Ch.15, Pt.7: Katherine was the first one to work that morning.
Katherine was the first one to work that morning. She picked up her messages from Janine’s desk, sat down at her own and checked her schedule for the day: the weekly story meeting and then interviews until lunch. In the afternoon, a meeting with Blaine and then the rest of the day to prepare for future interviews. A routine day, nothing special.
Janine came into the office, giving her routine “How was your weekend?” and Katherine replied with her automatic “Good.” Then she looked up from her papers and added “Great, actually. I did some gardening.”
“You know, I’d love a garden one day,” said Janine, rapidly pushing buttons at her computer terminal, turning on her desk light, and pulling out her chair. “Maybe once we get a house.” Picking up the phone, she began keying in code numbers to check for messages.
Where was Lawrence? thought Katherine glancing at her watch. Quarter past 9:00. It wasn’t like him to be late. She hoped he wasn’t sick or something. She continued reviewing her interview notes.
“Sorry I’m late,” came his voice as he breezed in and took a chair close to the door. Katherine smiled and tried to catch his eye, but he was studying the show schedule board.
Katherine started the story meeting, but Janine seemed to be the only one participating as usual. Katherine had the strangest feeling that Lawrence was avoiding looking at her. Whenever she asked him a question, he seemed to keep his eyes on the floor or on his clipboard.
“How about a segment on iridology?” Janine was saying eagerly. “I’ve started this program because I have some green in my eyes, and I’m trying to eliminate the toxicity in my body.”
“Didn’t we already do something on iridology? Do you remember, Lawrence?” asked Katherine.
“Sorry, I don’t follow you,” he said to Janine. “Could you explain that?”
Janine took a deep breath. “Right. Okay, so I met this guy at a booth in the mall, right? And he’s an iridologist? And he looked at my eyes and because they’ve got some green in them, that shows some toxicity, okay? So I’m on this program to eliminate the toxins from my diet. I thought we could do a segment on this.”
Lawrence was silent a moment, blinking at Janine. “Well, it’s fine with me if you want to do it, Katherine.”
“What colour are your eyes, Lawrence?” Katherine found herself asking. “I’ve never noticed.”
“Standard brown,” he replied. “Nothing special.”
“Let me see!” Katherine approached him and brought her face close to his. Lawrence looked uncomfortable, and shifted his gaze to the side. “Nice dark brown eyes,” she said, disappointed that he hadn’t taken the opportunity she had given him to exchange a special glance.
“Solid brown eyes are a sign of health,” offered Janine. “It’s the green in eyes that are a symptom of trouble.”
“Really. I’d like to know more about that,” said Lawrence getting up and moving to Janine’s desk. “Have you got any information I could look at?”
“Lawrence, why don’t you look at it and give me your recommendation,” said Katherine. Maybe he didn’t want to be demonstrative at work. Best to keep things professional.
Ch.15, Pt.8: The meeting with Blaine that afternoon was far from routine. » »
Ooh, big brown eyes — the first thing I noticed about the special guy who is now my husband.
Sounds like Katherine is barking up the wrong tree with Lawrence…