new york, new york

chapter 39

-I thought that this was supposed to be a dinner between friends, I said after listening an hour of business talk between Ben, Avi and man, who didn�t introduce himself but who they called Bob.
-Don�t complain, Avi advised. -We�ll get to you soon.
-What? What do I have to do with all this?
-Well, Bob spoke for the first time directly at me. -I�ve heard that you have some kind of experience on festival working.
-Yeah. So?
-Ben and Avi have recommended you and I�m thinking about giving you a job.
-What?!? I don�t believe this!
-Take it easy, Avi said. -You can say no.
-Well, good to know that I still have my freedom of choice.
-Seriously, Bob continued. -Avi told me that you�re a writer. We would like you to write to our web page about the festival. Starting on now and more when we get closer. We want you to take part of the events and write short notes about them.
-So I�d be like a reporter?
-Sort of. But more like a columnist.
My head started to spin. What an opportunity!
-You must know that it�s very rare that I�m even offering a job like this to non-native speaker, but your writings have convinced me. And even if you haven�t shown your best side tonight, I think that you have all what it takes. We can�t pay you much, but you will have full access to all the classes, to join or watch, and also every other event, including performances of the visiting groups.
-So? What do you say? Ben looked me with face full of enthusiastic hope.
-Let me think about it for a while. --- Oh what the heck, I�ll do it.
-I�m glad, Bob said. -If you could stop by at my office tomorrow so we can sign your contract. Ben, Avi, thank you for this delicate evening.
He stood up and so did Avi and Ben.
-No thank you for coming.
-Well, I�ll see you tomorrow, he said and left.

-How could you do this to me? I asked when the door had closed and Avi came back to the table.
-I don�t know, Ben smiled. -We thought that you could use some extra money. I called Michael right after Avi came home when he had met you. He told me all about last summer. So you were three months in Finland?
-Something like that. I didn�t count the days.
-And now you�re here again, Avi said. -Let�s have a toast. To Anna and her new job!

So I was booked for a month. Festival came closer and every day I ran around the town looking for material to my writings. And every night, way past midnight I typed by my computer columns to be published on the page. They soon became most visited part of the site and I felt earned satisfaction of that. Well, it was interesting to read those because I told about the problems behind the scene, my little less convenience meeting with Gregory Hines, all the things that all workers did to make the festival a huge success.

One morning I once again got up around noon and went to get some breakfast. Charlene left every morning early to her job in bookstore. She had great advantages of getting books for free so I never had lack of reading. I was desperate for a cup of coffee and I knew I would be late from my meeting with one of the editors of the internet pages. I went to kitchen and there he was. Why do I always meet men looking so awful? First AJ and now... Well, who was this anyway?
-Morning, he said calmly and didn�t seem to notice my eyes rolling.
-Hrmm...
I still wasn�t a morning person.
-You must be Anna?
-Yeah. What about you?
Finally I had got coffee and I sat down.
-I�m Oliver.
-Peter�s big brother! I got it.
-Yeah. And Jennifer�s little brother. If my mom would have had another child I�m sure she would have named him Gulliver.
I giggled.
-What about if it would have been she?
-Doesn�t matter. If you don�t mind me saying, you look...
-Awful. I know. And I�m already late!
-Then what are you sitting here for?
-I don�t know.
I almost pushed my coffee cup over.
-Careful. Last you want to do is go there with burns in your arms.
-Gee, thank you for your comment.
I went into my room. I felt strange. Oliver was like Peter, but older. And every inch which in Peter was gay was definitely straight in his brother!

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I'm way too curious. Tell me what you think.

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