Different Circles

“There was that,” she said, “but also a strong underlying odor of humans who do not engage in regular hygiene practices.”

“BO,” Jake said with a nod.

“That is what I just said,” Elsa replied huffily.

Meghan came into the nook a moment later. She was now dressed for the day as well, wearing a pair of loose-fitting jeans and a sleeveless blouse. Her brunette hair was still damp from her shower. She grabbed a cup of coffee from the machine and then sat down just in time for Jake to present her omelet to her.

“Thanks, Jake,” she said tiredly. “It looks delicious.”

“It is quite palatable,” Elsa said, “although I would have cut the broccoli up into smaller pieces.”

“I’ll keep that in mind for the next time you have to go supervise the cleanup of dirty diapers out by the gate and I have to make breakfast for you,” Jake said.

“You do that,” Elsa told him.

They finished their breakfasts and Jake took their plates back to the kitchen and cleaned up everything the best he could. Caydee finished feeding, was burped, and then handed over to Meghan, who carried her into the entertainment room so she could lay on her blanket and play with her toys for a bit. Caydee was not mobile yet—she was still two or three months away from being able to crawl—but she could roll over in both directions and often did so.

At 7:45, Jake and Laura kissed their daughter goodbye, told her that they loved her, and then headed out the door. They got in Jake’s BMW—he still had not so much as touched the Toyota Sienna, let alone gotten inside of it—and drove to the airport. By 8:25, they were airborne, heading south to Whiteman Airport. Another workweek had begun.

Though they still had no MD&P agreement for Celia’s and Matt’s new CDs, they were proceeding under the assumption that they would eventually secure one and that both artists would go out on tour. As such, they had begun the process of putting those tours together. Matt and his band were working out of the warehouse that KVA had leased for their workups. Celia and her band were working out of the KVA studios for now, but knew they would eventually have to move to a bigger facility. Laura was not going to go out on tour with Celia this round—she wanted to stay home and be a wife and mother for the immediate future—but she was helping with the beginning stages of Celia’s workups. One of the items on the KVA to-do list was to secure another touring quality saxophonist.

Jake’s plan for the day was to drop Laura off at the KVA studio and then drive over to the warehouse so he could work with Matt and his boys for the first day of the week. So far, the peace between himself and the guitarist continued to hold. The only real point of contention was the fact that they still had no agreement and therefore Matt had no income to look forward to for the quarter.

“Just keep working,” Jake told him whenever the subject was brought up. “They will cave at some point.”

“When?” Matt would generally demand. “Will it happen before the fuckin’ IRS auctions off my fuckin’ house?”

“It will be before that,” Jake always promised.

He pulled into KVA’s parking lot and parked in front of the main entrance. Laura unbuckled and opened her door. She leaned over and gave him a warm kiss on the lips.

“Have a good day, sweetie,” she told him. “I’m sorry you didn’t get much sleep.”

“I’ll live,” he said with a shrug. “See you this afternoon sometime.”

“I love you,” she told him.

“I love you too,” he returned.

No sooner had she stepped out of the car, however, then Pauline suddenly appeared in the doorway to the office. She waved at Jake in a manner that conveyed that she did not want him to leave just yet. He held up and she trotted over to his door.

“What’s up?” he asked her.

“Think you can bust Matt loose from rehearsal for the day?” she asked him.

“Uh ... if I have to,” he said. “What’s the deal?”

“We have an eleven o’clock appointment at the National Records Building with Crow and Doolittle and Bailey,” she said.

“We do?” he asked. “Did they finally call up?”

“No,” she said simply. “I called them up and made the appointment.”

“You did? What for? They’re going to think we’re caving to them.”

“That’s exactly what I want them to think,” she said with a smile.

“How’s that?”

“I figured out a way to turn the tables on them,” she said. “A way we can have our cake and eat it too.”

“Really? Do tell.”

“Come inside,” she said. “I’ll explain it to you.”

“I can’t wait to hear this,” he said with growing enthusiasm. He knew how sharp his sister could actually be about such matters. “Let me just call up Matt and tell him what’s up.”

“You do that,” she said.

And he did. He then went inside where his sister told him about a cool thing that the Nerdlys had shown her last week. Using the internet, she had been able to access the entire law libraries of the Harvard School of Law and the Stanford School of Law. From the comfort of her home office, where she had sat in her sweatpants drinking wine over the weekend, she had found the answer to their problem.