Out Of Love Part 8

"So you just offered her a job at my agency instead."

"It's not like I promised her a corner office or anything."

"Small wonder," Sofia said, her smirk a sign that her annoyance was all for show. "We actually could use somebody to help grow the gay segment. But I have to make sure I have an empty desk before you bring her in and give her my parking spot."

"Just meet her," Carmen snapped. She had expected a hard time from her friends so this was no surprise. At least Cathy 56 wasn't busting her chops. She seemed to like Judith and was patting herself on the back for being right that she was a lesbian.

"And be nice."

"We're always nice," Priscilla said. "But we don't get to tease you like this very often. When's the last time you got the hots for somebody?"

Carmen was about to take issue with the verbiage but knew it was a waste of time. "When was the last time I had the hots for somebody and didn't feel like s.h.i.+t about it?"

That quieted both of her friends for a moment.

"Speaking of which, did you ever get in touch with Brooke?"

"I called her last night."

"Is she all right?"

"She's fine. She's decided to take a job with a decorator, fixing up houses and apartments for sale."

"Brooke's going to work? That I have to see," Sofia said cyn-ically.

Beneath her calm exterior, Carmen seethed with frustration.

It was an age-old pattern for her friends to come down on Brooke this way. It wasn't fair they mocked her choice to be a mother and housewife, then did the same when she decided to get a job. "She's always had a job. It's just one you don't value."

"Now, now, girls," Priscilla said. "We're supposed to be having fun, remember?"

Carmen felt guilty, as she usually did when she lashed out at her friends in defense of Brooke. It was a firmly established dynamic in their complex relations.h.i.+p, but their friends.h.i.+p flourished despite the friction.

"There's Cathy waving at us. I have to go upstairs and get my coat. Hold the taxi, will you?" Priscilla hurried out, leaving Carmen and Sofia in awkward silence.

"Carmen, you know I love Brooke like a sister. And I'd tease her about getting a job to her face."

"Yeah," she conceded. "But she's not here to defend herself."

57.

"You don't have to treat every little comment like it's an a.s.sault. But we shouldn't have to walk on eggsh.e.l.ls with each other. We've been friends too long."

"I know." Carmen sighed. "She sounded really excited about it. I guess I wanted you guys to be excited too."

"Fair enough. I'll give her a call tomorrow and she can tell me all about it."

"She'll like that."

Each helped the other with her coat and they said good-bye to colleagues on their way out of the ballroom. When they reached the valet circle, Cathy was leaving in a taxi with Judith.

"So what exactly are you up to with this Judith person?"

Carmen shrugged. "A little diversion maybe. You know how conventions are."

Sofia wouldn't look directly at her, as if knowing she was treading on thin ice. But she wasn't the kind of friend to ignore questions that needed to be asked. "Carmen, I'm as happy as anybody to see you interested in somebody."

"I told you, it's not a big deal. I doubt I'll ever see her again after this weekend."

"You will if she comes to work for Z-M."

"Then I can deal with that."

"Fine. Just look me in the eye and promise me you don't have any weird s.h.i.+t going on in that head of yours."

Carmen laughed self-consciously at her old friend's choice of words, but she knew Sofia was being dead serious. "I don't. I met her at lunch. I've talked to her a couple of times. She's very nice."

Sofia gave her a skeptical look. "And she just happens to be a dead ringer for the woman you've been hung up on for almost thirty years."

"I'm so glad you could join us," Cathy said, leaning across the backseat to pat Judith's knee. "But I have to warn you, crazy 58 things have been known to happen when this crew gets together."

Judith couldn't get over being invited along on this outing.

"Who all is going to be there?"

"Just two others. There's Sofia, the woman who introduced Carmen today."

"G.o.d, she was so funny."

"She and Carmen both are like that. You never know what they're going to say, so watch out."

"You can tell they're great friends."

"Oh, they are. We all went to DePaul together. We've known each other for ages."

"And you've been working together ever since?"

"Mostly. Sofia was the first one to go into the travel business.

She took a job with Zeigler-Marsh in Chicago right after she graduated. Carmen went on for her MBA, and I got married and started popping out kids." Cathy interrupted her story to remind the driver of the address. "Even though we were all doing our own thing, we were still close with each other. You know how girlfriends are."

Judith nodded absently. She had casual friends like Celia and the young couple next door, and even an ex-girlfriend she stayed in touch with. But there was no one with whom she shared a bond like the one Cathy was describing.

