The Evil Inside Read Online Free PDF Page B

ones.’
    ‘Give me a week to organize an art director. After that, maybe a presentation every fortnight?’
    ‘Good – you’re busy for the rest of the year, then,’ he grinned. ‘So I reckon you’ll be looking forward to a summer break with us out at North Fuck in July?’
    ‘North what?’
    ‘Sorry,’ Anthony laughed. ‘That’s what Susanna and I call our holiday shack out on North Fork, Long Island. Getting away from the Big Bad Apple can do wonders for your sex life.’
    ‘Really? What about
Sex in the City
?’
    ‘Nah, that’s just a TV show for women who orgasm over their shoes.’
    North Fuck in July
: it sounded good somehow.
    ‘You’re on. I’ll bring the massage oil and the Barry White CDs.’
    I soon developed a productive and enjoyable routine: in the mornings, I researched the clients we were planning to pitch to; in the afternoons, I interviewed art directors. At lunchtimes, I tried to get out of the office and explore the neighbourhood. After all, with Times Square just a block behind us, I was virtually at the centre of the universe as we know it. Sometimes I’d check out the CDs at the Virgin Megastore. Or wander down and see what films were playing at Loews.
    Mia, meanwhile, busied herself with apartment hunting. Anthony had agreed that Brave Face would cover our hotel bill for the first six weeks – after that we were on our own. Fortunately Susanna Johnson had kindly offered to help Mia get her real estate bearings. Susanna’s first-hand knowledge of the local market – she and Anthony had survived three Manhattan address changes in eight years – as well as her landlord-lacerating tongue, were sure to save us a lot of time and money.
    As well as organising a splendid welcome dinner for us at the Four Seasons, Susanna also introduced us to a nanny for Callum called Esmeralda. A doe-eyed Mexican woman in her early thirties, Esmeralda had previously been nanny to Anthony and Susanna’s seven-year-old daughter, Courtney, for a short time before Courtney had gone to school.
    Until we could get Callum booked into a suitable day-care centre, Esmeralda would be an excellent, if expensive, solution.
    Things were starting to look up – we were slowly becoming happy again.

Lay not that flattering unction
    ‘Are you interested in taking the kids out to Coney Island tomorrow?’ Mia asked, with one of her ‘this is more of an instruction than a request’ looks. After only three weeks at Brave Face, I was already falling behind in my familial duties.
    ‘You haven’t seen much of Callum lately – and I know it’s because you’ve been so busy at work – but I told him there was a beach there that had lots of merry-go-rounds and ice creams and stuff, so he’s obviously pretty keen.’
    I sipped my Folgers. ‘Kid-
s
?’ I emphasized the plural.
    ‘Susanna had organized a play-date for Courtney and Callum tomorrow anyway, so I thought maybe she’d like to go, too.’
    ‘While you and her mother go and play in Park Avenue?’
    ‘That’s the evil plan, Bucko.’
    I nodded and took her hand. I was glad that Mia had a new girlfriend to hang out with. It would do her good to get out and have a coffee or a drink and a few laughs. With someone who wasn’t me.
    *
    The clickety-clack soundtrack out to the Atlantic dropped me into a meditative mood: the decrepit warehouses and graffitied bridges flickering by like a visual Valium.
    Courtney had Callum in stitches with her repertoire of face-pulling, off-colour jokes and Little Miss Madonna dance routines. She was a born performer, that girl: a formidable combination of Susanna’s street smarts and Anthony’s endless reserves of energy. I had no doubt she’d be lacerating landlords of her own one day.
    ‘My dad’s a rider at your dad’s work – so he can ride on the go-merry-round, too!’ Callum cried as he jumped across the aisle into my arms.
    ‘What’s a “go-merry-round”?’ Courtney asked, pulling a ‘that does not