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library. And I probably shouldn’t be talking to you here.”
    David felt like putting his head through the desk. He was pretty sure his mother had been forwarded to the library phone by his boss, as nobody else would have been rude enough to answer his phone. That meant his boss was probably hovering around his cubicle, wondering where he was. Great. One week into his first real job, and his mother was already getting him into trouble.
    He couldn’t blame her, of course, because he knew her well enough not to be surprised by the call. She had always been a “hands-on” kind of mom. Especially since his father’s accident, the family had been incredibly close-knit. David’s going off to England for the two-year program at Oxford had nearly sent his mother to the hospital with fainting spells. As far as he knew, his mother had never been on an airplane, had never left New York State. It wouldn’t have been a stretch to say she lived through her only son, and it had taken all of David’s resources not to grow into one of those types of “only sons.” Although sometimes Serena would argue that even his most herculean efforts hadn’t been enough.
    “Well, I just wanted to check in and see how the job is going. And make sure you’re bringing Serena to dinner this Sunday night. You know it’s a very special day for your father.”
    David felt his lips tugging down at the corners; he really didn’t want to think about his father’s special day at the moment, because it was still hard for him to accept what had happened and how it had changed things at home. One year of high-intensity therapy finished was no small feat, and his father deserved to celebrate—but David wanted his mind clear to deal with his current dilemma.
    “I know, Mom. We’ll be there.”
    Before his mom could respond, a loud beep signaled that there was a second call on the line. David raised his eyebrows, wondering how the hell he could get two calls in one day on a phone that had never rung before. Then he realized it was probably his boss. Maybe he was about to get fired. Well, considering that he was supposed to visit two old-age homes later that afternoon, he wasn’t sure that would be such a bad thing. Then again, seventy-five thousand dollars was seventy-five thousand dollars. And even with his scholarship from the Italians, he had loans to pay back.
    “I gotta go, Mom,” he said quickly, clicking over to the other call before she could say anything else. “Hello? Just finishing up here, I know I’ve been away from my desk a while and I’m really sorry—”
    “David?” a woman’s voice interrupted, and David suddenly realized it was Harriet, Giovanni’s assistant. “You still there? I tried your office number and some unpleasant young man sent me over here.”
    David could picture the smoke coming out of his boss’s ears—two calls forwarded over to David in a matter of minutes. He probably thought David was running some sort of phone sex line out of the library. But David didn’t care about his boss at the moment, because if Harriet was calling him back it had to be good news.
    “I’m here. Did I get through?”
    “Morton’s, in two hours. The table is under his name. Don’t be late.” With that, she hung up.
    David slapped the phone down, blood rushing to his ears. Then he looked at his watch. He’d have to cut out of work an hour early. Shit, he’d definitely get in trouble, maybe even fired. But Anthony Giovanni had invited him to dinner.
    Or had he? David couldn’t be sure that Harriet hadn’t simply snuck him onto the reservation. Dinner at Morton’s certainly wasn’t the sort of meeting David had expected when Giovanni had told him to try to get on his schedule.
    Well, it didn’t really matter, because David wasn’t going to miss that appointment. Not even an army of Merrill Lynch middle managers armed with rapidly expiring retirement accounts could have kept him away.

Chapter 5
    G eography aside, it