"This is Margaret Vogel," she heard instead. " I'm a producer for As It Happens,
a national CBC radio show, and we're quite excited about the ad
campaign you've come up with for the new line of boutique hotels in
Toronto. We wonder if you'd be available for a radio interview? Tomorrow
evening, around 8?"
Katie stood in her living room, her pants unbuttoned, shivering in her
bra. She didn't say anything, just stared at Eoin, who was fully dressed
again, smiling patiently from the couch.
"Katie?" Margaret said. "Are you there?"
"Just thinking," Katie said. She jammed her hand over the mouthpiece. "They want me on As It Happens!" Katie hissed to Eoin. "Tomorrow night!"
"That's great!" he whispered back. "Say you'll do it!"
"I can't." Katie's heart fell. "It's your art opening. It's at the exact same time as the opening."
"Just go and do it anyway," Eoin said. "It's really important. You can come by the gallery afterwards."
"Katie? Are you there?" Margaret Vogel asked, somewhat impatiently.
"Oh, right. Sorry," Katie apologized. "Does it have to be tomorrow night? It's just that I have plans."
"Well, this is live national radio. We kind of need to do it tomorrow, while the story's hot."
"I see." Katie bit her lip, and looked at her gorgeous, patient boyfriend. He'd been through so much with her lately, what with her job and her sister and Bobby and her friends...He needed her help, didn't he? "It's just my plans are very important. It's my boyfriend's art opening, and I would really like to be there. But don't get me wrong, the interview is important to me, too. Is there anyway we can do the interview earlier in the day?"
Eoin rolled his eyes at her.
"So your boyfriend is an artist, too?" Margaret Vogel sounded intrigued. "What's his project all about?"
Katie explained a bit about his art project, trying not to be jealous that Eoin was hijacking her moment.
"Katie, I have an idea -- could we come and interview you at the art opening?"
"Sure!" Katie exclaimed, hoping that Eoin wouldn't mind if she hijacked his moment. She glanced at him, still sitting, smiling, on the couch. She was pretty sure he'd be okay with it; he seemed okay with sharing.
And he was okay with sharing, but not necessarily good with nerves. Eoin had spent the whole day at the gallery, prepping the work and agonizing over the technology, the programs, even the snacks. Of which there were none.
"What do you mean you didn't get a caterer?" Melissa crossed her arms across her chest and frowned. She'd shown up early to help, and found Katie and Eoin testing all the ipads against the big map of Toronto. They couldn't get the smaller ipod touches to work quite as well, and Eoin was spending a lot of time biting his lip and swearing in his fun Irish accent, which made his swear words that much cuter.
"I didn't know. I didn't think about it," Eoin said. "Feck!"
"How could you not know?" Melissa asked. "You've been a professional artist for years!" Katie made shut up motions with her hands. Eoin had been dealing with enough stuff, it was no wonder this had slipped his mind.
"It's fine. We'll go get some stuff now," Katie said, grabbing her jacket and giving Eoin a quick kiss. "What do you want?"
"Boxed wine and cheese cubes seems the standard art opening fair," Eoin said while tugging on some wires, and Katie wasn't sure if he was kidding.
"We'll be back soon," she said, and, grabbing Melissa's hand, they were off.
"So how's it going?" Melissa asked as they hurried down the cracker aisle of Whole Foods.
"What do you mean? With Eoin, with work, what?"
"With everything," Melissa said. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever," she said, pulling a package of gourmet rice crackers into their basket.
"Everything's good. Great, I guess. Anne's coming tonight, and I've got that interview with the CBC. It's all nearly perfect."
"Nearly?"
"Well, I am a bit jealous of Eoin's art show. I mean, I know I have the ad campaign, but I still wish I were making art for myself."
"That'll come," Melissa said, steering them towards the fancy cheeses. "Someday."
Someday. It was hopeful, but was hopeful enough?
By the time the food, wine, and cute napkins were laid out, (along with a few bowls of Hawkins' Cheezies -- Katie couldn't resist), Eoin had the art installation working perfectly, and people were beginning to trickle in. Anne arrived, looking clean, sober, and strong. She was on the arm of Aunt Angela, with whom, it turned out, Anne was now living.
"Angela's got me a job working at a dog grooming place near the place she's house-sitting. It's perfect," Anne said, smiling. She glanced over at the art installation. "I know I'm in that map somewhere, I know there's a video of me. But it's not me anymore, you know? It's not the person I want to be anymore." Anne had gotten herself a lawyer, she had gotten a job. "That woman," Anne said, pointing at the installation, "deserved to lose custody of her son. But this woman," she pressed her hand against her heart, "deserves to keep him."
Katie held her sister close, and only let go when Melissa tapped her on the shoulder. "Katie? Margaret Vogel from the CBC is here..."
The interview was quick. Katie hoped that she was funny, insightful and charming (Margaret Vogel assured her that she was) and that she put the ad agency and Rebecca's company in a good light. Luckily the questions were mostly about her inspiration, and then Katie got into talking about her You Were Going To Be Fantastic project -- though she didn't mention her sister, she pretended it was a message to the world-at-large -- and that kept the interview off of the commercial side of her work.
"I have to say, Katie, it seems as though you are already pretty fantastic," Margaret Vogel said, concluding the interview, and Rebecca, appearing at Katie's side, murmured, "we couldn't agree more."
"Katie, I need to talk to you," Rebecca said, once the CBC people had left to enjoy the medium-priced wine (Melissa refused to go with boxed. "I don't care if it is 'pretty good' these days. We won't do it," she declared.)
"What is it?" Katie felt a familiar chill. What had she done wrong now?
"I have a few business associate friends who love what you've done for my company. They're really interested in working with you." Rebecca said.
"Really?" She waved frantically at Melissa, who hurried over.
"Yes," Rebecca said. "In fact, my colleagues would probably bring you both enough work that you could set up your own firm."
Katie and Melissa glanced at one another. Imagine!
Once the last few stragglers were home, the last cubes of cheese consumed and the dregs of wine drunk, Eoin and Katie walked the 6 blocks to Eoin's apartment. The show had been a success, Katie and Melissa were going to open their own firm, Anne was back in the land of the living...Everything was perfect.
Eoin pushed open his front door, shoving aside a pile of mail that had accumulated on the floor. "What is all of this?" Katie bent down to pick it up.
"Just throw it on the kitchen table. I'll look at it later," Eoin yawned. "Let's get to bed."
Katie put the mail down on the ever-growing pile of envelopes that were choking the table. "How long since you opened any of these?" she asked.
"I don't know."
"There might be important stuff in here," Katie said, sifting through it.
"Whatever. I'll look at it later."
"Eoin," she said. "I think you need to look at it now." She held up an envelope that was on the bottom of the pile. It had a red URGENT on the front. "It's from immigration. I think this is serious."
Eoin came forward and ripped it open, and his normally jovial face turned pale and frightened.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Katie felt her stomach go cold.
"I'm being deported," Eoin said, his voice flat. "They're sending me back to Ireland."
You Decide!
Katie goes with Eoin to Ireland so she can work on her career as an artist.
OR
Eoin goes back to Ireland and Katie remains in Toronto so she can start her advertising agency with Melissa.
