The Original Sinners: The Red Years
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“What is?”
Nora opened the bottom drawer of her desk and brought out two shot glasses and placed them next to the bottle.
“How much Catholics and Scousers have in common.”
Zach stared at her across her desk and suddenly found himself doing something he hadn’t done in a very long time—he laughed loudly and freely and it felt so foreign and wonderful that if he’d been braver, he might have kissed Nora right then and there.
Standing, Zach reached for the bottle. But Nora beat him to it. She held it in her hand and gave him the most dangerous smile he’d ever seen.
“Zach…let’s play a game.”
It took five minutes before Zach regretted coming to Nora’s.
“Truth or drink?” Zach asked as he shed his coat. “You will recall I’m in my forties.”
“There’s no age limit on alcohol-induced stupidity,” Nora countered. “And this is an easy game. I ask a question and either you answer it or you take a shot. Same rules for me. Whoever gets the drunkest loses, or wins, depending on your mood.”
“This game is hardly fair. You are far more forthcoming than any other person I’ve ever met.” Zach tossed his coat over the back of Nora’s armchair.
Nora leaned forward across her desk.
“Trust me, Easton. You’ve got secrets you want to keep. I’ve got secrets I have to keep. I think we’re pretty evenly matched here.”
“Is that so?” he asked, his curiosity piqued. “Let’s find out then.”
“Game on,” Nora said. “You go first.”
Zach knew his first question immediately. “I’ll ask you the question you didn’t answer today—who is, excuse me, was Ellie?”
“Ellie was me once upon a time. My mother and friends always called me Elle or Ellie. Soren, being rather formal, calls me Eleanor. I was born Eleanor Schreiber.”
“A German Catholic then. This poor Jew is even more intimidated. So Nora Sutherlin is your pen name?”
“It’s the name I work under, yes,” she said, and Zach thought he saw a shadow of one of her secrets cross her face. “But that’s two questions. My turn—why did your wife leave you? Or was it you who left her?”
Zach leaned forward, poured his whiskey and took a shot. He swallowed a cough as the liquor burned his throat and stomach all the way down. He hadn’t done any hard drinking in a long time. He was afraid if he started he would never stop. Here with Nora he still felt as if he was at a funeral but now at least it was a jazz funeral.
“Fair enough,” Nora said. “Your turn.”
“On the subject of our respective exes, why did you leave your mysterious and formal Soren?”
Nora seemed to think about it. She reached forward, poured her shot and downed it.
“Soren’s off-limits,” she said. “More for his sake than mine. My turn to ask—are you going to sign my contract?”
“Honest answer, I don’t know.” Zach worried Nora would be hurt by his reticence. “It’s going well, better than I’d hoped. But there’s still a great deal of work to do on it. And I never know if I like a book until I’ve read the last page. The ending makes or breaks every book. I hope that doesn’t upset you.”
“Water off a drunk’s back.” Nora raised her shot glass to him in a salute. “Your turn.”
“Why is Soren such a secret?”
Nora smirked at him and downed her whiskey without the hint of a cough or discomfort.
“You’re trying to get me drunk. I appreciate that. I will tell you this—I highly doubt Soren is a secret for the same reason your wife, ex-wife, whatever, is.”
“Who is also off-limits.”
“Let’s forget wives then. How about lovers? Ever had a threesome?”
“There’s no warm-up here, is it? It’s just straight for the jugular.”
“I’m known for my directness, gorgeous. Answer or drink.”
“The answer,” Zach said, “is that I’m going to drink.”
Nora hooted with laughter.
“I’ll take that as a yes then,” she said as Zach swallowed hard and set his shot glass down with an emphatic clink.
“It is a yes, but I wanted the whiskey anyway.”
“My kind of guy. Who, what, where, when, and can you draw me a picture?”
Zach leaned back in the armchair and felt the heat from the drink and the memory quickly rushing to his head.
“I will admit I barely remember the evening. It was when I was at university, as a student not a professor, and I was at a birthday party. I believe there was some Irish whiskey involved in that night, as well. I was seeing a young lady, and her rather liberated flatmate decided to join us in bed after the party. Lovely girls, both of them. One’s married to an M.P. now.”
“I’m jealous,” she said. She left her chair and crawled up onto her desk and sat on top of it cross-legged. “I’ve never had a threesome with two other women. All of mine have been with one man and one woman. Or two men.” She looked down at him and winked.
“Can’t believe there’s anything you haven’t done. Is there anything else?”
“One or two things. Keep asking, you might find out what they are.”
Zach knew she expected a question about her sex life. He decided to try a different approach.
“Apart from the occasional heroic rescue you don’t really seem to need the services of a live-in personal assistant. Why did you ask Wesley to move in?”
Nora blinked and reached for her shot. Her hand pulled back and she met Zach’s eyes.
“Wesley… That kid blew my mind from day one. He was so damn sweet. I’m not around sweet people very often. When I had him in class I found myself doing something I hadn’t done in a long time.”
“What was that?”
“Smiling. I’d been working so much, living a pretty hard life. Wes was the opposite of me in so many ways—soft where I was hard. Probably hard where I’m soft, too.” She laughed again. “He made me feel human again…like the kind of person who could stay up too late watching stupid movies and talking. I’d forgotten how to be normal, or maybe I never knew how. My life got weird at a pretty young age and it’s been weird ever since. But Wes came along and suddenly I had another reason to get out of bed in the morning besides money.”