Free Play Date by Casey Grant

feelings of revulsion? He was destroying Nina’s first job in
ten years! Her dream job!
    And she couldn’t take her eyes off him.
     
     
     
     

Binky and the Green Bikini
     
     
    “Goddammit, what the hell happened in
there?!” Conrad yelled at Nina on the ferry crossing back to
Snuffex.
    “What happened is that Mrs. Railings is not
the person I thought she was,” said Nina. “And don’t yell at
me.”
    “You screwed up!” said Conrad, “Let’s not
mince words! You did not read Clair right. She totally blindsided
you!”
    “You’ve known her longer than me,” said Nina.
“Why didn’t YOU see this coming?”
    “That’s not for you to judge—I’m your
employer. I hired you to do a job and you failed.”
    “We’re not the only ones who got screwed,”
said Nina. “That Binky von Claptrap was also blindsided.”
    “Who cares?! We lost the books! It doesn't
matter if someone else lost too.”
    “Leo blew us out of the water, said Nina.
“There was nothing we could do.”
    Conrad was silent for a minute. When he
finally spoke, his tone was without emotion. “There is one thing
you can do to make this better…”
    “Don’t go there, Conrad.”
    “There is one way—and only one way you can
save your job…”
    “No Conrad…”
    “Let's go back to the car. I want my dick
sucked—right now.”
    “Fuck you,” said Nina.
    “That’s it then—you’re done!” said Conrad.
“We’re done!" You're fired.”
    “Because we didn't get the books or because I
wouldn't sleep with you?!” said Nina.
    “Both. You’re a well-rounded
disappointment.”
     
     
    The bar at the Snuffex Inn transitioned
outside into the pool patio during the summer months. At 5:00 in
the afternoon in June it was a comfortable seventy-eight degrees
but there was no one in the pool and only two people sitting at the
patio bar. Nina ordered a vodka tonic while thinking about the last
thing Conrad said to her, “I’m on the ten-thirty flight tomorrow
back to Newark—make sure you are not on it.”
    Someone sat down next to Nina and ordered a
Johnny Walker Blue. Nina looked over to see who was flush enough to
order such an expensive drink and saw an elegantly attired tall and
lean woman. “Binky?” said Nina.
    “Oh, hello,” said Binky. “Are you staying
here?”
    “At least until tomorrow. What are you doing
here? I thought you lived in Snuffex, in that Federal-style house
or whatever.”
    “I just happen to like this bar,” said
Binky.
    Nina’s vodka tonic arrived. She took a long
gulp, looking straight ahead at the bar, all the while thinking
about how she would have to go back to the job search grind as soon
as she got back to Scottsdale. If worse came to worse, she and the
boys could move back with mom.
    “I’m guessing you’re not originally from
Scottsdale,” said Binky.
    “No one is,” said Nina. “I grew up in
Cleveland.”
    “You do have that corn-fed look,” said Binky.
“There are lots of nice schools in the Midwest. You should feel
proud.”
    “Looking at you, something tells me I
shouldn’t,” said Nina. “What about you?”
    Binky smiled, “The Stuckwell School, Williams
College, anthropology major, interned at McCann Ericsson, became an
account manager and got recruited by Goldman Sachs. Worked in the
trading department, quit after five years with lots of cash. Fell
in love, fell out of love. Started my nifty publishing imprint. I’m
surprised you haven’t heard of me.”
    “Of course I should have heard of you,” said
Nina, startled by Binky’s curriculum vitae while feeling like shit.
Nina took in Binky’s languid lines, her easy beauty and effortless
intellect. Binky had been doing all the talking, but it was Nina
who was now breathless. This woman, not much older than her, had
achieved far more than Nina ever would. And Binky had done it
without kids and a philandering husband.
    “I have an opening at my press,” said Binky,
leaning in towards Nina.
    “You do?” said