V Is for Vengeance

to get ready.”
    Nora stopped in her tracks. “For what? I’m not coming down at all this week.”
    “What are you talking about? We have the fund-raiser for the Alzheimer’s Association.”
    “A fund-raiser? In the middle of the week? That’s ridiculous!”
    “The annual dinner dance. Don’t play dumb. I told you last week.”
    Nora followed him down the front steps. “You never said a word.”
    He glanced back at her, irritation surfacing. “You’re kidding me, right?”
    “No, I’m not kidding. I have plans.”
    “Well, cancel them. My presence is required and I want you there. You’ve begged off the last six events.”
    “Pardon the hell out of me. I didn’t realize we were keeping score.”
    “Who said anything about keeping score? Name the last time you went anyplace with me.”
    “Don’t do that to me. You know I can never think of an example in the moment. The point is, Belinda’s sister’s coming into town from Houston. She’s here one day and we have tickets for the symphony that night. We had to pay a fortune for the seats.”
    “Tell her we had plans and it totally slipped your mind.”
    “An Alzheimer’s event and it ‘slipped my mind’? How tacky is that?”
    “Tell her anything you like. She can give your ticket to someone else.”
    “I can’t cancel at the last minute. It’s inconsiderate. Besides, you know how much I hate those things.”
    “This is not meant as entertainment. I bought a table for ten. We’ve gone every year without fail for the last ten.”
    “And I’m always bored out of my mind.”
    “You know what? I’m tired of your excuses. You pull this shit at the last minute and it leaves me scrambling around, trying to find someone to fill in. You know how embarrassing that is?”
    “Oh, stop. You can go by yourself. It’s not going to kill you for once.”
    “Screw you,” he said.
    He tossed his briefcase and a duffel in the trunk and then moved to the driver’s side with Nora close behind. She was exasperated having to trot after him, which reduced their conversation to fits and starts.
    Channing slid in under the wheel and slammed the car door. He turned his key in the ignition so he could power down the window. “You want to talk about Thelma? Fine. Let’s talk about Thelma. She said you called on Friday, asking her to cut you a check for eight grand. She said you were very frosty when she said it would have to go through me. She was worried she’d offended you.”
    “Good. Perfect. She did offend me. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. You should have told me she controlled the purse strings. I had no idea.”
    “Stop. You know better. Every expenditure gets funneled through her and then through me before it goes on to the accountant’s office. With seventeen attorneys in the firm, it’s the only way I can keep track. She doesn’t say yea or nay to anyone without checking with me first. That’s just a fact.”
    “Fine.”
    “There’s no reason for you to get all prickly about it. She’s doing her job.”
    “I don’t want to discuss it.”
    “That’s unlike you. You’re usually hell-bent on talking everything to death.”
    “Why are you acting so put-upon? It’s a goddamn dinner dance in L.A. It’s not the White House.”
    “I told you twice.”
    “No. You did not. You’re bringing it up now because you’re hoping to deflect the issue.”
    “What issue?” he said.
    “I don’t see why I should have to justify myself to her.”
    “You didn’t offer an explanation. You told her to cut you a check. Is it too much to ask what you have in mind? Believe it or not, an eight-thousand-dollar check isn’t trivial.”
    “I don’t want to talk about it now.”
    “And why is that?”
    “Six months ago, I wanted to buy shares of IBM. You pooh-poohed the idea and the stock jumped sixteen points in two days. If I’d had access to even a modest sum of money, I could have cleaned up.”
    “And two days later, it tanked. You’d have lost it all.”
    “I’d have sold before the price dropped and then bought it again at the new low. I’m not stupid about these things, whatever you might think.”
    “What’s this really about? Clearly, you’ve got your nose out of joint.”
    “I wanted the eight thousand dollars to buy shares of GE. Now it’s too late. By the time the market closed on Friday, the stock had jumped from 82 to 106.”
    “Eight grand? What good would that have done?”
    “That’s irrelevant. I