Personal Shopper Read Online Free Page B

settling into a chair and motioning for
her to sit on the couch.
    Laura sighed and
handed him a folder before sitting down. Then she closed her eyes, took a deep
breath and started talking.
    "If you look in
that folder, you'll find an accounting for everything I spent," she said. " There's receipts for everything. But there's also something
missing." She felt the shame creep into her voice, and the tears. "A thousand
of the fifteen hundred dollars you gave me."
    Max Greenway
said nothing, just looked at the folder for a moment so intently that Laura
wondered if he'd even heard her. "So where is it?" he finally asked.
    "I -- I used it
to pay my son's school tuition."
    "You used my
money to pay your bill?" Max Greenway was looking at her now, his eyes not
exactly angry but certainly not pleased.
    "It didn't
happen the way you might think," Laura said, trying to keep her voice from
shaking. "I was behind because....well, that's not important. But I was behind
and when I went by to pick Evan up Monday - after I left your office - the
finance officer told me that if I didn't give her $1,000 right then he'd have
to immediately withdraw."
    A tear leaked
from her eye and she brushed it away, embarrassed at her inability to hold her
emotions in check.
    "I panicked,"
she said. "I had a credit card in my pocketbook but the school didn't take
credit cards. So I used your cash to pay the bill and keep my son in school."
    Max Greenway
said nothing. He just stared at her. It made Laura feel terribly uneasy. She
stood and turned her back to him.
    "After I left
the school I went to the ATM .."
    "Laura, sit back
down and face me." Max Greenways' voice was stern. "I don't like people who
turn their backs on me. Especially when they've done
something to get them into trouble."
    Laura felt her
heart jump into her throat. Max Greenway was a man who commanded obedience.
She'd known that the moment she'd walked into his office. His order frightened
her and she immediately submitted to his command.
    "Now go on," he
said.
    "So after I left
the school I went to the ATM to get a cash advance on my credit card, but it
would only give me $120." She reached into her pocket, pulled out the $120 and
put it on the coffee table between them, sliding the bills in his direction.
    Max Greenway
didn't take them. "So how is it that a woman running her business and her
household doesn't know her own credit card balance?"
    "It's
complicated," she said. "It involves someone else and I'd rather not .."
    "I think you owe
me a full explanation. I want to hear it." His gaze didn't waver.
    Laura looked at
him, trapped. She ran her slim fingers through her the top of her long brunette
hair and sighed. "The card was an emergency card, one of those high-interest
cards that my husband and I never used. When we split up, we didn't even think
to cut it up. We never used it when we were together and I sort of forgot about
it until Monday. But I figured Monday was an emergency so I decided to use it.
But apparently, he's already been using it, and not for emergencies, unless you
consider dinners, movie tickets and lingerie emergency purchases."
    "Might I assume
the lingerie isn't for you?" Max Greenway asked.
    "There's another
woman now," Laura said. "Well, actually there was another woman when we were
together. I just was just a little slow on the uptake."
    "You should have
known better than to have retained any type of joint credit with him, Laura.
You know now that if he doesn't pay it then it'll hurt your credit rating."
    "I know," she
said miserably. "The credit card company said the first payment's due next
month. I'm sure he won't pay it. I couldn't even get him to help me with Evan's
tuition."
    Max Greenway
shook his head. "And now you're worse off than ever. You have a new credit card
bill plus you owe me the money you took. And of course, those tuition bills
have a way of coming around again."
    "Yes, I know,
Mr. Greenway." Laura replied. "You have every right to call the