I’m embarrassed to admit it but I did something incredibly shallow in an attempt to impress Sylvia.
I knew she admired Victor Goldman so I tried to capture some of his mystique and appear as mysterious and exciting as him.
To my shame, I actually found myself trying to outdo a seventy-year old man
I deliberately invited Sylvia’s friend, Tess, back to my penthouse saying we’d have a drink on my terrace and toast the rising moon.
Her eyes gleamed. I knew she’d find it irresistibly romantic—but unperceived by her, lurked a secret motive—a plan to impress Sylvia.
I intended to allow Tess to discover some documents pertaining to a youthful indiscretion, in the hopes that I’d create a ‘bad boy’ mystique to add intrigue to my otherwise boring persona.
In my twenties, I had been arrested for marijuana possession, but Norrie Clarke, a family friend, who at that time worked for the RCMP got me off with a mere fine and no criminal record.
The generosity came with strings attached. He told me I owed him a favour – and some day, he’d come back to collect.
Sure enough, a few years later, Norrie recruited me to do some light spying– it was nothing dangerous – mere surveillance and intelligence.
But as a result of my sleuthing and subsequent court testimony, an immigrant who was selling industrial secrets to China was charged with espionage. I received a letter of commendation from the Prime Minister of Canada at that time.
I placed the documents where Tess was sure to stumble upon them, and had already planned how to react.
I’d appear embarrassed and make Tess swear never to reveal the truth. But I knew how Tess deeply admired me and she wouldn’t be able to resist revealing my heroics to everyone at the firm.
My real goal was to impress Sylvia.
I pictured basking in the adulation of the women.
My indiscretion and subsequent redemption could only add to my reputation portraying me as an international man of mystery akin to Victor Goldman—and possibly, in the light of the government commendation, I might be considered even more a man of action and substance.
Of course things went exactly as planned.
Tess couldn’t resist telling our colleagues and my stature in the office was instantly enhanced.
Even the great Victor Goldman himself stopped me in the middle of the office, slapping me good-naturedly on the back and lauded my achievement.
“Quite impressive, my boy,” he gushed, “You outdid yourself—I’m envious.”
The women stopped their work and amazingly began to applaud, and Victor himself graciously stood aside so as not to share the limelight—and actually joined in the applause.
It was a heady moment, save for one thing—Sylvia wasn’t there.
She was attending to clients in New York, but I was reasonably sure everyone would fill her in on the details when she returned.
Disappointingly, however, Sylvia was not impressed.
I was despondent, so bleak in fact, that Tom Barron perceived my sullenness and insisted we go out for drinks.
It was on that occasion at Coro’s he revealed an interesting fact. It turns out he was also interested in Sylvia, but apparently blew his chance when she heard his foul mouth.
“I’m not upset, Gray—Sylvia would be incredibly high-maintenance, and besides, it was shortly after her that I met Vera.”
Vera is a beautiful South American stockbroker and as it turns out, attracted to Tom and doesn’t mind at all if he swears – and as a matter of fact, finds it endearing.
But Tom’s failed attempt at dating Sylvia depressed me.
Tom’s twenty-nine—much closer to Sylvia’s age than I am, and yet she found him uninteresting. What real chance did I have?
But the more I thought about it I concluded Sylvia was very particular about whom she dates and certainly not ‘caviar for the general’ – she was an exquisite gem, not paste glass.
Thus, I became even more obsessed with her, wanting her even more.
I knew Sylvia had a bristly, standoffish way about her – and it infuriated Tom who saw her as a bitch, but to my mind, it made her remote and inaccessible—even more like a goddess.
