"You can let that one go," I said. "I found it educational. As to why I'm here, it's kind of hard to explain, even to myself," I said. "I decided a few weeks ago that I needed a break from the store, and I wanted to go somewhere different, somewhere I don't usually go on my business trips. I didn't want a beach, and when I was looking to see where I could get a cheap last-minute flight, Budapest came up. We'd talked about it, and you'd told me how lovely it is, so I booked the flight and here I am. The rest of the gang, the Divas, just kind of tagged along. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I suppose I'm still a little confused about our relationship."
"I'm not," he said. "I want us to have another go."
"I don't know," I said, for possibly the hundredth time. "Perhaps it's too soon after the end of my last relationship. How did you find me? Did Clive tell you?" I would believe Clive over Karoly any day, I was sorry to say, so this was definitely a test.
"Frank told me," he said.
"How would he know?" I said.
"I have no idea. I can only assume one of the Divas must have told him. He knew where you were staying as well. Why don't you want to be seen with me?"
"I don't mind being seen with you. It's just that some of the Divas are not your biggest fans at the moment. I believe you fired Diana. That's whom you meant when you told me that you had had to fire a person in a position of trust that night at the Cottingham, is it not?"
"Will I get sued if I confess?" he said. "Yes, I fired her, but please don't ask me why. It would be inappropriate of me to tell you."
was hardly a surprise. One of them had spiked my drink, too. I hoped it wasn't Morgan, but I really couldn't be sure. She was the one, by her own admission, who'd gone and seen Clive to find out how to find me. It would hardly have been Diana who had told Karoly, would it?
Voros es Feher was indeed a rather lovely wine bar. Karoly ordered me a glass of red from the wine country around Eger, and it was a pleasant surprise. I associated Hungarian wines with the plonk I'd drunk in my poverty-stricken student days, but this was rather good. I would have been happy staying there for dinner, too. The food looked and smelled just fine, but Karoly had other ideas. We took a long taxi ride across the Danube, and then some miles to a restaurant called Remiz. It, too, was a splendid place, a series of little rooms framed by French windows and doors, and a lovely garden outside. I let Karoly order for me without protest this time, given I hadn't a clue what was on the menu. He ordered goose liver on toast to start, and fish for the main course, something he called fogas, a fish he claimed could only be found in Hungary's Lake Balaton, a kind of pike/perch. Whatever it was, it was delicious. The wines were very tasty, the dessert divine, and the conversation quite companionable, once we got a contentious subject or two out of the way.
"Is there any chance the Dea Muta would tell me what she's doing in Budapest?" Karoly asked. "I believe I've told you why I'm here."
"You didn't mention you were coming here when we had drinks at Canoe," I said.
"No, because the plans were not firmed up. I did call you to tell you where I would be once I heard from the museum here that the person I needed to see would be available for only about three or four days. I was going to suggest that you come with me. You weren't there. I don't recall receiving a message from you. I thought perhaps, despite what you'd said, that I'd offended you. The comment about the drugs."
"You can let that one go," I said. "I found it educational. As to why I'm here, it's kind of hard to explain, even to myself," I said. "I decided a few weeks ago that I needed a break from the store, and I wanted to go somewhere different, somewhere I don't usually go on my business trips. I didn't want a beach, and when I was looking to see where I could get a cheap last-minute flight, Budapest came up. We'd talked about it, and you'd told me how lovely it is, so I booked the flight and here I am. The rest of the gang, the Divas, just kind of tagged along. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I suppose I'm still a little confused about our relationship."
"I'm not," he said. "I want us to have another go."
"I don't know," I said, for possibly the hundredth time. "Perhaps it's too soon after the end of my last relationship. How did you find me? Did Clive tell you?" I would believe Clive over Karoly any day, I was sorry to say, so this was definitely a test.
"Frank told me," he said.
"How would he know?" I said.
"I have no idea. I can only assume one of the Divas must have told him. He knew where you were staying as well. Why don't you want to be seen with me?"
"I don't mind being seen with you. It's just that some of the Divas are not your biggest fans at the moment. I believe you fired Diana. That's whom you meant when you told me that you had had to fire a person in a position of trust that night at the Cottingham, is it not?"
"Will I get sued if I confess?" he said. "Yes, I fired her, but please don't ask me why. It would be inappropriate of me to tell you."
"She says you blocked her getting tenure at University," I said.
"What!" he exclaimed.
"She said she got her doctorate, and everything, but you spoke eloquently against her, or something like that."
"I did nothing of the kind. In fact you might inquire where—" He stopped, midsentence. "No, I am not going to get into a slagging match here. I will say nothing more."
"And the woman you broke up with that night? Morgan, by any chance?"
"Did she say that?" he said, hesitating. "I don't like to kiss and tell."
"I'm putting two and two together here."
"I see. And do the rest of the Divas have a bone to pick with me as well?"
"Nothing specific that I've heard, but they are all friends, so if one of them is mad at you, there is a reasonable chance the rest of them will be."
"No doubt," he said. "You Divas always were a rather closed circle. Look, I know I was a love 'em and leave 'em kind of guy. I suppose I'm paying for that now. But I left you because I felt like a fraud. I've already told you why. I am not going to answer to any more of these accusations. You are going to have to decide for yourself if you believe them, or you believe me. So which is it? Where are you on the subject of Karoly Molnar?"
"I'm here having dinner with you, aren't I?" I said. He didn't say anything for a moment or two, but he looked a little sad, really, and with good reason. I hadn't answered the question, nor was I capable of doing so at that moment.
"I feel as if I've spent the last several years searching for something, love, success, my roots, peace of mind, you name it," he said finally. "I've hopped from museum to museum, every job a little better than the last, certainly, but I haven't stayed long. I went through a string of women until I married Peggy, and still I wasn't happy. I had a good job at the Bramley, we went to all the best parties, and I felt like a complete fraud. I came back to Toronto tail between my legs, broke, publicly humiliated by the wife, fired from the Bramley because I couldn't get along with the curators, or something equally ridiculous. Did I mention that my wife's father was chair of the Bramley board?
"Then, out of the blue, I discover that everything I wanted was here all along. The Cottingham may be a fraction of the size of the Bramley, but I'm happy there. You know I was always trying to make the institutions I worked in more responsive to what the public wanted. At the Bramley, I tried some innovative exhibit design, I tried to popularize the subject matter. And I was blocked at every turn by the staff, most of whom had been there for decades. The truth was they didn't want to change. The museum could gather dust, and become increasingly irrelevant, and they would be working away at what they'd done for years and years and calling it scholarship, even though there was no one interested in it any more. The Cottingham is different. I told Courtney and Major that I wanted to build a cave exhibit for the kids to play in, maybe have a make-believe archaeological dig site right in the cave where kids could pretend to be archaeologists looking for the Venus. They loved the idea. And what Major and Courtney say, goes. I think I can do some truly innovative things there.