“Do you remember Catherine Parker?” Madison asked while Hellman was trying to read his message slips. The mention of the name from the past stopped his gaze in mid-sentence.
“Do I remember Catherine Parker?” Hellman looked at Madison. “That’s like asking me if I like a tender filet mignon.”
“She was something, huh?”
“She represented all the things our mothers told us to watch out for. She also represented the wildest times of our lives.”
Madison nodded thoughtfully. “Brings back memories.”
“Yeah, of competing with each other on virtually everything. Women, grades, basketball…” Hellman was staring up at the ceiling at nothing in particular, his feet on the desk, the messages he was so intently studying a moment ago stacked to the left of his feet.
“And I won the woman,” Madison said.
“Temporarily. Until somebody with more money came along.”
“There was more to her than that,” Madison said, placing his own feet up on Hellman’s desk. “She had her faults, but she had a good heart.”
“What made you suddenly think of her?”
“I had dinner with her last night.”
“You did what?” Hellman yanked his feet off the desk and sat straight up.
“I had dinner with her.”
“Your wife’s left you and you think the way to coax her back is by having dinner with an old flame who you almost married? An old flame who was hotter than-”
“Jeffrey, nothing happened.”
“What am I gonna do with you? You’re well-meaning, but you seem to be looking for ways to bury yourself.”
“Hey, it was no big deal. And I don’t regret it. She made me feel good about myself for the first time in a long time. Is that so bad?”
“She wants to get in your pants. She wants to crawl inside your chest and capture your heart again. Fifteen years ago she made the mistake of her life and now she sees an opening. She’s swooping in for the kill.”
“You’re reading it all wrong.”
“Am I?” Hellman asked.
“Yes.”
“And what do you base that on?”
Madison paused. “Because you just are.”
“Oh, okay, the old ‘I-just-know-it’s-true-but-I-really-don’t-have-any-proof’ defense.”
“Must you always look at things from a legal perspective?”
“Let me guess. She’s divorced from that rich guy. What was his name? Todd?”
“Tom,” Madison said. “Yeah, divorced.”
“That’s a surprise.”
There was silence for a moment. “She wanted to use my sperm to impregnate her.”
Hellman laughed, then realized Madison was not smiling. “You’re serious. With Catherine, I guess I’d believe just about anything.”
“I turned her down, don’t worry,” Madison said.
“I’m not the one who has to worry.”
“What does it matter? I had dinner with an old friend. She made a proposition and I turned her down. So what?”
“So I know how much your family means to you and right now you don’t need stirred-up memories of Catherine the vamp floating around in your sea of hormones.”
“Just because you lost out on her doesn’t mean-”
“I put that behind me many years ago. I got over her and moved on with my life.”
“And you’re saying I didn’t?”
“You did. Sort of. You more or less placed your feelings in suspended animation. She’s reawakened them.”
Madison rose from his seat. “I don’t need this, not now.”
“Now is exactly when you need it.”
Madison shook his head and walked up to Hellman’s eighteenth-floor window that looked out over downtown Sacramento. “But I didn’t do anything. We just had dinner. Proposition aside, she seemed very genuine.”
“She may have been genuine. She may’ve just been trying to be a friend at a time when you need one. But how many years has it been since you’ve spoken to her? Is that the mark of a true friend?”
Madison did not say anything.
“I know you better than anyone else in this world. At least as well as Leeza knows you-but at the moment, her view’s been influenced by external forces. You’re only human…and if you have this trump card-Catherine the vamp-in your back pocket, then subconsciously you may not try as hard to get Leeza back.” More silence. “Putting your emotions aside for the moment, if you can honestly tell me that that’s not a possibility, then I’ll leave you alone.”
A long moment passed. Without facing Hellman, Madison said, “It’s possible.”
“Don’t talk to her again. Focus on getting Leeza back. Appreciate her, Phil. I don’t have that luxury. I lost Hannah. Don’t let that happen to you.”
Madison turned around. “If it makes you feel better, I told Catherine I still held out hope of getting Leeza back, and I spent the rest of the night alone.”
“Well, that’s a good first step. What else are you going to do?”
“Try to get Leeza to come home.”
Hellman nodded. “Are you okay on this?”
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Madison said.
“Good. I’ve got to return all these messages,” Hellman said, picking up his stack of slips. “I’ll call you later.”
Madison left Hellman’s office. Alone in the elevator, he pulled out his phone and called up a photo of Leeza and the kids he had taken at Marine World before his life began to fall apart. A vivid reminder of what he had waiting for him, of what he had to lose. He rested his head against the elevator wall and took a deep breath.
“It’s time,” he whispered. “Come home.”