"Priscilla Magee is really the one who started it all. She worked in the tourism office for Cook County and needed a market research project done on short notice with almost no budget. Sofia put her in touch with Carmen, because Carmen had gotten interested in that sort of thing at Northwestern. So she did the project and they liked her work so much they asked her to do some more things. Before long, she hired a small staff and hung out a s.h.i.+ngle."

"What a great story."

"It really is. Now Carmen has her own company, Sofia's a 59 partner at Zeigler-Marsh here in New York, and Priscilla is the director of travel and tourism for the city of Chicago. She's the other one who's going to be there tonight."

Judith still couldn't believe the clumsy chain of events that had led her to be on her way to dinner with such powerful women in the industry. This was going to be a night to remember.

The driver turned onto Mulberry Street, the heart of Little Italy, and pulled to a stop in front of Pellegrino's, which Judith considered one of the best restaurants in the neighborhood. The three twenties she had in her wallet would probably be enough unless her companions chose expensive wine. Then she would have to pay her part with a credit card, but it was more than worth it. For this one night, she could pretend to be just another successful, cosmopolitan professional.

"What part of the city do you live in?"

"On Fifteenth in Chelsea, not too far from here. I've walked down here with friends a few times, in fact."

"You've eaten here before?"

Judith nodded. "I love it."

"Carmen ate here a few months ago. It must have made an impression because she actually remembered the name long enough to tell me about it. I wrote it down so I could find it again."

"So you're Carmen's administrative a.s.sistant. Is that right?"

"I'm the person who keeps her on schedule and gets her where she needs to be."

"I bet that's a challenge."

"You have no idea. For a genius, she's a s.p.a.ce cadet. Wait till you get to know her."

Judith liked the sound of that. She was looking forward to finding out more about Carmen, who was now pulling up in a taxi with her other friends.

All three were laughing as they poured out of the cab. Cathy 60 made the brief introductions and led the way inside, where they were seated at a round table. Judith found herself between Cathy and Sofia.

Cathy opened her menu and scanned it, then closed it and slid her reading gla.s.ses across the table to Carmen.

"Get something I like, Carmen, so we can trade if mine isn't any good," Sofia said.

Carmen peered through the lenses and smiled. "I'm going to have the filet with wine sauce."

Cathy cleared her throat and stared at her, her head tilted to one side.

"I didn't eat lunch," Carmen whined.

"You told me not to let you eat a heavy meal at night anymore."

"I didn't mean tonight."

"Fine. It's your stomach."

Carmen gave her a satisfied smile. "Filet, then. What are you having, Judith?"

"Umm . . . maybe the shrimp scampi."

"Good choice," Sofia said. "Steak on one side, shrimp on the other. I'll have the calamari. You can get whatever you want, Priscilla. I can't reach yours."

"Why, thank you, Sofia. That's very generous of you. I'm going to have the quill pasta."

"And I'll do the veal scaloppine," Cathy decided, waving at the waiter.

The women ordered, with Carmen selecting two bottles of wine for the table. Then they launched into a catty discussion of an eccentric old-timer at the convention whose biggest com-plaint about the industry was that travelers didn't dress up anymore.

"So, Carmen, did you bring my little namesake in your suitcase?" Priscilla asked.

"I most certainly did not. She's probably tearing up my furni-61 ture as we speak."

Everyone at the table seemed to know Priscilla's namesake.

Judith looked from one to another until Cathy noticed her confusion.

"Priscilla gave Carmen a dachshund puppy a few months ago.

Carmen named her Prissy."

"She was a behavioral reject," Carmen explained evenly.

"Someone brought her to the humane society because she destroyed their home every time they left her alone. Now, thanks to Priscilla, she's at my place eating the couch."

"Admit it, Carmen. You love that dog."

"She's a misfit."

"She sleeps on your bed."

"That's because she barks all night if I lock her in her crate.

The neighbors probably think I'm beating her." She tasted the wine and nodded to the waiter, who filled all the gla.s.ses at the table.

"And you just left that poor baby alone this weekend?"

"Not this time. Healey's there with her."

"Along with Healey's boyfriend," Cathy added.

"Little Healey has a sleepover boyfriend?" Sofia expressed such dismay that Judith thought Healey must be a teenager.

"Little Healey's twenty-one years old," Carmen answered.

"What did Brooke say about the boyfriend staying over?"

"Who says I told Brooke?"