THE ELEVATOR RIDE DOWN to the garage seemed to take forever. They waited an eternity for the valet to get their car.
“Where do you want to eat?” James asked.
“There’s stuff in the fridge,” Kate said, putting on her gloves.
“Okay, listen. After lunch, I’d like to do some role-playing for the Risk Management interview.”
“Seriously? Role-playing?”
“You can’t just wing it. Remember what Russell said. You have to choose your words carefully.”
She shrugged indifferently. “I’d rather go back to work.”
“There’s no more work today. You’re exhausted. I’m exhausted. We were supposed to be in Sedona right now, remember? We’re going home.”
“I’m just saying… it would be nice to keep busy,” Kate objected weakly.
“Nobody’s putting any pressure on you to go back to work but you.”
“Okay, but don’t expect me to be happy about it.”
“I get that. But I’m in charge today. For your own good.”
The car’s heater blew hot air around their ankles as they headed back into Cambridge. It was snowing again. The windshield wipers swept away fat white flakes that landed with stunning clarity on the glass. They drove past the frozen river, while flurries blurred the road ahead. She shivered, cold as marble beneath her winter coat.
All of a sudden, a dark blue sedan in the passing lane veered in front of them and decelerated rapidly. James hit the brakes in order to avoid a collision, and the Lexus skidded across the road, sliding toward the guardrail before coming to an abrupt halt in the emergency lane. “Fuck!” he cried, as their heads jerked forward and their seatbelts took the strain. Kate bit her tongue and could taste warm blood in her mouth.
“Did you see that asshole?” James said through gritted teeth, flashing his emergency blinkers. The blue sedan took the next exit and disappeared into the flurries ahead. “That idiot cut me off. He could’ve killed us! I’m amazed the airbags didn’t deploy.” He looked at her and blinked, climbing down from the dizzying heights of his outrage. “Kate? Your lip is bleeding. Kate?”
She heard a flapping sound and realized it was her wildly beating heart. She saw something strange move toward them through the snow, something odd and whimsical, like a seahorse bobbing around inside an aquarium. It was a little girl. This shocked her so much, she unfastened her seatbelt and got out of the car.
“Where are you going?” James cried out. “Get back in the car!”
Kate stood by the side of the road, staring into the snowstorm, clumpy flakes sticking to her face and hair. She gazed at the falling snow and whispered, “Savannah?” Snow swirled in the wind, creating new shapes, and Kate had the sensation that she was being warned. Danger ahead.
“Kate?” James shouted.
Her head was spinning. Her skull throbbed. Was she having a stroke? In the blink of an eye, the illusion was gone.
He got out of the Lexus and strode through the driving snow. “This is dangerous. What are you doing?”
“I just saw something.”
“What?”
She balked. She could tell by the set of his jaw that he was beginning to lose confidence in her. That he was becoming afraid for her.
“What did you see?” He gestured wildly into the snowstorm. “There’s nothing out there.”
“My head is pounding.”
“We’ve both had an incredibly stressful day. Let’s go home.” He tried to take her by the elbow, but she brushed him away. “Kate… please.”
Back in the Lexus, he watched for oncoming traffic as he pulled out onto the road, while Kate stared at the frozen river, little vortices of snow curling off its surface. She rubbed her temples.
He shot her a concerned look. “Are you getting a migraine?”
“I think so.”
She got them about twice a year. Sometimes the pain was so bad she had to lie down for twenty-four hours. Her stomach was doing somersaults. “Today totally sucked.”
He nodded solemnly but couldn’t help himself. In typical James fashion, he burst out laughing. Soon they were both laughing. It was the kind of sick humor that grabbed you and shook you and wouldn’t let go. She laughed so hard, her stomach hurt. Her temples were throbbing.
“Everything’s going to be okay,” he said with tears in his eyes.
“Just get us home in one piece, you jerk.”