Nick was still whistling as he entered the apartment. A night with Holly, then the ending of the agony of being discovered, he told himself.
"Hey, anybody home?" he called as he walked over to the bar.
Holly came from the bedroom, dressed only in the plaid shirt with the two buttons open as usual. Nick stared from the surge of the breasts down to where the shirt ended, and despite his love-making to Julie he immediately went warm and his face flushed with desire.
"Baby, am I ever glad to see you and have I ever solved my dilemma," he said.
"Nick, listen," she said very softly, and she looked over her shoulder toward the kitchen.
Nick swallowed and his mood evaporated in an instant. Instinctively he knew that something was badly wrong. And then he realized Holly was pale, and there was a strange desperate look in her eyes.
She took a step toward him. "Nick, I'm sorry, listen to me," she said. "When the bell rang I thought it was you and I was so anxious to see you I answered the door without thinking. You never told me not to, Nick."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Nick asked.
"Well, when this dippy old lady came barging in, I had no idea what to do or say, Nick," she said.
"Old lady?" Nick asked and a chill shot up his spine. "Oh, God, it can't be. Not now."
"She insisted on waiting for you," Holly said. "Is she something else, baby. I offered her a drink. And you know what she did? She took a bottle of gin and insisted on going into the kitchen to look for a teacup."
Nick poured a glass half full of scotch and gulped it down. It fell heavily onto a gnawing, rolling stomach. "Christ, there goes the whole works," he said. "I'm dead in this town, Holly."
He could see himself now, trying for unemployment and not even being able to get that. He licked his lips and shook his head. Here everything was going to be worked out, and he had to come home and find Frances Dennison in his kitchen and Holly standing here in nothing but that shirt.
"Why the hell didn't you put something on after you let her in?" he asked. And he cursed the day he ever met Holly.
"I did, Nick," she said, very quietly. "I put this shirt on. I was naked when I answered the door."
Nick laughed then, laughed and shook his head and felt tears forming in his eyes from the wracking laughter. "We're some team, Holly," he said. "We've really done this thing beautifully. We just missed one trick. We should have been making love on the floor when she came in." He laughed harder, then the laughter choked in his throat.
"Nick, are you all right," Holly asked.
"Sounds like a party in there," Frances Dennison called, and Nick stumbled back and sat on the couch and muttered, "Oh, Christ."
"Oh, here you are young man," Mrs. Dennison said as she emerged from the kitchen with a bottle of gin in one hand and a tea cup in the other. Her faded eyes were sparkling and she was wrapped in a huge flowered shawl.
Nick stood up and glanced at Holly, then at the old lady. "Good evening, Mrs. Dennison," he said and felt absolutely defeated and absurd.
"Young man, don't you ever answer your phone?" she asked, and she perched on the edge of a straight backed chair by the desk. "This is the first time I've been out of the house in weeks. But I was intrigued about you after our meeting and curious about your work on my beer advertising. And Marshall Connors told me you had been working at home. But he didn't tell me you had a helper."
She glanced at Holly and the girl shrank back and looked at Nick. "Christ, go put something on," he snapped at Holly. "You're dressed like a tramp."
"Why young man, how very rude," Mrs. Dennison said. "Come here child, I want to get a closer look at you."
Holly inched over and stood in front of Mrs. Dennison. Nick watched the old lady look from head to toe as she sipped her gin.
"About this girl," Nick said.
"Come now, young man," Mrs. Dennison said. "I hope you're not going to offer me some feeble excuse, and tell me she's doing your typing or something like that."
"There's not much of an excuse, is there?" he asked. "I guess the situation is rather obvious."
"Rather obvious," she said and nodded and sipped from the tea cup, "even to an old lady who is filled with gin."
"But things are over now," Nick said desperately. "This in the end, in fact. If you weren't here, she'd be out by now. This in no way impairs my love for Miss Connors. It was a stupid indiscretion on my part."
Nick saw Holly's lips tremble and she sniffed, but she did not say anything.
"Oh that's right, you're engaged to that pasty-faced Connors girl," Mrs. Dennison said. "Why it's terrible for you to talk about this lovely girl the way you are. I won't have it. Why she'd make three times the woman that frigid Connors would. What's your name, child?"
There was no answer and Nick looked up to tears rolling down the lovely golden cheeks. "Her name's Holly," he said.
"Holly," Mrs. Dennison said. "Holly, what a lovely name. Well, young man if I were Holly, I would not stand for the way you talk to her. But that's between you two. Now tell me how you're planning to sell my beer?"
Nick thought of half a dozen lies, each one less plausible and more stupid than the last. He swallowed and felt his stomach rolling and stared into the penetrating eyes embedded in the deeply wrinkled face. Then he shook his head.
"I don't have any idea, to be perfectly frank," he said. "I haven't been able to come up with a damn thing."
"I respect you for being honest," she said. "But I must say I'm disappointed. I couldn't help but see the papers on your desk here. I would say the word HOLLY is written approximately twice as many times as the word DENNISON."
"I still think I can come up with something in the next couple of days," he said weakly.
"I fully expect you to," Mrs. Dennison said and she put her cup down. "I like a man who's hard and likes women, Mr. Harrison. But I also like a man to deliver when it counts. And I don't like to be disappointed."
