Danielle Steel: The Apartment

Greg had had his own family issues. He was one of five boys, from a simple Catholic family in Quebec. Four of them were professional hockey players, and his father had been heartbroken when he told him he was gay. He said openly now that he had known he was gay all his life, since he was nine or ten. He just liked boys, and his father had eventually adjusted, although he was sad about it. Greg and Oliver genuinely loved each other, and Max enjoyed spending time with them too. Morgan and Max went skiing with Oliver and Greg sometimes, when Max could get away. He teased them about their dogs, which made Oliver groan. It was one of his few disagreements with Greg. They had two Yorkies and a teacup Chihuahua Greg was crazy about and dressed in tiny Rangers uniforms someone had made for them.

“For heaven’s sake, you weigh two hundred and sixty pounds and you’re a goalie. Can’t we get a decent-size dog, like a Lab or a golden retriever? They make us look so gay!” Oliver complained, and Greg laughed.

“We are!” he reminded Oliver, and grinned. Oliver groused about it good-naturedly and regularly threatened to get a Saint Bernard, but he loved the dogs too. And he and Greg never tried to hide what they were. Greg had been one of the biggest sports figures to admit openly that he was gay.

“Do you want to have dinner at the restaurant Saturday?” Morgan asked her brother as she got to her office building.

“I’ll check with Greg. He said something about a birthday party in Miami. If we’re in town, I’d love it. I’ll let you know.”

“Sounds good.” She blew him a kiss and hung up, and her thoughts turned instantly to work. She and George, her boss, had a meeting scheduled that morning with a new client who was looking to place a lot of money. George had been courting him for months. He had made some very profitable investments for one of the potential client’s friends, and Morgan had done her homework for the meeting, and had discussed George’s plans for him at length. She had contributed several additional suggestions that George liked and was planning to present too. They were a good team. And he always said she was a genius with numbers and could read a spreadsheet faster than their accountants and spot an error everyone else had missed.

George was a handsome, successful bachelor, but his relationship with Morgan had always been strictly business. He never played where he worked, which she respected about him. At thirty-nine, he was hotly pursued by every gold digger in New York, and some very nice women too, some of them with a great deal of money. They felt safe with George since he had his own. He had made a fortune in recent years, and Morgan respected him for that. He was brilliant at what he did, and deserved his success. She had learned a lot from him in the past three years. They never saw each other socially, but she enjoyed traveling with him. They went to some terrific places to see clients, or check on investments—Paris, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Dubai. Her work life was a dream.

She checked all her facts on her computer, organized the papers on her desk for the presentation, and made some calls, and the new client came in at ten. He was a well-known man in his fifties who had made a fortune in the high-tech dot-com boom, and was said to be a billionaire, and he was interested in everything George and Morgan had to say. George had suggested several additions to his portfolio, some of them high risk, which didn’t seem to faze the client, and George had incorporated Morgan’s suggestions, and even attributed them to her. He was always fair. She thanked him as soon as the client left, and George looked pleased. The client had been very receptive to everything they’d said.

“We’re in,” George said with a grin. He was smooth as silk, and Morgan loved watching him handle their clients. He had it down to a fine art.

She went back to her own office then, and the day flew by with meetings, and some research she had to do after their meeting that morning. She always did her homework and followed up meticulously. George knew that he could count on her, and she gave him the information at the end of the day.

She had a meeting with a stock analyst that evening for a drink. She wanted to discuss two new IPOs with him, and hear what he had to say. She had her doubts about one of them. Her dream was to have her own select group of clients one day. She wasn’t as aggressive a risk taker as George, but she had solid knowledge, used sound investment practices, and had six years of great experience since business school. She was well on her way, even if she never attained the stellar heights that George had achieved in his dazzling career, but who knew what could happen? She was on a definite career path. Her life was in a good place.

—

It was another stressful day for Claire, with arguments with Walter about the quantity of shoes they should produce for their spring line. He always wanted to play it safe, both with production quantity and design. She wished he would give her more leeway, but he never did. He never budged on anything. And Monique, the new French intern, irritated her all day. Claire felt like she was babysitting a petulant child and didn’t have time to entertain her. By the time she got back to the apartment, Claire was seriously aggravated, and wished she had the guts to quit. But she needed the money, and didn’t want to take a chance on being out of work while she looked, or risking the job she had if she started looking and Walter heard about it and fired her. He had her back to the wall, and all she wanted to do was design more exciting shoes.

As she dropped her keys onto the hall table, and glanced at her mail—all bills and ads, everything else came to her by e-mail or on Facebook—she noticed that Sasha was already home. She could see her lying on the couch, barefoot and in shorts, reading a magazine. Sasha glanced up at her and smiled, sipping a glass of wine, which meant she was off call, which was a relief for her. She hardly ever got time off, and Claire couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen her read a magazine.

“They finally gave you a break?” She was happy for her.

“I’m not working this week,” Sasha said vaguely, sipping her wine.

“Not since yesterday. That’s hardly what I’d call a vacation.” Sasha laughed at her then and sat up on the couch. “I had a shit day,” Claire complained to her. “I may have to kill the little French girl, if I don’t kill Walter first. I’m beginning to have fantasies about it. I’m sick of designing shoes for women with no imagination and no taste.”

“Then quit,” Sasha said bluntly. “Fuck them. Why be miserable in your job?”

“Hello, remember me? I need the money. I’m not an heiress, and what if I’m out of work for six months? That could happen.” Claire looked worried as she said it.

“There’s always prostitution,” Sasha said, sounding flippant, and suddenly what she said didn’t seem like her. Sasha was always sensitive about Claire’s fears about her job and her future.

And then Claire took a closer look and narrowed her eyes as she stared hard at Sasha.

“Smile at me,” she said cryptically to the exquisite woman on the couch. Sasha had a natural beauty that nothing could dim, even uncombed hair and hospital scrubs.

“Why?” she said in response.

“Never mind why—smile at me.” Sasha did as she was told, and smiled broadly, showing off gorgeous, perfect teeth. She hadn’t even had braces. She’d been naturally flawless from birth. And Claire laughed the moment she smiled. “Jesus, you two ought to be forced to wear a sign, or get a tattoo on your foreheads with your name.” Only when they smiled could she detect the faintest dissimilarity in the twins. Although they looked the same, and were truly identical, there was an almost microscopic difference in their smiles. Claire had noticed it early on, but Valentina still fooled her a lot of the time, especially when she wanted to, which she did often. She was much more mischievous than her twin, and explained it by saying that Sasha was older, by three minutes, therefore more serious. Valentina considered herself the younger sister, and was lying on the couch drinking wine. “I thought you were Sasha,” Claire explained, but Valentina already knew that and looked amused. She loved fooling them. In some ways, she behaved like a naughty child, in contrast to her more responsible sister.