Tales of the City 06 - Sure of You

it.”
    “I appreciate that,” said Michael as he headed off toward the office.

    Mary Ann was already in bed when Brian got out of the shower that night. As he came into the bedroom she was hanging up the phone.
    “Who was that.” he asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.
    “Michael.”
    “What did he want?”
    “He says to bring the lap-top with you when you come in tomorrow.”
    “Oh…O.K.” He turned and looked at his wife. “Did he say anything about New York?”
    She shrugged. “He congratulated me. Not much else.”
    “I think he’s kind of freaked out about it.”
    “Why?”
    “You know. Busting up the partnership.”
    “Oh.”
    “To tell you the truth,” he said, “I was too.”
    “Was what?”
    “Freaked out.”
    “Oh.”
    “I’m over it.” He reached across and stroked her thigh beneath the bedcovers. “We’ve got a real adventure ahead of us. It was all I could do to keep from telling Shawna.”
    She seemed to stiffen. “You didn’t, did you?”
    “No. But I don’t see what harm…”
    “It’s completely premature, Brian.”
    “Why?”
    “Well…it’s not a deal yet. She’ll blab it all over school.”
    “Oh, yeah.”
    “I’m having a hard enough time as it is. Kenan called me into his office today over that fucking item.”
    “Oh, Christ.” He pictured the indignation of the station manager, his piggish panic at losing this lone jewel in his crown. “Is he onto you?”
    “Oh, yeah.”
    “You denied it, though?”
    “Of course.”
    “Attagirl.” He turned off the light and climbed into bed, snuggling up to her.
    “He’s such an asshole,” she said.
    “Absolutely.”
    “I can’t wait to watch him twisting in the wind.”
    For a moment, for the hell of it, he imagined them lying like this in another city, another season. There was fresh snow on the windowsill, and a streetlight outside, and Shawna was asleep in a wallpapered bedroom down the hall. “You know what?” he said.
    “What?” she answered drowsily.
    “If we got a place on the ground this time…with a garden, I mean…”
    “Go to sleep,” she said sweetly.
    She beat him to it several seconds later, purring rhythmically against his back. She was dreaming of the future, no doubt, a land of riches and proper recognition and assholes twisting in the wind.

The Third Whale
    T HEIR VILLA , LIKE MOST OF THE HOUSES AROUND IT , was a two-story stone building with a red-tile roof and big pine shutters that could be battened against the noonday sun. There was a kitchen (which they never used), a terrace dripping with dusty wisteria, and a pair of huge, high-ceilinged bedrooms overlooking the Aegean. When Mona awoke in hers, it usually took her a while to determine whether it was morning or late afternoon, since she hardly ever missed a siesta.
    At the moment, it was morning. She knew because she could hear roosters and the tinny radio in the taverna on the hillside below. (There were entirely different sounds in the afternoon—church bells and asthmatic donkeys and the piratical shouts of children as they clattered down the streets to freedom.) A frisky zephyr had found its way through the crack in her shutters and was teasing the long, filmy curtains. Out on the landing between the bedrooms she heard her parent’s graceful footfall and the unmistakable piglet squeal of the refrigerator door.
    The double doors creaked open, and Anna stood there in her caftan, backlit by the morning, holding a bottle of mineral water.
    “Are you awake, dear?”
    Errant beams bounced off the shimmering blue plastic like rays from a holy scepter. Our Lady of the Liter, Mona thought, rubbing her eyes. “Yeah, I guess so. What time is it?”
    “Eight o’clock. I thought you might like an early start, so you don’t have to travel in the heat of the day.”
    Oh, yes. Her long-awaited pilgrimage to Sappho’s birthplace. That was today, wasn’t it?
    “I bought some lovely raisin buns at the bakery. Shall I bring you one with some tea?”
    Mona swung her legs off the bed. “No, thanks. I’ll come down.”
    “Stratos says he can find a driver for you, if you like.”
    “That’s O.K. I’ll just get one on the esplanade.”
    “Oh…” Anna reached into the pocket of her caftan. “I thought perhaps you could do with these.” She dropped a handful of joints on Mona’s dresser and smiled beatifically. “I’d hate for you to miss anything.”
    Mona smiled back at her. “Thanks.”
    “Its name is