Career Girls (48 page)

‘Look, you’re all way off-beam,’ she burst out impatiently. ‘OK, so they’ve never lost a takeover. Then by the law of averages, it’s about time they did.’

‘Really, Topaz,’ muttered Louise, in a tone that clearly said Hormones.

‘You’re in Personnel. You don’t know jack,’ Topaz rounded on her, infuriated by the obvious glance at her swollen stomach. ‘I run six magazines and that’s what I intend to go on doing. If everybody else is happy to kiss up to Connor Miles and kiss their job goodbye, I’m not.’

Gowers, who had been watching her with narrowed eyes, turned to their lawyer. ‘Eli, what can we do in the first instance?’

The older man spread his hands. ‘Blocking petitions, ownership of magazines by a non-American citizen, the usual delaying tactics.’

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‘Do it. Immediately,’ the chairman ordered. He gestured at the investment bankers. ‘We’ll hire Maughan Macaskill to represent us in a defence, as we’ve discussed. Topaz, Damian and myself will be your main liaisons at the company. Harvey, you, Ed and Neil are to prepare statistics and presentations that would try to persuade any predator or due diligence shark that we work best the way we are.’

‘I don’t get it,’ Neil said. ‘Which approach are we taking? Fighting or talking?’

‘Both,’ Gowers answered grimly. ‘In this situation, we have to try everything.’

Topaz gazed out of her window at the Manhattan skyline, sparkling in the sun. She was sitting in a new orthopaedic chair she’d had installed as her pregnancy advanced - or rather, which Joe had insisted she get installed. Next to her was a small device for monitoring her blood pressure, which she was supposed to do every other day but couldn’t bear to. Pregnancy was one thing, stress was another, and the combination of the two.., well, Joe would have a fit.

He should try being pregnant in the middle of a hostile takeover. Now there’s a double whammy, Topaz thought, staring out towards the Hudson.

Summer was coming to the city.., she could see it, from this air-conditioned eyrie, the sunlight flashing on the tiny cars racing through the gridlike streets, glittering on the river. She loved summer. Even when it was too hot. And this August, of course, she’d be a mother…

Topaz felt her mood soar. A baby.., my baby! she thought, with a rush of utter bliss. She placed her hands tenderly on her stomach, hoping to feel it move, and was overwhelmed by an intense surge of love and happiness. Joe’s child, our child …

What would it look like? Black hair, she sincerely hoped; maybe blue eyes … would it be a boy or a girl? Joe had been desperate to find out, but she’d put her foot down.

‘No, I want to be surprised,’ she insisted, when Dr Martinez had put the question to them.

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‘But we could decorate the room the right colour,’ Joe begged.

Topaz had shaken her head, smiling. ‘Nice try.’

They’d had the ultrasound at just three months, because Topaz didn’t want Joe to be able to cheat- ‘Is he waving?’ ‘Yes she is, Mr Goldstein.’

When Dr Martinez had put the stethoscope down on her stomach and they’d heard the muffled, pumping little heartbeat, Topaz remembered with another rush of affection, Joe - that great hulking guy - had burst int6 tears. Afterwards he’d been so ashamed of this slip from macho grace that he’d watched four solid hours of football and snapped at her if she teased him about it.

Overall, though, he couldn’t be more solicitous. Opening every door, refusing to let her lift so much as a coffee cup. Treating her like she was made of the finest porcelain. At first it was annoying, but as the months wore on she’d been glad 9fit; her stomach seemed incredibly heavy, like a dragging weight on her back and feet. She was sure a baby didn’t weigh that much when you just picked it up.

The phone rang on her desk, an outside call. Topaz smiled;Joe always called her around this time of day. Every day.

‘How’s it going?’

‘Fine,’ Topaz replied, staring out at the bright blue sky. ‘I can tell you more tonight.’

They had Lamaze class at eight, right after Lisa Martinez palpated Topaz’s stomach, at seven, and it would take some doing to make that appointment. But there was no way to cancel it. They’d had the bare minimum of checkups since the ultrasound; amniocentesis had already given the pregnancy a clean bill of health, and Topaz was a very busy woman.

‘Too much for the phone?’ he asked, then grunted when Topaz didn’t reply. ‘I hate it when they stress you out over there. Can’t they see you’re pregnant?’

‘Joe, everyone can see I’m pregnant,’ Topaz teased him, amused by a sudden vision of her husband calling up.

