The Assistants(37)

He believed in me and I had proved him wrong.

I flashed back to my first week on the job at Titan—me in the backseat of a chauffeured Crown Victoria, returning to the building from an errand: picking up Robert’s Derby Day party suit from the Zegna store. I’d just been wined and dined at the store by a staff of salesmen I was sure would have tried to escort me out if I’d been browsing on my own behalf. But since I was there for Robert it was all, “Can we offer you a cup of coffee while you wait, Ms. Fontana? Some Danishes? Complimentary cunnilingus?” They nodded agreeably when I made a breezy suggestion of how they could improve: “You should really start selling androgynous suits for smaller-framed women without many curves.” I pointed side to side at my own chest. “No darts here. You know what I mean?” They assured me they would relay my idea to Milan . . . So I was in the backseat of the Crown Victoria on my way back to the office with Robert’s suit beside me, and I was feeling utterly abundant. It was such a beautiful day, sunny and cool, and pulling up to the glossy Titan building with its sparkling LEED gold-standard revolving doors, I thought: I’ve made it. Even though I was only fetching a suit that cost more than my monthly rent, for a party I’d never see or even understand (what the hell is Derby Day anyway?), from where I had started, I’d made it so far.

And look at where I was now. Jesus H. Christ. I’d been caught; I could just feel it.

I placed my hand on the leverlike door handle to Robert’s office, pushed it open, and stepped inside. Even with all my visualizations, I was in no way prepared for what I saw.

Robert was sitting at his desk wrapped in the throw blanket from his office couch. Only his face was visible, pale as a shriveled white onion.

“I’m so cold,” he said.

It was then that I realized how warm he’d made it within the barricade of his glass cube. He must have not only turned the air-conditioning off but turned the heat on.

He was shivering.

Robert was often a frightening man, solid and robust to the untrained eye. But I knew that beneath his broad shoulders and husky bravado, he had the constitution of a sickly Victorian child—allergies, weak lungs, a finicky stomach.

“I think I ate something that didn’t agree with me,” he said.

The man had the flu. But I knew saying so would only upset him.

“I think you should go home,” I whispered.

“I can’t!” he shouted in frustration—more at himself than at me. “I have to meet with Wiles in fifteen minutes. And then we’ve got the board meeting. And today’s the day we’re going over the new budget. People are expecting me. I can’t not be there!” He paused. “Oh god, I’m really not feeling well.”

Robert was going to puke. It was plain to see.

I should mention here that the only real relationship I’d ever had (before Kevin) ended over my fear of vomit. It was in college. We’d been together six months—my all-time record—and he caught a stomach bug. “Will you come over and take care of me?” he asked. A self-preserver above all else (the mark of neglected children everywhere), I replied, “Hell no. What good would it do to have us both hurling all over the place?” Truth be told, it’s the vulnerability of vomiting I can’t handle, the ultimate lack of control, but I didn’t need to get into all that. “Suck on an ice cube, to keep from dehydrating,” I’d told him. The next day he broke up with me, citing my “selfishness” and “complete and utter lack of heart.”

Robert dry-heaved once, twice, and then ran to his bathroom.

I covered my ears, a childish move that thankfully no one could see because of the downed shades.

“Tina!” he cried to me.

Oh god.

“Will you bring me the glass of water on my desk?”

I could have left right then. Made like I was giving him the privacy I thought he’d want. But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t abandon the poor man.

I approached his water glass and picked it up, careful to not touch anywhere his mouth may have, and then, holding my breath, I pushed it through the crack in the bathroom doorway. I shuddered when the cold clamminess of Robert’s hand brushed against mine.

“Thank you,” he said.

A minute later he emerged, no longer white but green.

It was clear that this was only the beginning.

“You’re going home,” I said, pulling my cell phone from my pocket. “I’m calling your car around.” I grabbed his coat from his closet and threw it over his shoulders, then took his sunglasses from his shelf. “Put these on.”

He did as I said.

“I’ll tell everyone you had an emergency to attend to on the West Coast.” I barked instructions into my phone, to have Robert’s car pick him up at the building’s side exit. “I’ll take care of everything.” I nudged him toward the door. “You just concentrate on getting better.”

He burped and I jumped back.

“I’m really fine,” he said. “I just ate something that isn’t agreeing with me.”

“I know.” I helped him get one arm and then the other into his coat. “But no one else needs to know that. It’s none of their business.”

He smiled. “God bless you. What would I do without you?”

I tried to radiate his affection back at him, but the shame wouldn’t let it come. After I got Robert safely out of the building, I went to the restroom to scrub my hands and then douse them with sanitizer.