Just This Once by Judith Arnold

Author:Judith Arnold
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Judith Arnold

Chapter Seventeen

“Mom, I’m at work,” Loretta grumbled into the phone.

The rest of the production team were gathered around the table in their windowless cell, bickering about whether to pitch Becky a show on fashion faux pas. Gilda thought the topic was kind and gentle; Bob thought it was dumb-assed beyond belief. His use of the term “ass” had inspired Kate to propose a variation: bringing a fashion designer and several normal women—women who wore size twelve—onto the show and having the women interrogate the designer on why designers always designed clothes that looked good only on anorexics with silicone-enhanced breasts and no asses whatsoever.

Loretta had liked Kate’s concept. But while she’d brainstormed with Kate on the possibilities of a face-off between the fashion industry and real women, the office phone had rung. Loretta had been seated closest to it, so she’d leaned back on the rear legs of her chair, tilting the seat until she could snag the receiver.

Hearing her mother’s voice, she’d suffered a twinge of dread and leaped to her feet. Her mother never phoned her at work, and not on the office phone. “Oh, my God. What happened?”

“Nothing happened. Everything’s fine. You think I only call you when something is wrong?”

Releasing her breath, Loretta had reminded her mother of where she was.

“I know you’re at work,” her mother said. “You think I don’t know what number I dialed? I knew if I called your cell number, you would have seen the call was from me and not answered.”

“That’s because I’m working,” Loretta emphasized. “This isn’t a good time to talk.”

“Last night would have been a good time to talk,” her mother noted. “Last night I called and left a message. You never called back.”

“I was at Donna’s,” Loretta explained. Just as she’d predicted, a message from her mother had been awaiting her when she’d arrived back at her apartment last night and checked her cell, her stomach lazily digesting osso buco and her mind shaping certain vows about the extremely limited conditions under which she would ever again wear the wine-red teddy. “I got home late and I was exhausted.” It hadn’t been that late, and she hadn’t been so exhausted she couldn’t have returned a phone call. But a phone conversation with her mother would have exhausted her even more than she’d already felt. Especially a phone conversation on the subject of Josh Kaplan and the blind date.

Apparently, that particular phone conversation was going to take place now, while she was staring at the Colosseum poster and trying not to be distracted by the quarrel behind her—“The fashionistas have made life unbearable for every realistically proportioned woman in America, and that would include Becky’s prime demographic,” Kate was lecturing in a clarion voice.

Gilda whispered something in response, but Loretta couldn’t make out the words above her mother’s: “He was a nice-looking young man. What kind of name is that, Kaplan?”

“Jewish,” Loretta said.

“Oh.” A long pause as her mother regrouped. “Well, that’s okay. He could always convert.”

“Mom—”

“I’m just saying, if there’s going to be a wedding, it should be in the church.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.