“Don’t go to any trouble.”
“I tell you again, maybe you should call first, boss,” Kevon said and leaned against the wall. I took the other wall and once again, we waited. Five minutes later CeCe opened the door.
“Hello Mr. Black.”
“Hello, CeCe. I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”
“Not at all. Please come in. But you could think about calling first.”
“Kevon said the same thing,” I said and sat down.
“So, I read the paper this morning. I hope you’re pleased?” CeCe sat down next to me.
“I am.” I put the briefcase on the coffee table in front of her.
“Is that for me?”
I nodded my head.
CeCe opened the case, looked at the money, and closed the case.
“I hope you’re pleased?”
“I am.” CeCe put the briefcase on the floor next to her. “This must mean that everything went all right in the Caymans, and that I satisfied my end of the deal?”
“It does.”
“So are you ready to live up to your end of the deal?”
“As soon as you tell me what it is.”
“I want you to take me to dinner and then I want you to take me dancing,” CeCe said.
“That’s it? Dinner and dancing?”
“That’s it, Mr. Black, dinner and dancing.”
“Let’s go.”
“No, not tonight. I want you to make reservations at some place nice. It can be vegetarian, I don’t mind that.”
“You have been talkin’ to Bobby.”
“Bobby likes to talk to me,” CeCe said and smiled. “After you make reservations, I want you to call me and let me know what time to be ready.”
“That’s it? Dinner and dancing?”
“That’s all I want,” CeCe said and showed me to the door.
I called her the next day and told her that we had dinner reservations for six that evening and that I would pick her up at five-thirty. I arrived on time and CeCe was ready as I expected by six. She looked fantastic.
We had dinner reservations at Le Bernardin on 51st Street between 6th and 7th Avenue. CeCe had baked shrimp and striped bass and I ordered the sauteed codfish and we talked. Something she and I hadn’t done a lot of. “Because you avoid me.”
“I don’t avoid you, I’m just busy.”
“I’m busy, too, I have a lot to do to get this store opened, but I seem to find time for the things I want.”
“How’s that goin’?”