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Connor Miles and yelling at him to lay offfor another three months.

‘OK, well, don’t work too hard,’ he said gruffly. ‘I love you.’

‘Love you too,’ she replied cheerfully.

‘Topaz,’ said Matt Gowers, sticking his head round the door. ‘In my office, please. Five minutes.’

She nodded at him. ‘Joe, I’ll see you tonight.’

If Matt Gowers noticed that his-youngest director was looking extremely happy all of a sudden, he knew better than to say so. Rossi had made it quite clear that she didn’t want special treatment; hormones, unruly bladders and sore feet notwithstanding, she was clinging on to her position with both hands. He knew some of their colleagues considered it perverse, but Gowers wasn’t so sure. Topaz had only just completed her restructuring programme, and late nineties or no, motherhood was still a dangerous occupation for an ambitious female.

It’s tough to look tough when you’re expecting, the old man thought to himself as Topaz walked carefully into his office. He’d known exactly what Louise-Patton had been trying to pull when she lost her temper at the board meeting, and he admired Rossi for refusing to take it…

She’s got a good attitude, Gowers thought. Because

frankly, right now we can’t afford passengers.

‘Have a seat,’ he offered.

Topaz drew up a chair at the walnut table in the middle of Gowers’ luxurious office. Sitting with their backs to the glass walls were Quin, Edward and Hart, each with several sheets of financial data spread out in front of them.

‘Basic defence work, Topaz,’ Damian Hart told her, passing across a sheaf of papers. ‘Numbers, poison-pill safeguards, stock issues … ‘

‘We’ve just heard that you’re not alone in this,’ Edward added. ‘They’ve bid for a group of radio stations .in California and a major record label.’

‘Radio stations … ‘ Topaz mused aloud. ‘Aren’t they

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going to run into FCC regulations about owning radio stations and a print group? Are they after any other magazine houses?’

‘Small ones,’ Quin replied.

‘Yeah, but how many small ones?’ Gowers asked, getting his subordinate’s drift. ‘Can we do them for antitrust?’

‘Which record label?’ Topaz suddenly asked in a small

voice. The banker’s words had just washed over her at first. It can’t be. It can’t be. Can it?

‘Musica Entertainment. But they don’t have any interests in print,’ Quin told her. ‘If we’re going for antitrust, they aren’t much help to you.’

Topaz took a slow sip of her coffee.

‘That’s where you’re wrong,’ she said.

The sun was setting over Fifth Avenue when Topaz and Joe arrived at Dr Martinez’s clinic. They held hands in the elevator, kissing and stroking each other whenever the car was empty. Joe kept his right arm circled protectively around her, not wanting to let her go for a second.

It had been like this since the honeymoon. They still fought like cats every other day, and they still couldn’t bear to be apart. Joe arrived at American Magazines the second Topaz said she’d be off work. Topaz cancelled lunch appointments, jumped in a cab and raced across town to NBC to be with him. He sent her flowers for no reason. She browsed in antique shops for hours, looking for baseball memorabilia he might like, They were so in love they were drunk on each other; Topaz had spent her first month back at the office in a haze of eroticism, walking around thinking about Joe all the time. She kept wondering if anybody guessed; somehow the sexual hunger beating between her legs seemed too powerful to be invisible, as if it could burn right through her Ann Klein suit, display her nakedness to the whole office.

The least thing could set her off. Walking past a doorway where she’d yelled at him. Walking into the Week in Review offices. And once, she’d arrived at a board meeting first and

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been so struck by the memory of making love to Joe on that table that she had to sit down, bright red and weak with desire.

Another time Goldstein called her up. ‘Hi,’ he said.

‘Hi,’ she answered, feeling herself go wet at the mere sound of his voice. The way they’d said goodbye to each

other that morning ran through her mind like a dirty movie. ‘How are you?’ he asked inconsequentially.

‘Fine,’ she said, only trusting herself enough for monosyllables.

‘Topaz, you’re turning to jello,’ Joe observed, mock sternly.

‘Yeah,’ she said, glancing round the office to see if anyone could see her.

‘Should I get offthe phone?’

‘Yeah.’

That night when they got home, Joe had ordered takeout jello and ice cream and proceeded to eat it offthe flat of her stomach.

Their fights had also been epic. Over how hard they both worked. Over whether Topaz should drive herself to the .office any more. Over maternity leave, paternity leave, and hiring a nanny.

