“I’ve bought copies for Bill and Fido, too. Can you get these to them for me?” I handed the spare copies to Ches. “By the way, what is Fido’s real name?”
Ches laughed. “It’s Arnold. But don’t use it, because he won’t answer, and it’ll just make him want to break my face if he finds out that I’ve told you.”
His attention returned to Sebastian. “So what you doing, man? I’m going to take off and get a surf in before work – they’ll probably want us to start early anyway because they’re still short-staffed – whatever, it’s more gas money for the van. You want to check out some waves or are you busy again?”
There was a brief, uncomfortable pause.
“Well, you guys have fun,” I said, forcing a smile. “I’ve got some errands to run.”
“Are you going to the club later?” said Sebastian, a little too quickly.
I saw Ches’s eyes flicker over to him.
“Oh… I don’t know. I’m not a member yet, although Donna Vorstadt suggested we might go there for coffee, but I’m not sure if that was supposed to be today or tomorrow. Maybe I’ll see you both later. Ciao.”
I tried to convey a message with my careful words but it was hard to tell if it had got through: Sebastian looked pretty pissed off.
I walked away with my copy of City Beat under one arm while my stomach played hopscotch.
I felt bereft: I’d counted on a few hours with Sebastian and they’d been ripped away. But I wasn’t going to waste my time either: not any more.
I pulled out my cellphone and dialed the number for City Beat.
“Hi, this is Caroline Wilson: could I speak to Carl Winters, please?”
I was put on hold for a few seconds before I heard the editor’s voice.
“Hi, Carolina, how are you?”
He pronounced my name the Italian way – just like in my article.
“Good, thank you, Mr. Winters. I wanted to say that I thought the article looked really great. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity.”
“Not at all, and please, call me Carl. I was going to call you: do you have something for the next issue?”
“Yes, I do. I have 1500 words on the work of the Base hospital and I’ve nearly finished one on military families and what it means to them to move around a lot. That might be a little longer, if it’s okay. I’ve got some interviews with other wives set up for that.”
“Excellent! Can you email them to me or, better still, can you come on in? It would be really good to meet you in person.”
I made a quick decision.
“I’m free now: I could be there in thirty minutes?”
“Great! I’ll look forward to it, Carolina.”
Next I phoned Donna.
“Hi, Donna, it’s Caroline.”
“Hi! How are you?”
“I’m good. I just wanted to thank you for last night. It was… very pleasant.”
She chuckled. “I’m glad you enjoyed yourself. Johan was very taken with your dress: I think I should be jealous.”
I laughed a little uncomfortably. “I was wondering if you and Shirley were free for coffee later today after all?”
She sounded surprised. “I’m free, but I’d have to check with Shirley.”
“It’s just I have a meeting with the City Beat editor now and it would be great to be able to tell him that I have another article almost ready.”
“Wow! That’s great! Good for you, Caroline. Look, let me call Shirley and I’ll get back to you.”
The offices of City Beat were housed in an orange-stucco, art deco building a couple of blocks from Lincoln Avenue. I managed to park nearby and hurried in with my laptop and notebook. I’d decided to show Carl some of my photographs of Base life. I knew they were pretty amateurish but there were three or four that I thought had come out well.
As I was walking into reception I heard my phone beep. There was a text from Donna arranging coffee at the country club and two missed calls from Sebastian.
I texted him back quickly.
* Hi mtg at City Beat. Very exciting.
Will meet Donna and Shirley at cc 3 PM.
Hope 2 cu. But wkend just for us *