‘That wonderful girl has already hired me a furnished apartment on Biscayne Avenue.’
‘That’s right by my place. Look, Bill let me clear my desk and we’ll go back to my apartment for a drink and dinner. I want you to meet Rhoda, my wife.’
‘Fine. There are just a couple of things I have to tie up, then I’ll be ready.’
Rhoda always came alive when we had guests. She and Olson got on well together. I could see he was impressed by her prettiness and her smart clothes. I thought a little sourly, as I mixed a batch of martinis, he would have a shock if he saw her over the weekend when she slopped around the apartment without makeup, her hair looking like a bird’s nest and in grubby jeans and grubbier sweater.
It was while I was pouring the drinks, Olson said casually, ‘Did you ever see Val again after she walked out on us?’
I spilt a little of the drink and without looking up, I said, ‘No, nor heard from her.’
Rhoda reached for some peanuts.
‘Who is Val?’ she asked curiously.
Olson grinned.
‘Do you mean your hubby never told you about Val Dart?’
‘He never tells me anything.’ Rhoda pouted and took the glass I handed to her. ‘What’s so special about her?’
‘You imagine I never tell you anything,’ I said, handing Olson his glass, ‘the fact is you never listen to anything I say.’
‘Don’t tell me you told me about her because I know you didn’t!’ There was a snap in her voice now.
‘She wouldn’t interest you anyway. She happened to be my secretary when I was at the Statler Hilton before you arrived,’ I said, trying to sound casual. ‘Here’s to you. Bill.’
We drank, then Olson said, ‘And what a secretary! The most efficient, smart, gorgeous girl it’s been my luck to work with!’
I could see Rhoda hated this. Anyone praising any woman made her bristle.
Looking directly at me, she said, ‘I bet you loved her. Efficiency is your middle name.’
‘Is it?’ I walked over to the window and looked down at the canal. I loved her all right. I still loved her.
‘I honestly don’t know why Clay married me,’ Rhoda said to Olson. ‘He’s always telling me how inefficient I am. He nags me from morn to night. Pity he didn’t marry this Val who seems to be so gorgeous and efficient.’
The acid note in her voice made Olson look uncomfortable.
‘I can’t imagine you being inefficient, Mrs. Burden,’ he said awkwardly.
I wasn’t going to support him. There was a pause, then Rhoda said, ‘Who cares anyway about efficiency? I think it’s a great big bore. Who wants to mess around this apartment when we can get some old cow to do it? When you’re through gaping out of the window Clay, how about a refill?’
Again an awkward pause while I freshened the drinks, then Olson said, ‘Sue was telling me about the Vidal account. You’ve certainly helped yourself to some trouble, haven’t you Clay?’
I shrugged.
‘Massingham does all the work. I just listen to the complaints. I can take a lot of that.’ I turned to Rhoda. ‘That reminds me, honey, you’re going to be a grass widow for six days next week.’
‘What do you mean?’
I told her about the El Salvador trip.
I could see she was nonplussed. This would be the first time we had separated since we married.
‘How about me?’ Her voice shot up. ‘How am I going to get to work and home again?’
‘The bus stops right outside both ways.’
‘Bus! Who wants to use the smelly bus?’
‘I’ll be happy to drive you, Mrs. Burden,’ Olson said. ‘No problem. I’d be glad to.’
She flashed him a smile.
‘Clay never considers me. Thanks, Bill. I may call you Bill? You call me Rhoda.’
‘Fine.’
I wasn’t surprised when she turned on me.
‘So you’re going away with that Vidal hag! She’s just the type to try to drag you into her bed!’
I never have lost my temper with Rhoda no matter how irritating she was, but this time, I had to make an effort to control it.
‘Come on, honey, let’s skip this nonsense. I have a job to do, so there’s no point in moaning.’
‘I bet you’ll enjoy it thinking of me slaving in that damn boutique.’
‘Come the day when you do some slaving.’ I turned to Olson who was looking embarrassed. ‘Hungry?’
‘I guess. Whenever you say.’
‘Are you ready, Rhoda?’
‘No, I’m not!’
She got to her feet and walked into the bedroom, slamming the door.
Olson and I looked at each other.
‘Women!’ I forced a smile.
‘Yeah.’ A pause, then he said, ‘Nice place you have here.’ He moved out on to the balcony. ‘Marvellous view.’
‘That’s a fact.’
With an obvious attempt to change the subject, Olson said, ‘This guy Vidal... quite a man of mystery.’
‘Would you call him that? He’s certainly loaded.’
‘He hadn’t much five years ago. He used to be a client of mine at the Statler Hilton. In those days, he could only afford economy class. He wanted a checking account with us, but his credit rating wasn’t sound.’
I stared at him.
‘How come Massingham didn’t know that?’
‘I guess I didn’t report it to New York. I checked with Credit Rating and they said better not, so I turned Vidal down. It never got on our records.’
‘But Massingham has checked the Credit Rating people.’
Olson laughed.
‘This was five years ago, Clay. Lots of things can happen in five years. They probably didn’t think it was necessary to tell Massingham we once turned him down.’
‘Yeah. So you’ve met him. That’s my doubtful privilege next Tuesday. What’s he like?’
‘An oddball. For one thing, he’s almost a dwarf: under five foot and has all the usual aggressiveness of little men. He wears a beard and is balding, but he’s a dynamo all right. You know the type: a real pusher, talks fast, waves his hands around, has hypnotic eyes. When I knew him he made a big commotion out of the simplest things. Booking a ticket to New York was a major thing with him. You would think he was taking a trip to the moon, but I guess he must have changed a lot since then. Rumour has it he’s worth millions. When you amass that kind of bread you don’t have to impress, you let your slaves do it for you.’
‘How right you are.’ and I told him about Dyer.
Rhoda came out of the bedroom. She still looked sulky.
‘Are we going to eat, or aren’t we?’ she demanded. ‘I’m hungry.’
‘We’re waiting for you, honey,’ I said.
‘Well for heaven’s sake, let’s go somewhere decent for a change. I’m sick of the coffee shop.’
She flounced out of the apartment and after exchanging rueful grins, Olson and I followed her.
Rhoda was never happier than when, given the rare opportunity, she could score off me. Admittedly, I had been forced by her careless, sluttish ways to protest often enough and she hated any form of criticism. So scoring off me was always to her a major triumph.
It soon became apparent that she had been shrewd enough to guess that Val had made an impression on me and she grabbed at the chance to be irritating.
After we had driven Olson back to his apartment and we had returned home, I began clearing the table of the cocktail things. Moving past me, Rhoda managed to sweep the bowl of peanuts off the table with her shirt, scattering the nuts all over the carpet.
She had been in a difficult mood during dinner and my nerves were jumpy.
‘Look what you’ve done! Careful how you walk,’ I said sharply. ‘You’ll mess the whole carpet!’
‘Go on, nag!’ I could see she was furious with herself for being so clumsy. ‘I bet your efficient, gorgeous Val didn’t do things like that.’