Page 26 of The Plus-One Deal
She leaned back. “Yeah. We can tell them you’re busy if you’ve had enough for one day. I can go by myself, or put them off till tomorrow.”
I glanced at my laptop, at the spreadsheet I’d been ignoring. With a gun to my head, I couldn’t have said what was in it, earnings or outlay or HR complaints.
“You need this deal, right? Let’s go on and clinch it.”
Claire stood, and my first thought was she meant to hug me. But she just squeezed my shoulder, a quick, friendly gesture.
“Thank you,” she said. “And just so you know, I get how busy you are, and how much you’re doing. I’ll owe you ahugeone, whenever you need it.”
I waved her off. “It’s just dinner, and Joe’s working on transport. With any luck, we’ll be out by tomorrow.”
We ate on the terrace, a glorious tapas spread, and I watched Ken and Verity as Claire worked to charm them. From what I could see, she had Ken on her side, but for all Verity’s friendliness, she was still deciding. I’d done my reading on her, and she chose her allies with care — long-lasting partnerships built on firm layers of trust. Trust took more effort than simple liking. It took time to build and become something solid. Claire was on her way, but she had work to do yet.
“You know what we should do?” Verity was smiling. Ken pushed his plate away.
“Oh, no, don’t say it.”
Claire glanced between them. “Say what? Now I’m scared.”
“Don’t be,” said Verity. “Ken’s just a wuss. But they’re putting on all sorts of fun to keep us amused, y’know, while the island’s cleaning up from the storm. And tonight?—”
“No, no, no.” Ken shook his head.
“Tonight’s karaoke. Wehaveto go try it.”
I could see Claire was stressed from keeping up the charade. She’d picked up, no doubt, on the same cues I had — Verity’s hesitation, her need to feel sure. Every moment we spent with her, lying, pretending, was one more opportunity to blow it all.
“It’s been a long couple of days,” I said.
“We’d love to,” said Claire.
“Oh, that’s the spirit! It’s going to be great!”
Next thing I knew, we were in the packed cocktail lounge. The stage that usually housed performers had been cleared for the guests, and some old guy was rocking out to ‘Twilight Time.’ A small crowd had gathered around the signup book, and Verity frowned at them.
“We’d better hurry, or we’ll be waiting all night.” She glanced at Ken, then at me and Claire. An idea seemed to dawn on her, and she brightened up. “How about I go up and pick out our songs? You guys find a table and order our drinks.”
Claire started forward. “Wait! What if we don’t know the song you… oh.”
Verity was already gone. Claire blew through pursed lips.
“Guess I’ll get our drinks,” she said. “Ken? What are you having?”
“Gin fizz. I’m easy. And the same for my honey.”
“Conrad?”
“I’ll come with you.”
We made our way to the bar and stood waiting at one end. It was a new experience for me, or rather new-old. I hadn’t had to wait for much since Constel went global. A wave of nostalgia hit me, or no. Déjà vu. I’d been here before, or somewhere like this, waiting for something. Waiting with Claire. I tried to place the memory, chase it through time. When had we done this? When?—
“Remember grad week?” Claire nudged my elbow. The pieces clicked into place, and Ididremember. For most kids, with the end in sight, it had been time to party. For me and Claire, it had been different. She’d just launched the app that would pave the way for Timeless, a comparison-shopping app that picked out clothes for its users, then sorted them by price, sustainability, and about ten other metrics. Me, I was balls-deep in building up Constel. It was still called Megrez back then, after the star, but marketing focus groups found that name “creepy.”
“We met up at that place,” I said. “Our last hurrah.”
Claire leaned on the bar top. “What was it called?”
“I don’t know. Something Britishy. The Horse and Whistle?” I smiled at the memory. They hadn’t had karaoke at the Horse and Whistle, but they’d had a bar much like this one, with a few more cracks and gouges. They’d had a jukebox that didn’t work and a TV that did, and some game had been playing, football. Baseball. Something loud, and the whole bar was cheering. Claire had to lean close so we could talk. She leaned in again now, and I inhaled her perfume.