Kiss the Girl (28 page)

“Pleased to meet you,” Wanda said absently, then frowned at her computer.  “What?  What internal error?  Oh no you didn’t.”  She
smacked the monitor with the heel of her hand
. 
It whirred sadly and brought up the correct screen. 
“
Yeah, that’s what I thought,” she said.  “There’s more where that came from, too.”

Karl looked up from his
cell phone
and paused, momentarily arrested by the sight
that was Wanda
.  “Right,” he said. “I’ll be careful.”
  

Nixie smiled and led Karl
back in
to
a
treatment room.  “
The clinic
provide
s
all your
b
asic medical
services bu
t
most of its patients present with
diseases related to poverty.  Obesity, substance abuse,
diabetes, asthma.”

She waved an arm toward the nebulizer station.  “
These machines mix
asthma medication
with oxygen
and the kids breath
e
it in.  They’re not expensive but
most of our families
could never afford one of their own
.”

“
Mmmm
hmmmm
.” 
Karl
didn’t look up from his
phone
.
  For all Nixie knew he was making a grocery list.  He
finally slipped it into his pocket
, and
cast his eyes around the cramped room
. 
Nixie was suddenly conscious of how clean and
spacious it looked
compared to
some of the hospitals they’d seen outside the U.S
.
  Hell, compared to the ones they’d
built
outside the U. S.
 

“I know it
’s
not our usual thing
,” she said.  “I mean, nobody’s going to turn up here with a machete injury or anything, but
--”

Karl cut her off.  “Why are we here, Nixie? 
With your bank balance you could’ve had a nebulizer in every house on the block last week
.”

“So I could
be
on a plane to
Bumani
by tonight?” 

Karl didn’t answer, just gave her a doleful look over the rims of his glasses. 

“I don’t want to buy them more nebulizers, Karl.  I want to fund a full-time pediatrics position for somebody who specializes in asthma.”

Karl shook his head
.
“I had a feeling you’d say something like that.”  He
consulted his
phone
again
.  “I put together a list of potential invitees last night.  I’ll just
--”

Nixie cut him off this time.  “Invitees?  To what?”

“
To the fund raiser.
”  Karl peered
at his tiny computer
.  “I assume we’ll be hosting one on site within the week.”

“
No.”

Karl blinked and finally focused on her.  “No?”

“Nope.”  Nixie gave him a sunny smile.  “I’ve been thinking about this, and I’ve decided on a two-pronged approach.”

Karl’s mouth
tightened into a skeptical line inside his beard.  “A two-pronged approach.”

“We do a photo op first,” Nixie said. 
“
S
omething small and exclusive
to generate interest. 
Then we’ll
follow it up in a week or two with a gala
.  O
ff site
, though
.  I’m thinking down town, black tie.  Something pretty for the social climbers, lots of press.”

Karl frowned.  “That’s going to take time and
planning,
not to mention connections. 
The s
ocial climbers
you have in mind
don’t turn out for any old cause.”

“We have connections,” Nixie said.  “We’ve been making them for years.  Let’s use them.”

“
I don’t mind that so much as the time.  Come on, Nixie. 
Bumani
isn’t going to wait forever.”

“I already told you,” Nixie said.  “I’m not going to
Bumani
.”

Karl’s brows
came together in a
disapproving line
.  “Tell me you’re not in love with the doctor.”

Nixie threw up her hands. “How many times am I going to have to tell you before you believe me?”

“I don’t know,” he said.  “Maybe when you start the sentence with
I’ve come to my senses and am packing for
Bumani
because
...”

Nixie glared at him.  “I’m not going to
Bumani
.”

There was a rap on the door frame.  Nixie turned to find Erik and Mary Jane watching her, Erik’s hand in the small of Mary Jane’s back.  A tiny sliver of hurt wedged itself into her heart.  Was there something about kissing her that sent men scuttling into the arms of other women?  She supposed she should be grateful he hadn’t turned to her mother.   

“Hey, Nixie,” Mary Jane said.  “Or should I say Madame Director of Outreach.”

