Page 29 of The Flirtation
“You got knot here size of fist! Gotta work itout.”
“You can just leave theknots.”
“Can’t leave knots, baby girl. Knots full of tension and toxin. Gotta release. Stop holding breath. Take deep breaths, one two three, okay?Now.”
I tried to inhale but the thought of ninety minutes of this torture made my lungs constrict. I felt my phone vibrate and lowered my hand down so I could see the phone in front of my downturned face. “Hang on, I have to read thisemail.”
“You got phone?! You not allowedphone!”
“It’s a work day, these are business hours, I have to be available for my bosses and clients and colleagues. Just hang on, I have to check this and then I’ll put the phone away I promise. You can keep doing your thing.” The email was a Wharton Business School Alumni newsletter. I scrolled through the other emails in my inbox. I had already read all of them. I didn’t understand. Was there something wrong with the Wi-Fi here? On any given weekday I usually received at least twenty emails every half an hour. I checked the signal. Full strength for carrier and Wi-Fi. What was goingon?
Dao pressed into another tension knot and I screamed. “SHIIIIT!OWWWWW!”
“I gotta work itout!”
“Okay, time out! I gotta make one phone call and then we can start over, okay?” I propped myself up on my elbows and called my office number to make sure Manhattan had notexploded.
Natalie picked up on the second ring. “Good morning, Avery Davis’s office this is Nataliespeaking.”
“Natalie, what is going on over there? Is the server down? I’m not getting anyemails.”
I could hear her stifling a laugh. “Hey how’s it going! Um. So, Howard called me yesterday evening and told me to forward all calls to Sylvia while you’re there, and to let your clients know you’re on vacation. But if there’s anything that you absolutely should handle I will forward it to you, at mydiscretion.”
“Okay that’s ridiculous, I’m still on this planet, the whole point of this was that I would be able to work while I washere.”
“Well, that’s not thewholepoint…”
“What have you forwarded toSylvia?”
“Just a couple of questions from clients, it’s slow this time of year, you know that. That’s why it’s the perfect time for you to take thistrip!”
I looked over my tense shoulder at Dao, who was oiling up her hands and giggling toherself.
A paranoid person would have to wonder if this would lead to Sylvia taking over my job, however, I have covered for Sylvia numerous times over the past year when she was on vacation, and I was well aware that this was how things were done at Kaplan & Keene. Ever since Keene’s wife read some article about work productivity and employee satisfaction rising in relation to an increase in vacation and work-from-home days, we’ve been inundated with emails from our firm’s go-to travel agency featuring special deals and encouraged by HR to use our vacation and sick days. It wasawful.
“I’m getting a call on the other line, Avery, is there anything I can do foryou?”
“Okay yeah,” I said into the phone, with a sense of urgency, “Yes, definitely call me, that sounds important, I’ll be here and I can take care of it, any time. Bye.” I hung up. “I should keep my phone nearby, just incase.”
“Ooookaaay, whatever you need, baby girl. You lie back down pleasenow.”
I held onto my phone. “Okay.”
“Take deepbreaths.”
“Yeah. Sure.” I took a deep breath and heldit.
“You gotta breathe outtoo.”
I blew air out of my mouth and made a whooshing sound. “There.Happy?”
“You the one need to be happy, girl.” She rubbed deep into my neck and I shrieked. “You gotta breathe into pain! Breathe into neck rightnow!”
“I DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS! HOW DO I BREATHE INTO MY NECK THAT IS PHYSICALLYIMPOSSIBLE!!!”
She squeezed my shoulders. “Listen listen! Keep eyes close. Focus on breath. Just breathe. Let go. Got it? Just breathe. In, hold. Out, hold. Likethat.”
I tried that. I breathed in and held and then I breathed out and held. I did it over and over. And eventually, I got the hang of this breathing thing. And then, after a while, after Dao had me turn over onto my back, I must have fallenasleep.
