sweat and cigarette smoke, but his body smelled hotand musky, and she could feel him moving gently as his hips moved hard against her buttocks.
She could no longer concentrate and there was now an inquiring silence at the other end of the telephone line.
“Swifty, may I just look through the file again and call you back?” Judy asked weakly as Mark’s left hand slid down from her breast over the small curve of her stomach to plunge between her legs once more.
“Okay, you win.” She dropped the telephone, twisted round, reached up with both arms and claimed Mark’s sun-blistered lips. Together they fell back into her chair. “You bastard, you’ll get me fired,” she giggled.
“You liar.” He was still hard and insistent in her body, his right hand still closed around her breast. “The directors know you do your own research.” He kissed her hungrily, sucking her pink tongue into his mouth, as he pushed a pile of papers off her desk, then the page proofs of the next issue cascaded to the floor, followed by Judy’s in-tray.
Later, they shared the shower in her silver office bathroom, water sluicing down his knotted brown back and her pale body. In the outside office, the secretaries grinned at each other. After ten years of that two-timing stuffed shirt, Griffin, the boss deserved a bit of fun.
4
December 2, 1978
J UDY PINNED UP the December cover of VERVE! on her office wall. The latest in a long series of glossy triumphs was the photograph of Lili and Judy. Judy wore a simple, highnecked, madonna-blue silk dress and Lili wore a crisp, white pique dress with a low, square neckline, a tight bodice, huge puffed sleeves and a full skirt. Although they were holding hands, they looked different; there was an intimacy between them that was, simultaneously, natural but apart. How can a camera pick up something between us that we, ourselves, are hardly aware of, Judy wondered, stepping back to study the hypnotic double portrait of mother and daughter. Judy thought, I feel closer, more loving, toward Lili than I ever have to any other person. She is my only living blood relation and, at the same time, she’s a stranger, almost an alien.
Lili entered Judy’s office, wearing the white pique dress, in which she looked like a Spanish Infanta; it was a ludicrous outfit for a Manhattan morning in late November, but one that would show up splendidly on the monochrome page prints: newspaper print . If you want to jump out of a newspaper page, always wear white or black or stripes, for maximum impact.
“Nervous, Lili?” Judy asked.
Lili shrugged. “What’s another press conference? Whatever we say will be taken down, twisted the wrong way and used in evidence against us.”
“I still think Kate’s decision was correct.” Judy remembered Kate stuffing her underwear into a well-traveled Vuitton suitcase and advising, “The best think you can do, to take the heat out of the situation, is to hold a formal press conference just before the VERVE! December cover goes on the stands. Give the papers a fair crack at the story and they won’t want to buy anything from the paparazzi, who will then leave you alone.”
Lili came across the room and shyly kissed her mother on the cheek; they had never kissed on the mouth.
Judy said, “There’s something I want you to have.” She opened her desk drawer and produced a small, silver photograph frame; in it was a black-and-white, much-creased, blurry snapshot of a laughing young man, wearing a wool hat with a tassel, and brandishing a bamboo ski pole.
“That’s Nick,” said Judy, “your father.” She held out her little paw-like hands to Lili. On each central finger was a thick band of gold, mounted with a tiny, coral rosebud. “Nick gave me these rings when we said good-bye, he said they were to remind me that I could always depend on him. I’ve worn them ever since. Now, I’d like you to have one, Lili, so that you will feel you can always depend on me.”
“I
She could no longer concentrate and there was now an inquiring silence at the other end of the telephone line.
“Swifty, may I just look through the file again and call you back?” Judy asked weakly as Mark’s left hand slid down from her breast over the small curve of her stomach to plunge between her legs once more.
“Okay, you win.” She dropped the telephone, twisted round, reached up with both arms and claimed Mark’s sun-blistered lips. Together they fell back into her chair. “You bastard, you’ll get me fired,” she giggled.
“You liar.” He was still hard and insistent in her body, his right hand still closed around her breast. “The directors know you do your own research.” He kissed her hungrily, sucking her pink tongue into his mouth, as he pushed a pile of papers off her desk, then the page proofs of the next issue cascaded to the floor, followed by Judy’s in-tray.
Later, they shared the shower in her silver office bathroom, water sluicing down his knotted brown back and her pale body. In the outside office, the secretaries grinned at each other. After ten years of that two-timing stuffed shirt, Griffin, the boss deserved a bit of fun.
4
December 2, 1978
J UDY PINNED UP the December cover of VERVE! on her office wall. The latest in a long series of glossy triumphs was the photograph of Lili and Judy. Judy wore a simple, highnecked, madonna-blue silk dress and Lili wore a crisp, white pique dress with a low, square neckline, a tight bodice, huge puffed sleeves and a full skirt. Although they were holding hands, they looked different; there was an intimacy between them that was, simultaneously, natural but apart. How can a camera pick up something between us that we, ourselves, are hardly aware of, Judy wondered, stepping back to study the hypnotic double portrait of mother and daughter. Judy thought, I feel closer, more loving, toward Lili than I ever have to any other person. She is my only living blood relation and, at the same time, she’s a stranger, almost an alien.
Lili entered Judy’s office, wearing the white pique dress, in which she looked like a Spanish Infanta; it was a ludicrous outfit for a Manhattan morning in late November, but one that would show up splendidly on the monochrome page prints: newspaper print . If you want to jump out of a newspaper page, always wear white or black or stripes, for maximum impact.
“Nervous, Lili?” Judy asked.
Lili shrugged. “What’s another press conference? Whatever we say will be taken down, twisted the wrong way and used in evidence against us.”
“I still think Kate’s decision was correct.” Judy remembered Kate stuffing her underwear into a well-traveled Vuitton suitcase and advising, “The best think you can do, to take the heat out of the situation, is to hold a formal press conference just before the VERVE! December cover goes on the stands. Give the papers a fair crack at the story and they won’t want to buy anything from the paparazzi, who will then leave you alone.”
Lili came across the room and shyly kissed her mother on the cheek; they had never kissed on the mouth.
Judy said, “There’s something I want you to have.” She opened her desk drawer and produced a small, silver photograph frame; in it was a black-and-white, much-creased, blurry snapshot of a laughing young man, wearing a wool hat with a tassel, and brandishing a bamboo ski pole.
“That’s Nick,” said Judy, “your father.” She held out her little paw-like hands to Lili. On each central finger was a thick band of gold, mounted with a tiny, coral rosebud. “Nick gave me these rings when we said good-bye, he said they were to remind me that I could always depend on him. I’ve worn them ever since. Now, I’d like you to have one, Lili, so that you will feel you can always depend on me.”
“I
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