Numbered Account

"Come in. Come in." She kissed him on the cheek and relieved him of the flowers, then led the way to the living room. "Take a seat while I put these in some water. Dinner will be a few minutes. I hope you like peasant fare. I've made Spatzele mit Kase uberbacken."

"That sounds great." Nick ambled to the bookshelves and looked at a few pictures before sitting down. In several of them, Sylvia stood with her arm around a tall athletic blond man.

"My brothers," she said, coming into the room with a vase full of flowers. "Rolf and Eric. They're identical twins."

"Oh, really," said Nick. He was surprised to feel relief at her words. He'd been thinking more about her than he liked to admit. He strolled to the sofa and sat down. "Where do they live? In Zurich?"

"Rolf is a ski instructor in Davos. Eric's a lawyer in Bern." Her words were clipped and he guessed she didn't want to talk about them. She set the flowers on the table. "Like a drink?"

"A beer would be great."

Sylvia walked to the terrace and opened the sliding glass door. She leaned down and took a bottle from the six-pack. "Lowenbrau okay? Our own from Zurich."

"Yeah, great." Nick placed his arms on the cushions and settled into the sofa. She had a very nice apartment. The floor was polished wood, covered by two Persian carpets. A small dining nook led off the living room. Two place settings and a bottle of white wine adorned the table. He felt he was seeing her real side and he liked what he saw. He turned his head and looked down a short hallway. A door was closed at the end of it. Her bedroom. If it ever came to it, he wondered which Sylvia would show up in bed: the calculating professional he knew from the office or the casual country girl who had greeted him at the door with a kiss and a smile. The thought of either one excited him.

Sylvia came into the living room carrying two beers. She handed one to Nick, then sat down on the far end of the couch. "So are you enjoying yourself so far in Switzerland?"

Nick laughed, almost spilling the beer.

"What's so funny?"

"That's exactly what Martin Maeder asked me on Friday."

"Well, are you?"

"Actually, I am. It's a lot different than I remembered it. Better, really. I appreciate how everything runs according to schedule, how everyone has pride in their work- from the garbage hauler all the way up to-"

"Wolfgang Kaiser."

"Exactly. We could do with more of that back home." He took a sip of beer. Discussing his point of view made him uncomfortable. He wanted to hear about her. "Tell me why you came to the bank. Do you like it as much as you seem?"

Sylvia appeared taken aback by his question, at least the second part of it. "I answered an ad posted at the university, originally. At first, I didn't think I wanted anything to do with a stodgy old bank. I was aiming more for advertising or public relations. You know, something glamorous. Then I was invited for a second interview, this time at the bank. I got a tour of the building, the trading floor, the vault. I never knew so much went on behind the teller's windows. Look at what we in the finance department are doing. We manage over a hundred billion dollars in investments. We underwrite bonds that help companies grow and countries develop. It's so dynamic. I love it."

"Whoa, horsie! Remember, Sylvia, I already work there. You're preaching to the converted." He found her enthusiasm contagious and remembered that those were exactly the reasons he had gone to work for an investment bank on Wall Street.

Sylvia covered her mouth, embarrassed. "I guess I got ahead of myself. I suppose another reason is that there just aren't many women in banking, even today. Not high up at least." She leaned over the coffee table and picked up a sheaf of papers that Nick hadn't noticed. "I got my itinerary for the States today. I'll have to wait until after the general assembly to go, which will make my job harder. Still, it's better than nothing."

She handed Nick the sheet. He read it, and all the worries of business school recruiting came back to him. She would travel to New York, see grads from NYU, Wharton, and Columbia. Then she was off to Harvard and MIT. Finally she'd fly to Chicago to visit Northwestern. "That's a lot of travel just to hire one or two graduates."

Sylvia took back the itinerary. "We take finding the right personnel very seriously. That's why you better stay. You Americans have to start setting a better example."

"Don't worry, I'm staying. Do you think I'd do anything to mess up your employee retention rate?"

"Devil!" She slapped his leg playfully, then stood up and announced that she had to finish preparing dinner.