Making It by Helen Klein Ross

Author:Helen Klein Ross
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Star

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

It slices! It dices!

—Veg-O-Matic

Kabal is not his real name, it turns out. His real name, in Bengali, is too hard for English speakers to pronounce; it is the name of a god of rain.

“I changed it when I moved up to London for school. But when my nani heard, she thought my changing my name was what caused them a drought.” He shrugs and smiles a sheepish grin, which makes him look young enough to have a grandmother. She sees a flash of the boy he must have been—proud, brash, a little defiant—exactly the type she fell for as a girl.

Kabal seizes a sushi roll shaped like an ice-cream cone, spoiling the artful arrangement on the wooden tray between them. She is impressed by how smoothly he manages it, swinging the cone confidently between thumb and forefinger, biting a clean break in the seaweed, severing the messy concoction neatly in half.

Audrey loves these rolls but refrains from eating them in public. She can’t keep their fillings from dribbling onto the table or, worse, onto her chin. She orders them only when she is alone or with Oren.

“So Audrey, let’s talk about . . .” Kabal’s gaze drifts to the painting of a seahorse on the wall, then to the floor, as if casting about for a topic of mutual interest. “Let’s talk about . . . staffing.”

Audrey steels herself to receive news of more cuts. She assumes that she will be preserved. Firing, she has learned, must be done on the premise in the presence of a witness from Human Resources.

Two varnished sticks hover above her mound of white rice; she wills them forward to a pink lump of tuna.

“I know some great guys from London I’d like to bring in,” Kabal continues, downing the last bite of hand roll. “They did the mouthwash campaign, you know the one that won a Pencil last year?”

She realizes now that the lunch is about Howard and Arnie.

Audrey never has trouble with chopsticks, but now she has to concentrate to keep the tuna safely balanced until it reaches her mouth. The sweetness of the flesh is offset by a jolt from wasabi so strong it makes her eyes water. She hopes Kabal doesn’t think she is crying.

“I’ve got to get this shop off its rear end, you know? Make some noise. Put us on the map.” Howard had refused to draw up the board she’d conceived with Kabal, claiming that the concept was ridiculous and irresponsible, and doing it up would be tantamount to career suicide.

Audrey had countered that career suicide would be not to do such a spot or not come up with another spot that’s as likely to break through the clutter. Now she is paired with Sparrow Ann, an art director downtown who dyes her hair once a week to match the color of her high-top sneakers. Howard was reassigned to work with Arnie, a writer he used to partner with on cigarettes. It was a shift he received with gallant equanimity.

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.