Love Saves the Day (42 page)

He looks her in the eye. “We want you to come back because we think you have a great future with us.”

“The kind of great future that might include a raise?” Laura’s smile gets wider, although her eyes narrow as she looks at Perry.

“A raise, yes.” Now Perry is smiling, too. “A raise big enough to justify that Cheshire-Cat grin? Probably not.”

“A bigger expense account might get me to come halfway.” Laura’s voice still sounds playful.

“So we’re negotiating now? I may know of a corner office that’s about to open up. Normally we’d save it for a new partner but …” Perry laughs. “We could probably work something out. If you’re serious.”

Laura’s face is friendly, but her smile fades. “I don’t know, Perry. It isn’t
really
about Clay or my salary or which office I’m in or any of that. I took time off because I needed to think about where my life is going. I don’t know if I want the same things I wanted a few years ago. Right
now
I want to help my husband save this building. You know,” she adds, “it was your idea.”

Perry looks startled for the first time. “My idea?”

“Don’t you remember?” Laura’s posture relaxes, and she leans back a little. “When I came to ask you that time about Mitchell-Lama
buildings, you were the one who said that an attorney who was an ace with paperwork, and who could ferret out all the contradictory statutes and building maintenance issues, might be able to force the owners to the negotiating table.”

“I see.” Perry shakes his head. “Hoisted by my own petard.”

“Anyway,” Laura continues, “this just seems like the right thing for me to work on now. And after that, I truly don’t know. Things are … changing in my personal life. A position with a smaller firm might be a better fit.”

“I suspected as much,” he says. “Is it too early to offer my congratulations?”

Laura’s face turns light red again, although it’s hard for me to know why she seems embarrassed. Usually, congratulations are things humans like to hear. “We won’t start telling people officially for another couple of weeks.” Her voice is hesitant. Then she smiles and rests her hand on the swell of her belly. “But no, it isn’t too early.”

“Arrangements can be worked out,” Perry says. “Flextime, reduced hours for a while. We’ve done it before.” Laura opens her mouth like she’s about to say something, and he insists, “I just want you to think about what you’d be giving up. You’ll never see the kind of money with a boutique firm that you’ll be on track to make with us in a few years.”

One corner of Laura’s mouth turns up in a half smile. “I know,” she says. “But money isn’t everything.”

Perry nods his head again, just a little. He sips one last time from his glass, then stands, running one hand over the front of his jacket. Laura stands, too. “I should be getting back.” With a sigh he adds, “It’s the end of the month, and I don’t think anyone in our group has submitted time sheets yet. They can’t all be like you.”

They’ve reached the front door when Perry stops and says, “I almost forgot. I was hoping I’d get to meet the famous cat who started all this ruckus.”

Laura looks around and spots me sitting on my haunches near the entrance to the kitchen. “Hey, Prudence,” she says. Lately she’s been talking to me sometimes in the same kind of special voice
Sarah had when she talked to me. That’s how she says my name now. “Would you like to come over and meet my friend Perry?”

It’s only when I get closer to them that I realize Laura is taller than Perry, although neither of them acts like she is. It’s also the first time I notice the smell of Perry’s cologne. Usually I don’t like artificial human-cologne smells, but Perry’s is different. His smell is deep and rich, like earth, and other animals, and flowers that only send their odor into the air at night. He smells so good that I find myself rubbing my head against his ankles without waiting for him to put his hand down for me to sniff, and then I squeeze between them until I walk all the way through to the other side, where I rub my head some more against the backs of his legs.

“Wow,” Laura says. “I’ve never seen Prudence act so friendly with someone she doesn’t know.” She smiles in a way that lets me know she’s joking when she adds, “Maybe she wants to follow you home.”

Perry also smiles down at me and notices where some of the white fur from my chest has rubbed off on the legs of his pants. He laughs and says, “It looks like I’ll be taking some of her with me.” He bends to put one hand under my nose, and I lean my whole head against it. “She’s a beauty,” he tells Laura.

“She’s perfect.” Laura’s voice is more serious when she says, “We almost lost her. Someone was looking out for us.”

“I don’t doubt it.” Perry stands up straight so that he’s looking at Laura again.
“Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, Grow, grow.”

Laura’s eyes look shiny, and without warning she reaches out to put her arms around him. “Thank you, Perry,” she says in a choked-sounding voice. “For everything.”

He puts his arms around her, too. “You can always call me. If you change your mind about coming back to us, or if there’s anything else you ever need. You know that, right?”

Laura takes a step back and nods. Perry kisses her once on the forehead, and then he leaves.

Laura has been more tired than usual in the mornings because she doesn’t drink coffee anymore. But she seems alert at breakfast this morning when she tells Josh, “I have a meeting this afternoon with the attorneys representing all the different sides in this thing. I’m hoping we’ll be able to start formal negotiations.”

Josh looks startled as he puts his cup of coffee down next to his plate of toast. “Are we at that point already?”

“Well …” She rests one hand on the stack of papers she was reading while Josh made his toast. “I have a complete list from the tenants of every unaddressed maintenance and repair issue. There are about two hundred, actually.” She makes a face. “And I’ve noted every statutory regulation that would be violated by the proposed deal between the landlord and the development corporation wanting to buy the property. Mostly because the regulations are so contradictory that nobody could be in compliance with
all
of them.” She rubs the corners of her eyes beneath her reading glasses with the thumb and first finger of her right hand. “Honestly, I don’t know who writes this stuff. Luckily for us, though, all the confusion works in our favor. You said the property’s been assessed at seven and a half million and that the tenants have raised ten through grants and loans?” Josh nods. “The development corporation’s offering fifteen. We’ll offer eight and try to convince all parties that a prolonged legal battle would be more painful and expensive than the property’s worth.”

