A doorman opened the door of the cab and said, “Good morning, Miss Benton,” as Sheila got out. Sheila favored him with a smile. It was nice to be greeted by name in such a posh setting.
Sheila went into the lobby and waited for the elevator. When it arrived, the elevator man also greeted her by name. She smiled at him also. The fact that she knew neither his name nor that of the doorman bothered her not at all, nor did it seem to bother them.
The elevator stopped at the eighth floor and let her off, not in a hallway, but in the spacious foyer of the floor-through apartment.
The double doors to the living room were open, and Sheila could see someone sitting on the couch. She frowned and had an uncharitable thought for the doorman and the elevator man. They should have told her Uncle Max had company. That didn’t suit her purpose at all.
Sheila walked in and the person on the couch heard her and turned. He was a young man, about twenty-five, dressed in a tweed jacket and slacks, which coupled with his glasses immediately identified him as a student.
Sheila, who had been prepared to dislike the intruder, whoever he might be, nonetheless, broke into a smile. “Phillip!”
“Hi, Sheila.”
“What are you doing here?”
He smiled. “What do you think? I want to go to summer school.” He jerked his thumb toward the door to the study. “Dad’s in there making the touch now.”
“You study too much.”
“I don’t study enough. You know how long it takes to get through law school?”
Sheila looked at him. “You really want to be a lawyer, Phillip?”
Phillip shrugged. “Uncle Max will support me through school. He wouldn’t give me a dime if I quit.”
“You have your trust fund.”
Phillip grinned. “Yeah. Just like yours. And what brings you here, cousin?”
Sheila grinned back. “What do you think?”
They both laughed, as they shared their own, special in-joke.
“Can’t wait to be thirty-five, can you?” Phillip said. “Well, I’ve got it all figured out. By the time I’m thirty-five, I’ll either be a wealthy lawyer or I’ll still be in school.”
The door to the study opened and Max and Teddy Baxter came out.
Sheila looked up at them, and thought the same thing she always thought when she saw them together. It was hard to believe that they were brothers, and only a year apart, too. Moreover, it was hard to believe that Teddy was the eldest. Maxwell Baxter, hearty, robust, assured and confident, looked like what he was-a wealthy powerlord. Teddy Baxter, slim, emaciated, tentative, and apologetic, looked like what he was-a poor relation.
Secretly, Sheila liked Teddy, Phillip’s father, better. Uncle Max was a cold, cultured, condescending, affluent snob. Uncle Teddy was a real person. But Sheila, who like Teddy and Phillip depended on Maxwell Baxter for everything, was careful never to let this show.
Uncle Teddy spotted Sheila first.
“Sheila!” he said. “What a pleasant surprise.”
“Hello, Uncle Teddy. How are you?”
“Fifteen hundred dollars richer, that’s how he is,” Max said dryly.
Sheila gave him a playful scolding. “Uncle Max, that’s not nice.”
“It’s a crime, but there you are,” Max said.
Teddy, feeling called upon to justify himself said somewhat stiffly, “Education is very important-”
“Yes it is,” Max cut him off brusquely, without taking his eyes off Sheila. “You know, Sheila, if you’d just go back to school, I’d be happy to pay your way.”
Sheila smiled. “Somehow I remember. You tell me every time I see you.”
“How’s the acting world?” Teddy asked.
“Great,” Sheila said. “I’m going to be on TV next Thursday. An ABC Movie of the Week.”
“No kidding.”
Sheila smiled. “Yeah. In the banquet scene, I’m the girl with her back to the camera at the third table from the left.”
Teddy and Phillip laughed.
“We’ll watch for you,” Teddy said.
Phillip looked at his watch. “Come on, Dad. We’ll miss my bus.”
“Right,” Teddy said. “We’ve got to get going.”
They walked out into the foyer and rang for the elevator, which arrived promptly.
“Well, so long,” Teddy said. “And thanks again.”
“Don’t mention it,” Max said dryly.
As the elevator doors closed, Maxwell Baxter wheeled around to regard Sheila. There was accusation in his eyes.
Sheila didn’t like dealing with Uncle Max, but she could do it. She handled him the way she handled all men, by being cute and witty and adorable, by kidding him along with light irony and gentle sarcasm.
Still, she always hated to take the initiative, especially under that steely gaze.
But she had to, so she did.
“Uncle Max-” she began.
He cut her off with a voice as cold as ice. “How much?”
Sheila smiled, one of her most adorable smiles. “Uncle Max, don’t be like that.”
“How much?”
“A hundred.”
“For what?”
“Rent.”
“It’s the middle of the month.”
“I’m late.”
Maxwell Baxter turned and walked back into the living room. Sheila followed behind. He sat down on the couch, arranged himself comfortably, and assumed what Sheila well knew was his lecturing pose.
“You know,” he said, “a girl your age needs something more than just acting. Do you know how many unemployed actresses there are in New York City?”
Sheila sat on the couch next to him and smiled, playfully.
“Uncle Max,” she said. “That’s your five-hundred-dollar lecture. I only want a hundred.”
4
Sheila snorted the stuff up her nose. She straightened up and sniffed twice.
Michael Croft leaned back in his desk chair and watched her. Croft, thirty-five, lean, tanned, neatly dressed in a stylish tailored suit, was an advertising executive and junior partner in the firm of Hoffman, Whittiker, and Croft, but fancied himself a Hollywood agent. For him the coke was just part of the image.
Croft cocked his head at Sheila. “Well?”
Sheila took her finger and wiped the residue of the line she had snorted from the top of his desk. She stuck her finger in her mouth, licked it off.
She smiled. “Pure milk sugar. It’d be great in coffee.”
“I didn’t cut it at all.”
“This could be competition for NutraSweet.”
“Come on. Before I ground this up it was solid rocks.”
“Yeah. Sure. And you got it from a little old lady who only snorted it on Sundays.”
Croft laughed. “How did you know?”
“Lucky guess.”
“Are you saying this is the worst coke you ever had?”
