Autumn Markus The Art of Appreciation (epub)

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.He grinned back before he walked away.“‘Nice’? You spent two years on ‘nice’?” Sarah raised an eyebrow, and Abby shrugged.“I’m guessing in bed…?”“Acceptable.”“Ouch.‘Nice’ and ‘acceptable.’ How about ‘clean’?” Sarah snickered into her drink.Abby moaned and covered her eyes.“Oh, fuck it.He was a date on major holidays and for the company picnic.Satisfied?” Sarah cackled.“My point is, I should have been the one to end it, right? I managed to bore the most boring man on earth.I never thought he was The One, but…where is that guy, and why haven’t I tracked him down and bagged him?”“Ab, you know there’s only one perfect Man.” After years of parochial school training, their signs of the cross were automatic and simultaneous.“I don’t think He’s taking girlfriend requests.And besides, are we talking about a man or a wildebeest?”“Is there a difference? They’re both rare and elusive.”Sarah snorted laughter.“About the boring thing, though—”“And—” Abby held up one finger to halt Sarah’s protest “—and Gretchen landed me with another of her earnest-and-eagers last week.I swear she’s trying to get me to quit.How can I babysit another intern? Clint is enough of a time-suck for three people.”They both contemplated Abby’s office mate, an effete young man, prone to long lunches, effusive praise, and backstabbing dagger-wielding.“Have you told Gretchen this?”Abby downed the rest of her drink.“Sure.And she hinted that I was just too old to appreciate my good fortune in having such an attentive intern—another pair of eyes ‘to be sure our displays are fresh!’” She deflated from her righteous indignation.“Hell, maybe she’s right.Maybe it’s all too much for me.” She laid her head on the table.“I suck.I’m old and boring and I suck.So now you see why I have to go to Maine.”Sarah gestured for the waiter to bring them two more drinks.As soon as they were deposited, she tapped on Abby’s head until she raised it.“Aside from the tremendous implied insult to Maine-ish people, I don’t get the connection.Here’s my plan: Come to California with me instead.”Abby blew a raspberry and mimed pulling out empty pockets.Sarah slapped a hand down on the table.“I’m totally serious.My Aunt Filiz lives in Santa Cruz, and I just happen to know she’s going to some artist commune thingy in Taos for the summer.I can use a break, too.David owes me some time off, so I’ll tell him I’m using it this summer.I don’t see why this can’t work out.”Abby eyes filled with alco-tears.“You’d do that for me?” she squeaked, reaching for Sarah’s hand and smacking her glass in the process.“Abso-freaking-lutely, sister.I only have one rule: no boring, sucky Abby allowed.We’re going to do new things and meet new people and do new people and eat different foods, and…where was I going with that? Oh yeah.Change.Our mantra is change.Deal?”Sarah stuck her hand out, and Abby tried to grab one of them, managing to grasp the tips of Sarah’s fingers.She shook them.“Change.Yeah.Now get me to the bathroom before the cute waiter is disgusted.”Abby raised her head from the couch cushion reluctantly, moving only because she had to or else the shrilling of her phone from across the room would make her head explode.The riot of color and texture in her small living room usually cheered her up; today, it just made her eyes hurt.She stumbled across the room and grabbed her phone just as her foot slipped on the cool linoleum.She looked down in horror, catching from the corner of her eye the sinuous slide of a cat in trouble.“Damn you, Salvador Dali,” she growled, pulling off her stockings and tossing them at the waste can.She forgot the phone in her hand until she heard a low chuckle amidst a rumble of office chatter.“I can’t imagine a man that’s been dead for years is giving you that much grief, so am I safe in assuming your pet left you a little abstract art?”Abby grabbed a handful of paper towels, smiling as she recognized David’s voice.“Dali was a surrealist, you Philistine.And, yes, the damned cat is still litter box challenged.” She wiped up the mess and bundled the whole thing into a plastic bag before tossing it to join her stockings.“I’ll bet I know why you’re calling this early.”“I’ll bet you do.” The volume of the babble in the background diminished, and she knew he’d closed his office door.“So.I hear you’re kidnapping my employee for the summer.”Abby nearly laughed at the studied casual tone of his question.After over a decade of friendship, she could read his anxiety just as well as if he’d been wringing his hands before her.“Maybe.” She snagged a bottle of hand sanitizer off the counter, flopped on a stool, and coated her foot in the cold goo.“It was mostly bar chatter.I’m not even sure if I can get away right now.Gretchen—”“Mrs.Dahl is a cave troll.I know this,” he said impatiently.“Sarah made it very clear that you both have to get away.From everything.”Abby let his significant pause hang in the air as she decided how to proceed.She’d been doing this dance of don’t ask/don’t tell since nearly the first meeting she’d arranged between David Strain and Sarah Martin.David’s interest had been immediate…and there it rested, apparently unrequited.Once again, when faced with either confronting his unspoken interest in her friend or letting it go, Abby backed down.“I’m sure she didn’t mean you, David.You’re the best boss, friend…whatever.Sarah should be thanking the gods your photographer didn’t show up at that gallery opening and that you’ve taken her along as you’ve moved up.”He chuckled, and she could almost see the way his wild red curls, now closely cropped as befitted an editor at the Boston Post, had bobbed the first day she’d introduced her job-seeking friend to the young reporter.His eyes hadn’t left Sarah all day.“I wouldn’t say that, Ab.Sarah is an incredible wom—photographer.She’s made it on her own.”The noise level behind him rose, and Abby heard his secretary.David was suddenly brisk and businesslike.“Right [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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