baby.”
“It’s been a very special day,” she said.