‘Six weeks is not enough,’ Goldstein maintained. ‘You’ll need at least three months to bond.’

‘Don’t you dare tell me how to bond with my baby!’ Topaz spat, furious. ‘I’m the one that’s carrying it for nine months. 1 feel it every time it kicks. If you want to stay home and bond for three months go right ahead. Just don’t expect me to turn into Marilyn Quayle.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Joe returned angrily. ‘I can’t stay home. I run programming for NBC.’

“And I run the East Coast for American Magazines.’ ‘Really? I’d never have guessed,’ he snapped.

But the next day a huge bouquet of white roses turned up at her office with a small rectangular package, and when she ripped it open Topaz found a video of Mrs Doubt.fire.

Elise DeLuca, watching the expression on her boss’s face,

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had shaken her head in affectionate envy. ‘The rollercoaster marriage to end them all,’ she said.

Work got tougher, Topaz got larger, and .Joe got gentler. Paradoxically, it made her feel more vulnerable; when her love started backing off, she couldn’t help sensing his desire to shield her and protect her, which meant she needed shielding. Also, at around six months, they had to stop making love, and that made her frustrated and anxious.

‘Jesus, how many times!’ Goldstein told her, finding her sobbing in the bathroom one morning. ‘I - don’t-mind. I’d wait for you until the end of time. Three months is nothing.’

‘What about Jane? She’s so pretty and so thin,’ Topaz sobbed.

‘Jane, my assistant?’Joe repeated, trying not to laugh. His secretary was a small, mousy girl with neat brown hair cut very short,,a wife and mother of three. ‘Are you jealous of Jane?’

‘Yes,’ sobbed Topaz, inconsolable. She remembered every touch of her husband on her skin, every thrust of him inside her, all the fevered eroticism that had consumed them both since the first time they’d made love. Joe was more man than anyone she’d ever known. How could he be satisfied without sex? How could he stay faithful to a woman who looked like a beachball?

‘Remember Thanksgiving?’ he whispered, gathering her into his arms.

Topaz nodded. Last November, when they’d driven to his parents’ house in Connecticut, they’d had to pull over three times because Topaz kept teasing Joe, trying to go down on him while he was driving. In th end they’d parked by the side of a cornfield, spread out her coat and made love in the stubble, kissing and tumbling and screwing each other blind. It had taken another half-hour to pick the straw out of their clothes and to Jean Goldstein’s fury they’d turned up very late.

‘Traffic was murder, Morn,’ Joe explained, kissing the

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old lady on the cheek and hoping she wouldn’t notice the scratches on his neck. ‘I remember,’ Topaz choked.

Joe kissed her on the temple, a soft, sexual kiss, pressing his lips to her skin. She felt his real desire behind the gesture.

‘No woman can stack up to you,’ he said. ‘Ever. Nobody even comes close. Even if I didn’t love you more than life, I could never settle for a substitute,’ and at that moment she thought herself the happiest wife alive.

And troubles temporarily forgotten, Topaz felt pretty much like that right now.

‘Come in,’ Dr Martinez said pleasantly, waving them to a seat. She glanced at Topaz, briskly assessing her size and general state of health. ‘How’s it going? Any probletns?’

‘None,’ Topaz lied, slipping offher dress and clambering on to the raised examining couch.

The doctor raised an eyebrow. ‘No back strain? You’re getting pretty large.’

‘Well, maybe a little,’ she admitted.

‘It’s a stressful time for my wife at work,’ Goldstein said irmly. ‘She’s a key person in a reorganization which is going on at the moment, and I’m wondering if she should relax more. ‘

Dr Martinez suppressed a smile. Joe Goldstein and Topaz Rossi were two of her most celebrated clients, a real Manhattan ‘power couple’. They were also her favourites. Topaz used to ring her up and ask her not to tell Joe if her blood pressure was too high. Joe used to ring her up and ask her to bully Topaz into taking each Monday off.

‘If he knows what it’s really like he’ll freak,’ Topaz begged.

‘She thinks I’m being sexist,’ Goldstein sputtered. ‘You have to help me out, Lisa.’

‘Let’s have a look at you, Ms Rossi,’ Martinez said calmly. ‘You were last palpated at three months, right? That’s a bit of a gap. I’d rather you increased checkups nOW. ‘

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