Page 74 of Twice
“Do you want to go?” I asked Gianna.
“Not really. But you do, right?”
I did and I didn’t. My ego surely wanted to see this story on a fifty-foot-high screen. But the idea of my wife and Nicolette in the same place was worrisome. I hadn’t seen her since that night. After that elevator encounter, I didn’t know how I’d start a conversation.
In the end, Gianna made it easy. She had scheduled her annual doctor’s checkup long before we knew about the premiere. It fell on the day before, and rescheduling would have pushed it out another two months.
“You go,” she told me. “Have fun.”
“All right.”
My stomach clenched.Have fun?What is it about guilt that shades even the simplest phrase?
I got my hair cut. I purchased a new blazer and a fashionable shirt. When the time came, I boarded a plane at JFK and flew six hours to the West Coast.
When I disembarked at the Los Angeles airport, I found a pay phone and called Gianna.
“I’m here,” I said.
“Alfie?”
Her voice sounded odd.
“You all right?”
“I went to the doctor today.”
“Everything OK?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“Alfie?”
“Yeah?”
“Alfie?”
“What is it?”
A beat.
“We’re pregnant.”
Nassau
LaPorta banged down the house phone. If Gianna Rule wasn’t in her room, she could be anywhere. Maybe leaving the country.
“Should we check outside?” Sampson said. “The pool?”
“I don’t know what she looks like.”
“No picture?”
“No.”
LaPorta thought about Alfie’s description in the notebook. A stunning woman with dark hair. A woman whose smile could knock you over. Someone like that might stand out. Then again, it was just a suspect’s words. For all LaPorta knew, Gianna Rule was as plain as cardboard.
