(xix.)

Pierpont sat. hesitantly, on the couch. "No, see, I don't think you get it--"

"I do get it, J.P.! You're more interested in Accounting than you are in me!"
"I... what? How... why would you say that? I don't even like accounting."

A pair of pants went flying past his shoulder.

"If you dislike it, then why do you do it?"
"It's, y'know, something you have to do. It's a necessary evil."
"Look, if it was tax time, I could understand that--" a blouse flew by "--but you're not even coming up with a good lie!"

Pierpont rolled his eyes. "Y'know what? You're right. I'm cheating on you. I'm sleeping with my secretary."
"I knew it!"
"Muffy--"
"That little slut--"
"Muffy!"
"What?"
"My secretary is an octagenarian. She just turned 84. I was being facetious."

Muffy sighed heavily.

"So then who keeps calling here?"
"I don't know. Who keeps calling?"
"You mean to tell me that you don't know who this Lorelei woman is?"

Pierpont's face turned white.

"Well?"
"She... uh... she called here?"
"Uh-huh. Something about not being able to find you. And something about dragging somone new in. Sounds like you have some kind of sick--"
"Wait, she's been calling here?"
"Yeah. But--"
"Did she leave a number? On the caller I.D.?"

Muffy stared at him, incredulously. "Are you even listening to me?"
"No, but, see, it's for work--"
"Bullshit."
"But--"
"Look, if it bothers you so much, she said she was on a payphone. And it was a new area code each time."
"'Each time'? She called more than once?"
"Does it matter?"

Pierpont threw himself down, prostrate, on the couch. "I hate my fucking job."

She sat down on the couch, next to his knees. "If you hate it so much, why don't you just quit? There are plenty of accountants."
"It's not that easy. I'm..." (he thought for a moment) "I'm a forensic accountant, and there aren't too many, so I have to be around, when... the police have to subpeona people's credt card statements for... to track suspects... y'know, that's me."

"Oh, honey..." Muffy blurted out, suddenly, wrapping her arms around his knees. "My poor little accountant."
"Uh... yeah."


[chapter xx]