The room is alive. Lucy sees a crowd of people, big wigs, around Fryer, or Vincent Duke, now. They are shaking his hand and laughing and backslapping. Old buddy kind of stuff, or, more like the ball team congratulating the winning pitcher after the last out. It has been a while since she went to a baseball game. Right James? It's time we went to a game again.
Soon, babe.
Vincent Duke tries to look up occasionally, over the crowd that surrounds him. It is like they're all trying to get a piece of him, and all he is concerned about is looking around the room, like he is looking for someone.
It isn't Angelo. They are avoiding each other's gaze. Angelo has a man with him and they are each talking on their phones, with the occasional hand over the phone interruption as one asks the other a quick question. There are a lot of wait-a-minute and not-now gestures between the two of them. Looks like some heavy duty scrambling is going on.
Isabella is talking to the woman dressed in the school-girl outfit, Mariana Frederick. She looks like a pretty together chick, considering that she just sauntered in here, in full costume, and dropped the bombshell that totally destroyed Angelo. Not the person you want to have as your enemy. It looks like she knows Isabella though, and Lucy makes her way towards them.
"You okay, kid?" Lucy asks.
Isabella sounds shaken. "Ya. Thanks Lucy, for helping me out."
"Helping you out? I think I am the one who got you into this mess."
She turns to Mariana. "Hi, I am Lucy."
"I am pleased to meet you, Lucy." Her voice is pleasant, yet the phrasing is business-like. "What do you say the three of us girls dash out of here for a bit. Let the boys figure out how they are going to spin this one. I'll have my car brought around to the front."
Tucked into a nondescript mall, the Indian restaurant is casual, yet a step up from the usual East Indian lunch spot, crowded and noisy. Lucy has never been in this place before and is impressed that Mariana knew of a spot where they could actually talk. They are sitting in a booth, menus closed, ice water, ice tea and a cosmopolitain on the table.
During the drive here, Lucy wanted to get some answers. She tried, a number of times, to ask Mariana about Vincent Duke. Did she know about the imposter? Did she know the real Vincent Duke? Does she think Lucy might have screwed herself by shooting her mouth off, trying to be the smart ass. Again.
But she didn't get any answers. There was the sense that all will be revealed in due course, and Lucy is hoping that will happen now, here at lunch.
Isabella has been quiet. She hasn't said a word, actually. It is like she is in a daze or something, the way she just stared out of the car window, and now, at their table, she is just looking ahead at the padded back of the booth seat in front of her, or pushing down the ice cube in her glass of water, trying to keep it submerged, but, each time Isabella takes away the spoon, it floats back up to the surface.
"Are you alright?" Mariana asks Isabella first.
"Yes. Thanks. It all has been quite a blow, that is all."
Lucy knows that Isabella hasn't revealed much about what happened to her when she went away. She said something about a fling with a married man, but Isabella clearly had not wanted to talk about it.
Isabella finally asks, "Did you know that Fryer is actually Vincent Duke, Mariana?"
"Yes. Vincent and I have known each other, through business, for a long time."
"Did he put you up to the bed trick then?"
"I wouldn't say 'put me up' as much as I would say, showed me the opportunity. I never felt the need to get back at Angelo. I was over it and wasn't going to let that prick hold me back from moving on with my life."
"Then why would you do it?" Lucy asks.
"I felt it could be, let's call it, a learning opportunity for him, more than revenge for me. Sure, he certainly threw my life into a bit of a tailspin when he broke off our marriage, but also I see it that in doing so, he showed me the kind of man he is. Thank goodness I didn't end up married to that."
"But now you are, married to him."
"Oh ya, I guess I am! Well, let's see how long it takes his lawyers to wiggle out of that little problem—and I am sure they will—but it is just another mess he needs to deal with. Guys like Angelo hate not being in control, and having someone else direct your course of action, in this case getting out of a marriage, will totally piss him off. That move was just Vincent showing a little dramatic flair. He has a bit of a warped sense of humor."
Lucy chuckles to herself. No revenge? Give me a break. Mariana is loving this.
Isabella speaks, softly. "Were you and Vincent ever, you know, a couple?"
"No, dear, we never were. Actually, he keeps his private life private from me too. We had business dealings, mainly."
"Do you know if he is married?"
"Hell, no, he definitely has never been married. I do know that much about him. He has been far too busy with his businesses to be in any type of long term relationship. Very single, very private."
Isabella's mouth turns upward in a slight grin and she looks to her left, at the wall.
Mariana continues. "Vincent has been helping me a lot lately with my new project, a new company actually. Not financially as he doesn't want to invest in my latest startup, but by helping me put together the right team, helping me access capital, those kind of things. I have gotten to know him a lot better. He is a pretty amazing man."
Isabella continues to look away, deep in her own thoughts.
But Lucy wonders, why is it that Fryer-Duke would get involved in this mess with Isabella and Angelo in the first place? And, as if a CEO would work the floor of his company in disguise. What is this, reality TV? There must be more to it. So she asks.
"I'm sorry Mariana. This all sounds way too far-fetched. Is there more to this?"
"Of course there is Lucy. There are all kinds of boardroom politics going on. You see, there are those who want to take Alpha in a different direction, those who see Vincent as the one standing in the way of progress. There is a lot of money at stake for a lot of people here, so the influence is pretty thick. Vincent is fighting to regain control of his company."
