Tod Goldberg - The Bad Beat

I told the receptionist that I was there to see Ms. Lohr because I was interested in purchasing a table for the evening. The receptionist said, “Yes?”

And I said, “Yes.”

She exhaled through her nose and rolled her eyes ever so slightly as she stood up, as if this was going to be the annoying and time-consuming task of her day. She led me down a brightly lit hallway, past a small cubicle farm filled with young Moldovans who barely looked up as I walked by. The cubicle farm was surrounded by offices, none of which had open doors, which was either a fantastic metaphor for life in Moldova or, more likely, a statement that the leadership keeps its own hours, which was made clear enough by the computer screens I spied here, too, which were largely on Twitter. I had to hope no one would tweet that a burned spy just walked by.

The receptionist, who walked at a pace that would make a slug frustrated if it were following her, finally brought me into a conference room that featured the same framed Moldovan flag and presidential picture as the reception area, only smaller, and an executive-length conference table that was covered in stacks and stacks of programs bearing Yuri Drubich’s face, presumably ready to be taken downstairs, and a water and tea service.

“It will be a moment,” the receptionist said and left me alone for another ten minutes until the woman with the walkie-talkie I saw downstairs ordering the troops about stepped into the conference room and essentially fell into one of the chairs. She was dressed in a finely tailored Chanel skirt suit. It was gray and she wore a white shirt beneath it that was open far enough to reveal a demure single-diamond necklace. Her hair was professionally done, but it was obvious by the way her bangs stuck to her forehead that she was having a long, stressful day.

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting, Dr. Bennington,” she said. “The security, they do not bother to find out where in the building anyone is, so we must go running around blindly half of the day when we have guests.” Her irritation with the guards seemed outsized and apparently she realized that, too, because she quickly added, “I’m sorry. They do a good job. I am at the end of a rope that was already much frayed and you are not here to listen to me complain about having a good job, yes?”

Reva had only a slight Russian accent but still hung on to some of the charms of her language, ending a sentence that was not a question with a rhetorical question no less.

“Why don’t you have a glass of water?” I said. I stood up and poured her a glass and then handed it to her. “Everything feels better once you’ve had a glass of water. My mother taught me that.”

Reva took the glass from me without a word and drank it down and then she smiled, revealing perfectly straight, white teeth. Another sign she hadn’t lived in Moldova her entire life. That or her insurance plan at the consulate had a strong dental component. “Your mother is very smart,” she said. Her walkie-talkie squawked but instead of answering it, she set it on the table and made a big show of turning it off. “You are a doctor? Is that correct?”

“A scientist,” I said. “My company, InterMacron, will be much in the news soon.”

“Science I was never good at,” she said. “I am a people person, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. But I have always been fascinated with people who understand how the smallest things on the planet can open up the biggest secrets.”

“Like Mr. Drubich,” I said.

“Like Mr. Drubich,” she said. “He is a remarkable man. Have you had the chance to meet him?”

“I am hoping to tonight,” I said, “but I have admired his work from afar for many years.”

“He is most remarkable,” she said, “a man of science but also of great faith and erudition.”

I pointed at the photo on the cover of the program. “And a family man, too,” I said.

“He met his wife in Moldova when they were just children,” she said, “and they’ve been married now thirty years.”

“We should all be so lucky,” I said.

“Yes, yes,” she said. I saw her quickly gaze down at my left hand, and when she looked back up, I was staring directly at her, which made her blush, but I didn’t look away.

“I’ve not been so lucky,” I said.

“Your mother must be upset about that,” she said.

“Among other things,” I said.

This got Reva to laugh again. She was an attractive woman, but she wasn’t Fiona. For the purposes of my needs that day, however, she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.

“I’m sorry,” Reva said. “You must be a very busy man and here I am going on about silly things.”

“Stop apologizing,” I said. “You’ve apologized to me three times and I’ve only known you five minutes. I’m beginning to think this relationship will be built on regret.”

Reva cleared her throat, but that didn’t help her blushing. “I’m sor…” she began, but caught herself just in time. “You wanted to buy a table?”

“I do,” I said.

“For how many?”

I handed her the check. “There will be only five of us, unless you’d like to join our table,” I said, “but I think this should cover it.”

“Dr. Bennington,” she said, “this is a check for a million dollars, yes?”

“Yes, it is,” I said. “My company has great faith in Mr. Drubich. We would like, if you do not mind, to present him with a copy of the check this evening.”

“A copy?”

“We’ll have one made that will be large enough for everyone to see when we present it to him.”

“Like,” Reva paused, searching for what this was like. “Like, the Publishers Clearing House?”

“Similar,” I said, “but Ed McMahon won’t be able to make it.”

“And you do not know Mr. Drubich?”

“Not personally. But my company and his company are about to embark on a very significant project together. I have sadly been in Zurich tending to business there and haven’t been able to meet with him, though my people tell me, as you have, that he is a rare human being. Have you been to Zurich?”

“No,” she said.

“We should go,” I said. “It would be good for you. You need less stress. Zurich removes the stress from your every pore.” Reva seemed flustered by all of this- that I was hitting on her as if my name were Sam Axe and also that she held a check in her hand for a million dollars-so I reached over and touched her hand. “I would like to keep this secret until tonight, Reva. Do you mind if I call you by your first name, Reva?”

“No,” she said. “I mean, yes, call me my first name.”

“Reva,” I said, “we’d like this to be a surprise for Mr. Drubich.”

“Of course, of course,” she said. “Is there anything we can do to help facilitate this?”

“It would mean a great deal to me if we could have a table near to Mr. Drubich’s. And a reserved parking spot out front. Will there be press at this event?”

“We’ve invited the local stations and reporters, but I’m afraid what we do here in the consulate is not as exciting as what happens on South Beach.”

“A shame,” I said. “This would be good for Moldova. Particularly in light of your troubled election situation back home, don’t you think?”

Reva considered what I said. “I could make another round of calls, yes?”

“It couldn’t hurt,” I said. “Get your name in the paper back home, perhaps, too.”

“I make my home here now,” she said. “Much warmer than Moldova. I’ve learned that winter isn’t something I need, yes?”

“I agree,” I said. “And the sun suits your skin. And your eyes.”

I let that hang there for a moment.

“I should tell you I’m seeing someone,” she said. She fingered the diamond necklace around her neck.