Hang Wire Read Online Free PDF Page B

their full attention. Most of them smiled and then glanced back at their food. Benny’s grin was the widest, but then Benny seemed to get on with everyone at the blog. Even Zane.
    Ted decided he didn’t like Zane after all. He probably didn’t like football. Ted didn’t like football either, but that was beside the point.
    Ted laughed a little too loud and quickly stuck his nose in his wine glass. Under the table, Alison nudged his calf with the side of her foot, but as Ted emerged from his sweet Californian rosé she was looking the other way.
    “You’re right,” said Benny through a mouthful of noodles. As she spoke the tail ends rotated through her lips, wet with sauce. It was fascinating and revolting. Ted wondered if she was doing it on purpose.
    Benny swallowed. “I don’t know what gets into Mazzy’s head, but the last thing we need is another two sides of company policy to hang from the noticeboard. Am I right?”
    Now she was looking at Ted. She was doing it deliberately. Ted was sure Benny had even winked. Ted opened his mouth to say something but before he could figure out quite what he wanted to say there was an intake of air from the other end of the table and Zane started up again.
    Please God, thought Ted. Save me, or kill me. Whatever you choose, do it soon.

    “I officially declare I have eaten all the prawns in the Bay area.”
    Alison laughed at Ted and leaned forward for a kiss. As their lips touched, the table erupted in applause.
    “Sir, madam, sir.”
    Ted stretched back in his chair as the waiter set down a tiny white plate for each guest, a single golden fortune cookie in a crisp, sealed plastic bag sitting on each. It really had been a mighty fine meal. The wine had been mighty fine too. Mighty fine. Ted closed his eyes and listened to the crackle of plastic being torn and the dull snap of cookies breaking. For a second it sounded like someone was whispering over his shoulder. Ted jolted in his chair and opened his eyes quickly, feeling slightly foolish. But nobody had noticed.
    “‘A rising tide lifts all boats,’” said Andy. This was met with hrmms of appreciation from all.
    “‘You are a leaf on the wind, a leaf on the wind,’” said one of the Kevins. Benny laughed, and proceeded to explain at length how this was from the TV series Firefly . Ted wanted to tell her it was probably a coincidence but as Benny got into it Ted decided not to shatter the illusion.
    “‘As the sun rises in the east and sets in the West, seize the day!’” Klaire sat back and admired her tiny strip of paper with a nod and a downturned mouth. Someone suggested her fortune would have sounded better in Latin.
    Benny played her cookie around on its little plate, and as soon as Klaire had dropped her fortune back on the table, she picked her little plastic bag up, like she’d been holding back and the excitement had finally gotten to be too much for her.
    “My turn!” she said. She loved this stuff, really she did.
    She examined the cookie at first, still inside its plastic envelope, turning it around in her fingers like a rare and wonderful thing. Then she carefully grasped the bag on either side of the main seam, and tugged. Kate hooted and slapped the table, begging her to get on with it. At this interruption, something dark passed over Benny’s face, but it was replaced quickly with a smile and as Ted looked around the table he wasn’t sure anyone else had seen it – except maybe Kate, who dragged her hand off the table and onto her lap quickly, her own smile suddenly gone.
    Benny extracted the cookie from its bag. She turned the cookie around, grabbed it by the horns, and pulled. The cookie split neatly in two, nary a splinter out of place. With almost surgical stillness, Benny reached inside for the curl of white paper.
    “‘Perhaps you’ve been focusing too much on yourself,’” she read. The table was silent for a moment.
    Then Kate hooted and slapped the table again, and everyone