Working Titles

Nigel had been none too pleased with Lucie’s being on the conference call.  What he saw was a serious growing discomfort on the part of Angelo, especially after Ludwig’s glare.  And now, as Lucie introduced her report, Angelo finally broke free of Sophie and left the room.  But Nigel connected all these happenings to Lucie’s merely being there.  After all, Angelo had left at the start of Lucie’s report and in a little fit of spleen.  He sent a text from his phone on his knee hidden by the table.  Both John’s and Oleg’s phones were attached to their laptops in such a way that received text appeared on their screens, and they could also send text using  something closer to a real keyboard.

“Shut the bitch up,” appeared simultaneously on two laptops.  The change caught the eyes of Oleg and John.  John upon reading it, Lucie standing next to him as she presented her conclusion, thinking to go into other parts of the report only on request, he reached up to place his hand gently on Lucie’s arm just above the elbow.  Without stopping, Lucie looked to John and then read on his screen what John wished he had already flushed.  She’d not at first noted the name credited for the text, so at the moment she didn’t know where it came from.