And it’s even more fun when Shireen gasps incredulously over the phone.
“I couldn’t imagine anyone at Sturgis Curtis taking the same trouble,” she keeps saying. “This is the difference when you work with a smaller outfit.”
“Boutique,” I correct her. “We have the personal touch. Tell all your friends!”
“I will! I’m so impressed! How did you find out about the other dog, by the way?”
I hesitate briefly.
“Ways and means,” I say finally.
“Well, you’re brilliant!”
At last I put the phone down, glowing, and look up to see Kate gazing at me with avid curiosity.
“How did you find out about the other dog?” she says.
“Instincts.” I shrug.
“Instincts?” echoes Sadie derisively, who has been wandering about the office throughout. “You didn’t have any instincts! It was me! You should say, ‘My marvelous great-aunt Sadie helped me and I’m extremely grateful.’”
“You know, Natalie would never have bothered tracking down a dog,” says Kate suddenly. “Never. Not in a million years.”
“Oh.” My glow dims. Suddenly, looking at the whole thing through Natalie-type business eyes, I feel a little unprofessional. Maybe it was a bit ridiculous, to spend so much time and effort on one dog. “Well, I just wanted to save the situation; it seemed the best way-”
“No, you don’t understand.” Kate cuts me off, pink in the face. “I meant it in a good way.”
I’m so taken aback, I don’t know what to say. No one’s ever compared me favorably to Natalie before.
“I’ll go on a coffee run to celebrate!” Kate says brightly. “Do you want anything?”
“It’s OK.” I smile at her. “You don’t have to do that.”
“Actually…” Kate looks awkward. “I’m a bit ravenous. I haven’t had a lunch break yet.”
“Oh God!” I say, appalled. “Go! Have lunch! You’ll starve!”
Kate leaps up, bashing her head on an open file drawer, and pulls her bag down off a high shelf. The minute she’s closed the door behind her, Sadie comes over to my desk.
“So.” She perches on the edge and regards me expectantly.
“What is it?”
“Are you going to ring him?”
“Who?”
“Him!” She leans right over my computer. “Him!”
“You mean Ed Whatsit? You want me to ring him?” I shoot her a pitying glance. “Do you have no idea how things work? If he wants to ring, he can ring.” Which he won’t in a million years , I silently add.
I delete a few emails and type a reply, then look up again. Sadie is sitting on top of a filing cabinet, staring fixedly at the phone. As she sees me looking, she jumps and quickly looks away.
“Now who’s obsessing over a man?” I can’t help a little dig.
“I’m not obsessing,” she says haughtily.
“If you watch the phone, it doesn’t ring. Don’t you know anything?”
Sadie’s eyes flash angrily at me, but she turns away and starts examining the blinds cord, as though she wants to analyze every fiber. Then she wanders over to the opposite window. Then she looks at the phone again.
I could really do without a lovelorn ghost trailing around my office when I’m trying to work.
“Why don’t you go sightseeing?” I suggest. “You could look at the gherkin building, or go to Harrods…”
“I’ve been to Harrods.” She wrinkles her nose. “It looks very peculiar these days.”
I’m about to suggest that she go for a long, long walk in Hyde Park, when my mobile trills. Like lightning, Sadie is by my side, watching eagerly as I check the display.
“Is it him? Is it him?”
“I don’t know the number.” I shrug. “Could be anyone.”
“It’s him!” She hugs herself. “Tell him we want to go to the Savoy for cocktails.”
“Are you crazy? I’m not saying that!”
“This is my date, and I want to go to the Savoy,” she says mulishly.
“Shut up or I won’t answer!”
We glare at each other as the phone trills again, then Sadie takes a reluctant step backward, her cheeks pouchy.
“Hello?”
“Is this Lara?” It’s a woman I don’t recognize.
“It’s not him, OK?” I hiss at Sadie. I make a shooing-away motion at her, then turn back to the phone.
“Yes, Lara speaking. Who’s this?”
“It’s Nina Martin. You left a message about a necklace? At the old folks’ jumble sale?”
“Oh, yes!” I’m suddenly alert. “Did you buy one?”
“I bought two. Black pearls and a red one. Good condition. I can sell them both to you if you like; I was planning to put them on eBay-”
“No.” I deflate. “They’re not what I’m looking for. Thanks, anyway.”
I take out the list and scribble off Nina Martin’s name while Sadie watches critically.
“Why haven’t you tried all the names?” she demands.
“I’ll phone some more this evening. I have to work now,” I add at her look. “Sorry, but I do.”
Sadie heaves a huge sigh. “All this waiting is unbearable.” She swishes over to my desk and stares at the phone. Then she swishes to the window, then back to the phone.
There’s no way I can sit here all afternoon with her swishing and sighing. I’m going to have to be brutally honest.