Saturday, May 17, 2008
I've settled on a program of crying to Barry, waiting for Randy and avoiding Matt. But things don't go quite as planned ...
Jan 31, 2000 | Jan. 31, 2000
Thursday morning
Late yesterday afternoon, I showed up at Barry's office -- without my usual scarf and glasses. "You look unwell," he said, frowning. "I miss your disguise. How did it go with your boyfriend? Did he buy your story?" I nodded mutely. "What's wrong? What did you tell him?"
"Oh, it's ... it's too crazy to repeat, Barry. But I got so carried away with my story that I broke up with him."
"Breaking up with him was part of the story?" He looked intrigued.
"I was just so afraid. I thought, how much longer can I lie to him? So, I sent him off with one big lie. I got him to insult me and then I broke up with him. I keep hearing that song: Is that all there is? Is that all there is?"
Barry pushed a section of the Times across his desk, pointing to a headline: "U.S. Treasury Agent Denies Allegations of Sexual Harassment and Corruption."
"April's suing Tom Winters!" he said. "How about that? While she's making headlines, you're brooding over your boyfriend. The entire city could be under siege and you'd be asking yourself, 'Should I break up with him?'" He chuckled softly, ignoring the forlorn look on my face. "Winters taught her how to wear a wire, but he was too vain to realize that she wouldn't hesitate to tape him. What was he thinking?"
I listened as Barry read from the Times story: "'Phone calls to the office of the IRS agent went unanswered yesterday .... Ms. Ford alleges that Winters accepted cash bribes from two women, agreeing to split the monies with her. He reneged on his agreement, telling her, 'Just try it and see if anyone will believe you,' she says."
Barry brought out a copy of the Post, which was less restrained: "April Ford, the former e-Babez escort now writing her memoir has dropped her lawsuit against Anabel Weston, the Web site madam who -- Ford once alleged -- 'turned her out' by seducing her into a lesbian partnership. The National Enquirer cover girl is suing U.S. Treasury agent Thomas Winters for a much cooler $10 million .... 'Tom Winters put pressure on me to turn tricks so I could obtain evidence for him ... he persuaded at least two of my contacts to deliver cash in shopping bags. In return, the girls were left alone.'
"Ford's sexual harassment allegations -- she maintains that Winters agreed to hand over her share of the money only if she would consent to have sex with him -- were refuted by the IRS agent's mother. 'My son is not interested in women,' she told reporters. 'He runs a chapter of a gay civil servants support group and there is just no way Miss Ford would attract him.' But April Ford says she was trafficked by Tom Winters over a period of nine dark, lonely, esteem-destroying months.'"
"Well," I said, after a stunned moment of silence. "I guess that's why she left Lucia in the dust. She came back here to work the local press."
"One of the girls April informed on is being represented by a guy I went to law school with," Barry added. "Eileen got a visit from the FBI -- relax, they're investigating Tom's little extortion racket, not Eileen. Tom Winters is not going to have much time for your boyfriend. April probably overshot when she accused him of trying to have sex with her. But the stuff about money -- that's all true. Winters is busy dealing with the FBI and with these tapes that April made of their last two meetings."
"But the FBI? What if they call Matt? What if Matt reads about this? He could still find out."
"Unlikely. Winters never met him in person. And even if he sees Winters in the paper -- hello? You were being targeted by an obsessed, corrupt kook. That's not only true, it happens to be your story. A happy coincidence -- if you decide to make up with him, that is." He gave me a sly smile. "Come on, you can make up with him, can't you? Why are you crying? This is great news!"
"I don't know," I blubbered. "I think I'm in love with one of my clients and I just had this mind-blowing weekend with Randy and he hasn't called me and I didn't realize how much I cared for Matt until last night, when he looked at me like --" I burst into fresh tears which Barry attempted to calm with a handkerchief. "I don't know what or who I want anymore and you're -- you're --"
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