"And Angelo would be one of those, taking Alpha in this new direction?"
"Angelo is a money guy—Wall Street. He is not a techie, and certainly not a visionary. He is here as part of Silicon Valley 2.0."
"You've lost me," Lucy says.
"Back in the day, in Casper Duke's day, the Valley was the frontier of innovation. The brightest minds came here to the wild west, this lawless world where maverick pioneers could be free, away from the constraints of the East Coast money establishment. But the money found us, and so did the rest of the world. Look around this restaurant: how many white Americans do you see? Not many, right? Well, this room is representative of the tech world. It is obvious that the American system is not producing the minds and the workers that can compete with the drive and ambition of those from India, or China, or, say, the Arab World. That is where innovation is going, back to the countries that are willing and able to do the work. We hire the best in the world, but the best are not from Buffalo—no offence Isabella."
Isabella smiles back, then returns her gaze to her water glass.
Mariana continues: "After their apprenticeship here is done, we see their start-ups in Mumbai, or wherever. The workers today are here in the Valley to follow the money, from one company to the next, no loyalty, just looking for the contacts and the ideas that they can take back to their home. Face it, America can no longer compete in the innovation game."
"So, Silicon Valley 2.0 is American Capitalism doing what it is designed to do: make money, not necessarily make product. They, or I should say we, are bankers, lenders, traders. Look at Alpha: its profit comes from its equity holdings, not from any goods produced. We live off of market valuation, while we trade and repackage someone else's ideas in the form of IPOs."
Lucy thinks about what Mariana is saying and finds herself agreeing. She is like that, actually. Not the brilliant tech mind, nor the money trader, but the no-loyalty part. At one time, she bought into the whole Valley scene, the Alpha campus, the complementary massages at work, the free cafeteria, all those things that are supposed to keep the minds engaged, happy and productive. Now, she sees through all that. It is just a job. If they were making something tangible perhaps, or producing something that does good in the world, maybe then she could rally behind the vision of the company. But, what does Alpha produce? They make money for investors. They own a bunch of companies and trade them as though they were major league owners trading baseball players. It is hard to go to battle for a green up arrow on the BNN stock ticker."
"So, I want to play a different game. A woman's game."
Mariana looks at the two of them, waiting for the questions. Lucy looks at Isabella, to see if she understands what Mariana is talking about. Isabella stares into her ice cubes.
"Think about it," Mariana continues, "the American corporate culture, the world's corporate culture, is a man's game. And by that, I don't mean that it is run by men. In this day, one would hope that it is run by the individuals best equipped to run it, regardless of gender. But men are, generally, better equipped to play the game of business. They, after all, invented the sport. The strong, the type-A, the ruthless, the cunning, the competitive, those traits are inherently male traits."
"Hey, I can be pretty cunning myself," Lucy says.
"Sure Lucy, we all are able pull out the tricks when we need to and we play the role we are assigned, but, genetically, I think women are predisposed to value different things: resolution, not confrontation; forgiveness, not punishment; creating life, not destroying it, to give, not to take."
"Love."
Both women look at Isabella, who finally spoke.
"Yes, Isabella, this is love."
These words hit Lucy hard. She feels a sting begin in her eyes as she thinks of James, somewhere else, away, alone. All that matters to her right now is to be with the person she knows she was meant to be with. Love. That is it. That is all she wants. She wants to share her life with James, she wants to be a mother, if she still can, or they can adopt, she wants to love her children. She wants to give.
There is a quiet pause as the noises from the restaurant refill their space. Dishes are clanging and people are talking. The smell of spice. Things are sinking in.
Isabella looks at Mariana. "What does this have to do with William, I mean, Mr. Duke? Why would he be working in Human Resources?"
Lucy waits for Mariana's revelation, thinking, don't we all wish we could get a glimpse inside his head?
"I can't figure out Vincent either, but I know that he doesn't fit the mould of the type-A corporate shark. He and I agree about these things I am talking about, and he was, I believe, getting a worm's-eye view of his company, seeing who we can trust, perhaps."
Lucy feels the fire of anxiety in her gut. "As I said before, Vincent has been helping me with my new direction. I am putting together a team to play a different kind of game. Let's call Vincent the scout."
"What game are you talking about?"
"A woman's game. Look, the way it is now, you succeed either by being competitive, or through innovation, by coming up with something where there is no competition, at least for the time being. As I said, we—America—are not winning the innovation game any longer, and when we do, the knock-off nations produce it cheaper. And the competition, well, that is the man's game. I envision a company that does things to make the world a better place, to build the world that we want our children to live in."
"The feminist's must hate you Mariana."
"Lucy, first, do I look like I really care? Second, I totally disagree. Is the instinct to build a nest not one of the most primal and basic feminine characteristics? To strive for a world based on love? To structure a company based on maternal principals? This is pure feminism."
"And what will you produce?"
"Oh, we have some ideas that we are working on, but it isn't the product that matters, as much as the process. Put together the right team, and the rest will fall together. Trust me, I have a track record that proves that works. The ideas will come, the creative energy will flow, and great things will happen. It is about building a family."
Women things.