It didn't follow in her mind that she would have an affair with Leo. She was, after all, newly married. With a laugh and a smile, she turned Patti's attention toward the details of being a manager. She found that Patti was surprisingly good at her job, knowing it well and being able to tell her of all the pitfalls: "Don't get too friendly with the girls, don't get too involved in their problems. If you do, you tend to lose your perspective and find yourself unable to help the person involved or even do your own job. It seems," said Patti with a sad loose smile, "Every girl who works here has problems and they all have a way of working themselves out."
"Thanks for all the advice."
"Well, that's it, kiddo." Patti got up, balancing her paper cup none too steadily and wobbled a smile as she gestured, "the place is all yours. The job is all yours. The desk is all yours. Co ahead, sit in it."
"I intend to," carol said, fending off Patti and wishing she would leave. Patti had been helpful but she didn't like to see people drinking during the day and she felt that Patti was so unhappy that there was nothing she could do to help. She had a new job to conquered, as Patti herself said, problems had a way of taking care of themselves.
"Go on, sit," Patti said drunkenly, "I wanna see you!"
Carol smiled and giggled. There was nothing to do but go and sit for Patti. She did it, feeling self-conscious and awkward, feeling Patti was being just a little too masochistic. "There," she said, wiggling into the seat, "How do I look?"
Patti stared at her seriously and it seemed as if some sobriety came over her. "You look just right. Perfect. You look like you belong." She stared, her face dark and she swayed a bit, putting out a hand to steady herself. "Just be sure you don't belong to Mr. Leo McKern, that he doesn't get into your pants and have you doing tricks before you realize it." She spoke in slow and measured tones and for a moment Carol felt that maybe her drunkenness was just an act, a shield, from which she could say shocking and disgusting things.
Her aloofness came over her as she said, "I don't think that'll be involved here. Mr. McKern and I have a strictly business relationship."
Patti smiled a slow sad cynical smile and, for the first time, Carol noticed that Patti wore a wedding ring! "It was that way too with me and Leo, at first," she said. She pointed a finger and said, "Fair enough warning. I can tell you're a smart cookie but Leo is awfully smart. And treacherous. Watch him!"
Patti picked up her attache case and left. Carol sat thinking about what she had said. Patti was just a year or two older than Carol yet her face was hardened and lines were beginning to show. Was it the work? Was it the work that drove her to the booze? Or, was it a combination of work and Leo McKern. Was what Patti had to say the truth? Did she really have to watch out for Leo McKern?
She sat thinking conflicting emotions going through her body. She was still feeling the thrill and rush of the new job and couldn't help thinking what it would do for her married life. She and Bob would be able to afford things and they could plan more of a future than before. As far as Leo himself was concerned he had never been anything but a rough-hewn kind of gentleman interested in her married life.
Yet he did have a disconcerting grin. It was, like a steel band across his face and sometimes she got the uneasy feeling that he was mocking her. And his eyes. He seemed to look right into your soul and undress you with an aloof and ironic twinkle.
Carol shook her head and got to work, to the business of managing the drive-in. She would have to handle each problem as it came.
CHAPTER FOUR
Bob Hunnicutt answered the phone in his easy, well-modulated voice he used when calling up prospective clients, "Hello, Bob Hunnicutt speaking."
"Mr. Hunnicutt?" a deep masculine voice asked that Bob recognized at once as the voice of Leo McKern, a voice with always just the hint of a growl in it. "Bob? Say, this is Leo McKern, Carol's employer and I was just happening through town with my wife and I stopped by at the drive-in hoping she might be working this weekend."
"No, this is her weekend off."
"I just found that out. Tell me, I wonder if I might have a word with Carol?" His voice oozed confidence and a kind of solid feeling of money to Bob's ear. Bob stayed poised and cool as he said, "I'm afraid that's impossible. Carol's mother is very ill and Carol is spending some of the weekend with her," Bob explained, trying to keep his voice non-committal. Carol's mother was always falling ill and Carol was always on the phone with her or over there, taking care of her, reading to her or feeding her broth. It was one of the many things Bob did not like about his marriage. Although they were an attractive couple in public, he felt there were many incomplete and frayed ends to their marriage and he resented them: like Carol's mother.
"Oh?" Leo said on the other end and Bob could just see him raising his eyebrows.
"I don't mind really because I've got a big presentation coming up Monday and I want this weekend to prepare myself for it."
"That's right, you're in real estate," Leo growled through the phone.
"Actually, it's insurance," Bob corrected him without an effort.
"No kidding?"
"All kinds. I'm with one of the finest brokerage houses in the west."
"How about that? Listen, I just had a fight this afternoon with ray insurance man in Fresno. See, I used to be partners and this insurance guy was a friend of my partner. Anyway, I got a lot of questions about insurance maybe you'd answer for me. I'd make it worth your while."
Bob took his time grinding his cigarette out in the ashtray as a vein in his forehead throbbed hard and he fought to keep his voice from shaking! Quickly, he realized he was in a position he had heard about and dreamed about but never really believed would come true: the big chance confronting him. Landing an account like Leo McKern could be the making of any house and the career for the agent. He looked at his watch and it was a blur and it took all of his self-control to sound calm as he said, "Oh, I could meet you, later this evening."
"Could ya?" Leo sounded pleased. "What time?"
"Oh, after dinner, about eight, eight thirty." Dinner? He knew that he wouldn't be able to eat any dinner, that he would throw up from excitement, that he would sit around biting his nails until the appointed hour then he'd go meet Leo McKern ready to scream.
"Fine," Leo said, "Me and Mona are staying at the local Holiday Inn. Why don't you come down and call at the desk?"
"Fine," Bob said with a fine film of perspiration forming on his forehead and upper lip. "I'll be there around eight or eight thirty." And he hung up and took a deep breath and held it. Could it be, before the night was through, could it be that he was going to be like some of the stories he had heard about and read about in the company magazine? Was he going to be an overnight success? If he could get all the insurance on the Leo McKern empire, he Bob Hunnicutt, would have it made at the brokerage. He'd have an office of his own, an important account and a commission big enough to choke a bull. His mind ran excitedly over the fire and theft insurance, over the liability insurance and over the fat premiums for group health and accident insurance. He savored the premium on the group life insurance and he wondered just how many key men were insured and just how much insurance the great Mr. Leo McKern himself carried?
It was a golden opportunity, the chance of a lifetime and Bob was grateful that he had the brains to recognize it for what it was worth and he bit his knuckles in anxiety, hoping he was up to the test. Leo was giving him a classic opening and he would have to develop it from there.