"You won't be disappointed," Nick said and never had he felt less confident.
"I'll be getting along Mr. Harrison," Mrs. Dennison said and stood up. "And if you've got any sense you'll hold onto Holly and forget the Connors girl despite your ambitions. Good night. I'll expect to hear from you in two days."
Nick glanced around and saw that Holly was gone. He escorted Mrs. Dennison to the door, stunned by her reference to his ambitions. He kept assuring her he would come up with something, and when she walked out, he offered to escort her to her car, but she wouldn't hear of it.
Nick waited a minute then slammed the door and went over and took a double shot of scotch. He was still stunned by what had happened, not only finding Mrs. Dennison here, but about her attitude about Holly and Julie.
"Holly," he said aloud. He turned and hurried into the bedroom. Holly was dressing.
"Why are you putting on your old clothes," he asked. "And where the hell are you going?"
"Out of your damn life," she hissed. "I'm going back out onto the streets where you found me, like the other tramps."
"Holly I'm sorry I said that," he said and stepped to her. "I was desperate."
"Well, since I mean absolutely nothing to you and I'm obviously the cause for all your misfortunes, I'll walk out of here and remove the desperation," she said, and she buttoned her blouse.
Nick reached for her, but she jerked away. "Look Holly, let's get into bed and discuss things," he said.
"Go get in bed with your society girl," she said. "If you so much as touch me, I'll scratch your eyes out."
"Look Holly, I've been under a lot of pressure," he said. "And dammit, I did take you off the street. Don't forget that. I've treated you well and it's cost me plenty."
"Do you know something?" she asked, and sniffed and brushed tears from her blue eyes. "I was in love with you, Nick. That's why I wanted to stay with you. I loved you and felt warm and comfortable and not afraid or alone. Do you think I'd have any trouble getting some guy to look after me? Some guy with more money than you've ever seen, if that was what I wanted."
"Holly, give me time to think," Nick said. "I never realized things were like that."
"No, I'm sure you didn't," she said. "You felt you were doing me a great favor and that I was just some sex-starved little girl. Well, I do go crazy over sex, but only with a man I love. It might interest you to know you're exactly the third man I've ever made love to."
"Holly, what did you expect me to think about you?" he asked. "I know I was insensitive to you. But I was engaged, don't forget that. And I was involved in the most important ad earn campaign of my career."
"To hell with your career," Holly said. "I've swallowed my pride for the last time with you, Nick Harrison. And now I see just how hollow and selfish you really are. So go back to your precious pasty-faced fiancee and climb up high in her father's company."
Again Nick reached for Holly. And again she jerked away. "Holly, you can't just leave like this," he said. "Where will you go? At least wait until morning."
Holly shoved past him and walked into the living room. "Oh, you were going to throw me out anyway," she said. "That's what you told Mrs. Dennison wasn't it?"
"I meant I was going to get you a separate apartment," he said, and followed her into the living room. "So there wouldn't be any chance…"
She turned, her blue eyes blazing, a smile of scorn on her lips. "So there wouldn't be any possibility of anyone of importance discovering you were involved with a teenage tramp," she said. "Keep little Holly tucked away and run over and jump in bed with her if its convenient."
"Look, Holly, let me give you some money," Nick said. "And I know a nice hotel you can go to and then tomorrow we can talk."
"Save your money, Nick baby, because you're going to need it," she said. "You're going to go down so fast when you mess up the Dennison account that you're going to need every cent you can get to salve your precious ego."
"Then get the hell out of here," Nick muttered.
Holly burst into tears and ran from the apartment. Nick stalked over and slammed the door and stood sucking in his heavy breath. Little bitch, he muttered to himself.
Nick walked over to the window and stared out blankly at the snow and told himself Holly's leaving was the best thing that could happen. And Frances Dennison's attitude gave him a second chance with her account.
Nick poured a drink and sat down at the desk and thought how things would get back to normal now, and he would come up with a great ad campaign and still marry Julie and shoot up quickly to the top at the agency. He could still have everything for which he had struggled so long and so hard.
Nick drank the scotch and felt a chill in the room and he got up and went in and put on a sweater. Then he fixed another drink and sat down again, but he still felt cold.
And he knew that by the time he finished his drink that he would get nothing done on the campaign tonight. He told himself to go to bed and get a good night's sleep and tomorrow he would come up with something.
But he shivered and thought of the empty, chilled apartment. His mind raced, and he thought of trying to see Julie. But he thought of their scene on the floor in front of the fireplace and the thought chilled him even more.
He stood up abruptly and drained his scotch. He squeezed his eyes shut and saw Holly and saw the honey-smooth, pulsating, warm body and the blue eyes and he shuddered as he remembered the hatred in those eyes as she left his apartment.
And now he would never see her again. He opened his eyes and told himself he would have to accept the fact that Holly would have cost him his job and his marriage.
Then a strange feeling of loneliness surged over him and he felt cold and his stomach rolled over and over. And he ran into the bedroom for his coat and told himself he had to get out to a bar, and be with people and get something to drink and tomorrow somehow he could get up and knock off the Dennison thing.