Josh pushes his plate of toast away, then puts a piece on the floor so I can lick the butter from its top. “So you’re saying this could all be settled today?”

Laura makes a
pfft
sound. “No. We just want to get the ball rolling and show them how serious we are about fighting this thing. We’ll let the landlord talk us up to ten million if we have to. Hopefully either the development corporation will drop their bid or the landlord will decide it’s better to take our ten million now than spend months or years fighting for the development corporation’s fifteen.”

Josh still looks doubtful. “What about a DHCR hearing? The
City paid for ninety-five percent of that building. Technically they get a say in whether or not it’s converted out of the Mitchell-Lama program.”

“They do have the right to a say in it, and as a matter of principle maybe they should exercise that right more often,” Laura says. “But as a matter of practice, they generally don’t. The problem with a hearing is that it’s a one-shot, yes-or-no thing. And if our side gets the
no
, it’s game over.” She pauses to take a sip from her glass of orange juice. When she starts talking again, her voice is gentle. “I know you have this romantic idea of a big hearing and cheering crowds, but realistically a compromise is nearly always the best solution. The landlord gets more than the property’s technically worth, the tenants gain all the rights and privileges of ownership, the community gets to retain affordable housing along with the programs and services the music studio offers. This would be a good thing for everybody.”

Josh stands up to dump the rest of his toast in the trash and give me a nibble of cheese from the package on the counter. “You’re right,” he tells Laura. “I guess I’ve been working on this so hard for the past few months, it’s hard to think of my part in it being over.”

Laura looks surprised. “But it’s not! It’s more important now than ever for you to keep up the pressure on the publicity front. That’s what’ll convince the landlord he might lose at a hearing if he were to turn us down flat and walk away from the table. Every news camera and article in the paper is one more reason for him to question the strength of his position.”

I never knew that a human you actually
know
could end up on TV. But a week after Anise came over to visit us, there she was on our TV set, along with a bunch of other humans who Josh said were famous musicians. They were in a room with no windows and lots of musical instruments, and Josh and Laura were there, too! They were standing in the background, while a man with a microphone talked to Anise and some other people. Laura and Josh were already
home when the show came on, and it was weird to see them here in the room with me and also tiny versions of them on the TV screen at the same time.

After that the phone rang constantly for weeks. People were calling Josh to talk about doing more TV shows and newspaper word-writing about the building, and the people who own the building were calling Laura to talk about what they should do with it. Laura was hardly at home at all those few weeks, because she was always out at meetings with the humans who live there and with other lawyers. Finally one day she came home with the news that the negotiating was over. She was still taking off her coat and hanging it in the front closet when Josh came down the stairs with an anxious look on his face. “Well?” he asked.

“It’s done.” Laura’s voice was very serious, and Josh’s face went white. “The owner’s willing to take nine from the tenants’ association. The developer dropped his bid. The lawyer for the tenants’ association and I have to get some paperwork going to make it official, but …” The smile on Laura’s face was wider than just about any smile I’ve ever seen. “It’s over.”

Josh made a loud
whoop
sound and grabbed her in a hug so big it nearly lifted her off the ground. I don’t think Laura likes being lifted off the ground any more than I do, because she almost lost her balance and swatted at Josh’s shoulder a couple of times until he put her down. “We did it!” Josh yelled.

“
You
did it,” Laura answered. “The tenants’ association did it. I just kind of swooped in at the very end.” The way she says this makes me imagine her with a pair of wings, circling in the sky like a pigeon. I don’t think that’s what she really means, though, even though it’s what she said.

The two of them went to a party that night that the people who live in that building threw to celebrate, and they’re still celebrating now a week later when Josh’s parents and sister come over with the littermates for another special holiday dinner. Josh spent two whole days cooking a huge turkey, and by the time his family gets here I think I’ll go crazy if somebody doesn’t give me some of that turkey right away. It’s unbearable to watch Laura and Josh talk to everybody
and pour drinks and bring out little plates of smaller foods as if there wasn’t a
whole turkey
sitting in the oven just waiting for someone to eat it! I make it my job to stand in front of the oven and meow at everybody until they remember the most important part of the day. Once everybody is (finally) sitting down to eat, they all go around the table to say what they’re thankful for. I’m thankful that this time they put some turkey and other foods on a little plate for me
before
everybody sat down.

That’s when Josh announces that Laura is going to have a baby. I guess that explains why she keeps getting bigger. I’m surprised at how excited Josh’s parents are, because it sounds like Laura is only having
one
baby. If she were going to have five or six at the same time,
that
would be a really big deal. But having only one baby at a time is just typical of the inefficient way humans do most things. And it’s probably better for me if Laura’s litters are only one baby at a time, because it will be easier for me to teach one baby proper manners than it would be if there were a whole bunch of them.

“Let me ask you something,” Josh’s mother says. (Josh’s mother likes to begin sentences by saying,
Let me ask you something
.) “Do you know yet if it’s going to be a boy or a girl?”

Laura and Josh smile at each other. “We’d like to be surprised,” Laura says. “Sometimes surprises are a good thing.”

“It could be a Martian, so long as it’s healthy,” Josh’s father says. “You and I didn’t find out until we were in the delivery room,” he reminds Josh’s mother.