Page 17 of The Law of Attraction

‘I’m not a loser, I’m your boss.’ I make a move toward my office and call back to her. ‘Can you get me two tickets to the Yankees and Royals on Tuesday? Pull some strings and make them good ones.’

‘We’re going to the game?’ comes another voice.

Stepping into my office, I find the source of that voice. Marty is sitting on my sofa drinking a coffee that looks like it came from Fabio. His legs are spread in his black suit pants. His free arm is draped lazily along the top of the cushions.

‘No, we’re not. I’m taking a friend.’

‘I’m your friend.’

I move to the standing wardrobe in the corner of my office and pull out a dark-gray suit, white shirt and blue silk tie.

‘A different friend.’

‘Which one?’

‘Christ, what is it with the Spanish inquisition from you and Sarah this morning? What’s up, anyway?’

He stands, drains the last of his coffee and fires the empty cup at my waste basket. Miss.

‘You’ve moved the basket,’ he says. ‘I came to tell you I’ve been putting out feelers among the other partners, trying to get a sense of whether they’ll vote for you or Patrick when it comes to naming Richard’s replacement.’

I scoff. ‘Please, if they know what’s good for their earnings, no partner in their right mind is going to vote for Patrick over me.’

‘Right there, Drew.’ He points at me with one hand and presses the other into his pants pocket. ‘That attitude is losing you votes. I’ve got to tell you, buddy, the guys on the forty-sixth floor are all for Pat.’

I lay my suit on the desk and prop my ass onto the edge of it. ‘Who gives a shit about the guys on forty-six? They’re real estate attorneys, for Christ’s sake. They hardly even qualify to be taken seriously.’

‘Yeah, well, they’ll be taken seriously when it comes to a vote. Right now, I’d say you’re looking at evens. You need to do something to tip the scales in your favor. Our favor.’

‘Like what?’

He holds out his hands. ‘I don’t know, Drew. Take them for steak. Buy them Yankees tickets. Whatever you have to do. I’ll be damned if my name is sitting alongside fucking Patrick’s.’

‘I’m not bribing a bunch of real estate jokers with good meat. That’s not my style, Marty, and you know it.’

‘It’s up to you, Drew. But it’s on your stubborn head if this vote doesn’t go the way we want it.’

With that, he leaves. At the door, he twists back to me, his hand braced on the handle. ‘Is that the suit you were wearing yesterday?’

Goddamn it. ‘No.’

6

BECKY

Twenty years ago

Mummy stops the car outside Nanna’s house. I’m already excited. I love Nanna’s house. It’s nicer than ours. Not bigger. It’s quite small. It’s a white house in a row of other white houses. But Nanna’s house feels nicer. I like how it smells of her, and I like that she lets me watch cartoons. And we always have fun, Nanna and me. I like that too; it is always just Nanna and me, no one else. She listens to me and sings to me. She’s the best nanna in the whole wide world.

I unfasten my seatbelt and slip from my booster seat onto the path next to Nanna’s front garden. Her roses are big and pink. She loves her roses. She spends a long, long time pulling yellow leaves off them and pouring special grow juice on them.

Mummy stays in the car and winds down the window. ‘I’ll be back later. Tell Meg to give you lunch and dinner.’

I pull on my backpack and wave, but Mummy is already driving down the road. It makes me sad that she never says goodbye. Nanna says maybe it’s because she is sad to be leaving me.

I shrug and head to the house. Nanna is already coming down the drive to see me. Her arms are stretched out wide.

I run to her, and she scoops me up. I wrap my arms around her jiggly belly and she squeezes me tighter, kissing me on the head. She smells like the talcum powder she puts on me after a bath. ‘Oh, hello, my baby. I’ve missed you.’

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