Read Online Whispers and Lies by Joy Fielding - Free Book Online

delicate strands of gray hair immediately fall back into place, as if untouched. “You were right about the bob. It’s very becoming.”
    “You think so?” A smile, eager as a child’s, spread across her face.
    “Now all the nurses are asking me to cut their hair. They say I missed my calling.”
    “I don’t think you miss a thing.” Myra reached out to squeeze my hand.
    “I’ll be back to say hello to your son,” I said with a wink.
    “Terry?” she called as I was about to leave the room. I swiveled around as she brought her fingers to her lips. “Maybe a little lipstick?”
    I started back toward the bed.
    “No. Not me,” she said quickly. “You.”
    I laughed, shaking my head as I returned to the door. I was still laughing as I stepped into the hall and saw Alisonstanding in front of the nurses’ station.
    “Terry!” Alison rushed forward to greet me, arms extended, face flushed with pride. She was wearing her blue sundress and her hair fell in lush tendrils around her shoulders. Erica Hollander’s necklace hung around her neck, the tiny gold heart resting at her collarbone, as if it had been there all her life.
    “Alison! What are you doing here?” I looked toward Margot and Caroline, both of whom were busy behind the long, curving desk of the nurses’ station, Margot on the phone, Caroline entering notes in a patient’s chart. They glanced in our direction, pretending not to be paying attention.
    “I did it! I did it!” Alison was jumping up and down, like a small child.
    I brought my finger to my lips in a silent signal for her to settle down and lower her voice. “Did what?”
    “I got a job,” she squealed, unable to contain herself. “At the Lorelli Gallery. On Atlantic Avenue. Four days a week, some Saturdays, some evenings. Shift work,” she said, beaming. “Like you.”
    “That’s great,” I heard myself say, her enthusiasm catchy despite my effort to remain detached. “What exactly will you be doing?”
    “Selling mostly. Of course, I don’t know much about art, but Fern said she’d teach me everything I need to know. Fern’s my boss. Fern Lorelli. She seems very nice. Do you know her?”
    I started to shake my head, but Alison had already moved on.
    “I told her I didn’t know much about art, because Ifigured I should be honest, right? I didn’t want her to give me the job under false pretenses. I mean, she’d find out soon enough anyway, right? But she said not to worry, she’d handle the art, that I should stick mostly to the jewelry and gift items they sell, although if I do manage to sell one of the paintings, I’d get a commission. Five percent. Isn’t that great?”
    “It’s great,” I agreed.
    “Some of those paintings sell for thousands of dollars, so that’d be fantastic, if I sold one of them. But mostly I’ll be behind the cash register. Me and this other girl who works there. Denise Nickson, I think her name is. She’s Fern’s niece. And what else? Oh—I get twelve dollars an hour, and I start on Monday. Isn’t that great?”
    “It’s great,” I said again.
    “I couldn’t wait to tell you, so I came right over.”
    “Congratulations.”
    “Can I take you to lunch?”
    “Lunch?”
    “To celebrate. My treat.”
    I shifted uneasily from one foot to the other. Technically, I was on my lunch break right now, and my stomach had been making hungry noises for the past hour. “I can’t. Things are so busy here today.…”
    “Dinner, then.”
    “I can’t. I’m working a double shift.”
    “Tomorrow night,” she persisted. “That’s even better. It’s a Saturday, so you can sleep in the next morning. You’re not busy tomorrow night, are you?”
    “No,” I said, realizing that Alison wouldn’t settle for less than a definite date, even if she had to go throughevery day from now till Christmas. “But really, it isn’t necessary for you to take me out.”
    “Of course it is,” Alison insisted. “Besides, I want to. To thank you