Nixie shot Erik
a look that said
tattletale
.  Erik shrugged
and
Mary Jane steppe
d away from his hand.  Nixie couldn’t help but notice how
much more comfortable
she seemed with her personal space back
.

“Erik,” Nixie said with a saccharine smile.  “What are you doing here?”

“I have a date with Mary Jane,” he said
. 

Karl sent Nixie a meaningful look.  Nixie ignored him
.  She t
urned to Mary Jane
and said, “
How nice.”

“We’re just grabbing a cup of coffee,” Mary Jane said. 
Her face brightened. 
“Hey, you coul
d join us!  Do you have time?”

“Um, no, sorry,” Nixie said, unaccountably cheerful all of a sudden.  “Karl and I are hashing out plans to raise your clinic
that
boatload of money
I promised you
.”

“Oh.”  A clear internal battle played out on Mary Jane’s face
--
mo
ney for the clinic or company for
her date?  She sighed.
  “I gu
ess you need to keep focus, huh?
”

“Yeah.”  Nixie smirked at Erik.  “Sorry.”

“Should we stay here?” she asked
Karl with wide-eyed appeal.
  “In case you need us?”

“Ah, no.”  Karl gave her
a warm smile.  “The beneficiary’
s job is usually quite simple.  You’ll just need to show up in a ball gown and chat up the reporters all night.  Nixie and I will take care of the rest.”

Mary Jane blanched and she turned to Nixie.  “Reporters?”

A trickle of alarm snaked into Nixie’s stomach
.  “Um, yeah.  We need all the coverage we can get if we want to make the gala profitable.
  Is that a problem?
”

Mary Jane turned accusing
eyes on Erik.  “Gala?  Nobody said anything about a gala
.
”

Erik looked at Nixie and said, “She’s a little camera shy.”

“How camera shy, exactly?”

Erik lifted a shoulder.  Mary Jane said, “I would rather
gouge out my own eyes
than
walk a red carpet.  Even if Brad Pitt and George Clooney were both standing at the other end waiting for me.”

“Oh,” Nixie said faintly.  “So no gala?”

“Please
God
no.”

Erik watched Nixie’s advisor pat Mary Jane’s hand with one big paw. 
“Not what you bargained for when you hired a Director of Outreach?”
he asked, a kind twinkle in those
pale
eyes.  Erik didn’t trust it for a second. 

“I never...” Mary Jane said, then stopped.  She was no dummy.  She
saw exactly what he saw
--
that K
arl had never
b
elieved Nixie was anybody’s Director of Outreach.  He’d never thought he was really going to have to shill for childhood asthma.  He’d been waiting patiently for Nixie’s lie to bite her on the ass so he could shame her into comin
g back to Team Save The
World.

Mary Jane cleared her throat.  “I never expected a gala.  That’s all.”  She smiled weakly at Nixie.  “Boy.  We’re getting our money’s worth, huh?”

“I can scale back,” Nixie said, glancing at her advisor whose smile had gone from kindly to smug.  “It’ll mean less money, of course, but if you’re not happy with the plans as they stand
--”

A sudden surge of anger caught Erik by the throat.  “Not happy?” he heard himself say.  “Of course she’s happy. 
You’re going to keep us afloat for another year
, maybe even
allow us to
hire
that dedicated pediatrics person
we’ve been talking about.  Why wouldn’t she be happy?
” 

Mary Jane
nodded reluctantly
.  “I
do
want a dedicated pediatric
s person, and I’m thrilled
you might be able to get me one.  Even if it’s just for the winter.  Flu season is a killer for kids with asthma.” 

“But you just said...”  Nixie trailed off and frowned.

“Listen, Nixie, here’s the deal.  I don’t like crowds, I don’t like media types and I hate
parties
of all kinds.”  She grimaced.  “Small talk. 
Eeeesh
.  It’s like the ninth circle of hell.”

“Um, okay.  But in order to pull this off, we kind of need crowds.  And media types.  And it’s pretty traditional to cap off the campaign with, you know, a fundraiser. 
A gala. 
Black tie
.
  Red carpet.  Speeches and interviews.  The works.
”