“Hey, you two.” Nick, snapped his fingers. “We got work to do.”
Jerry turned and headed for his office with Bella in tow. “I loved those mint ones.”
*****
Shelly saw that she had a message on her phone.
“Hi, Shelly. It’s Nick.” She smiled. “Wondered if you would like to have dinner this Friday? If you’re busy, no problem. But the convention is in a couple weeks, and I thought I could get some feedback on what I’ve written for my speech thus far. Let me know. Thanks for doing what you do. Bye for now.”
She returned his call. He picked up on the first ring.
“Nick, I would love to have dinner with you, but Friday night is
movie night, remember?”
“Oh, that’s right, and I’m a pusher.” “What about Saturday night?” she asked.
“That would be two nights in a row with me. You sure that’s not overexposure?”
“I think I can handle it. So, you have the speech written?”
“A few tweaks here and there, but I think I have a good pitch going so far. Kind of weird talking about cancer and hearing the word ‘pitch,’ but I can fill you in on Saturday.”
“Sounds good. See you Friday at seven.”
*****
Friday evening, Nick knocked on the open door of the suite that led to Shelly’s and Dr. Wall’s offices. Shelly wasn’t in, but he noticed and oddly dressed Dr. Wall hunched over with his back to his desk.
“Doc?”
“Mr. Harris ... Shelly’s just finishing her rounds,” he said and turned. “We’ll start gathering the kids soon.”
Nick stared at Wall. Dr. Wall, dressed like a circus clown stared back—a hairless clown.
“Just putting on my face,” he said.
“Clowning around with medicine, Doc?”