Hanging by a Thread Read Online Free PDF Page B

me to them. Or keep me in business.”
    â€œSo you just…back down?”
    â€œI prefer to call it playing smart. However…” Her fingers brush the fabric, then shove it away, as though it’s toxic. “I may be second best, but I’m not stupid enough to pick something that’s gonna make my dress look like the knockoff—”
    Somehow, I manage to keep a straight face.
    â€œâ€”so we start over.” Squinting, she crams the cigarette back in her mouth and says around it, gesturing toward the teetering piles on the long table over against the far wall, “Hand me the Volare book, wouldja? Let’s see what we can come up with.”
    I do, but as I root through the rubble, I have to ask, “But isn’t it a little late to switch fabric on the stores now?”
    â€œLike they care. You find it yet?”
    I have, miraculously enough. I hand it to Nikky, who thunks it onto a six-inch pile of jumbled papers. Where they’d come from, I have no idea, since I’d just straightened up yesterday. “So,” Nikky says, the cigarette dangling from her lips, pool-shark fashion, “We chuck the roses altogether and go with…” She flips through the book. “A plaid, maybe? Or something completely different, like…” With a grin, she turns the book around, yanking the cigarette out of her mouth with a flourish. “Hats. These are cute, right? Is there any green in it?”
    I shake my head. She grins.
    â€œYeah, hats. It’s brilliant.” With a wink, she grabs her phone and punches a single digit. Ten seconds later she’s going, “Lenny! Nikky. How are you? Good, good… Listen. Here’s the deal. Forget the roses…yeah, yeah, I don’t like this sample you sent over, it’s very Target, you know what I mean? So instead, send me swatches of…” She randomly flips through the book, rattling off a dozen numbers. Then, as if she couldn’t be bothered, “And this cotton with the hats…number 2376, just for the hell of it. They all available? You’re sure? Great. And I can have the swatches tomorrow?” She gives me a thumbs-up. “You’re a doll, Len. Take it easy, now.”
    She hangs up, stubs out her cigarette, and smiles at me.
    â€œI don’t get it,” I say.
    A low laugh rumbles from her throat. “I know everybody thinks I’m a ditz. Including you, you’re just nicer about it than most. But let me tell you something…” Again, she leans forward, and I see in her eyes exactly why she is where she is. “People let their guard down if they think you’re stupid. Then they’re the ones who do the stupid stuff, you know what I mean? Lenny has no idea which of these I’m really interested in. And by the time I clue him in, it’ll be too late for anybodyelse to get one up on me again. And I think I like the hats better, anyway.”
    I think she’s kidding herself. But hey, not my business.
    â€œAnyway, so when the swatch comes, you’ll scan it and send it to the buyers, tell them the other fabric came in flawed and this is what we’re switching to, and that’ll be that—”
    Her eyes lift over my head, to her office doorway. The hair on the back of my arms bristles.
    â€œProblem solved?” Harold asks.
    â€œYes, Harold,” she says, then adds, “By the way, Marilyn left a message on my voice mail, said seven was fine, she’d meet us at the restaurant.”
    â€œHow’d she sound?”
    â€œWho can tell over voice mail?” Nikky says with a shrug. But her mouth thins in concern. “In a rush, though. As usual.”
    â€œShe gets that from you, you know. Never knowing when to stop.”
    That’s okay, folks, don’t mind me.
    â€œMar’s a big girl, Harold. She doesn’t need Daddy clucking over her like some Jewish mother.”
    â€œYeah, well, maybe if the