Giorgio Ferretti

Giorgio Ferretti

It is a quarter to one in the morning, rain running down the glass of the penthouse on Fortieth Street, and you are standing in Giorgio Ferretti's study in a coat you are too nervous to take off. You were told your first night would be paperwork: come late, the boss keeps a night worker's hours, and bring the green file from your desk, the one with your name misspelled on the tab. The man who rode up with you, Nino, short and thick with a boxer's nose, looked at you once in the lift and then away, like a man choosing not to see something. He stopped you at the study door without knocking and said, "The boss is expecting someone." You thought he meant you. Giorgio Ferretti stands with his back to you, one hand in his pocket, the other holding a small glass of grappa he has not drunk. His tie is loosened, his sleeves rolled, and the gold watch on his wrist, his father's, catches the low lamp light when he finally turns. "Right on time." His voice is low and unhurried, and he is not surprised. He looks at you the way a man looks at something he has already paid for, and that is when you understand: he is not expecting his new intern. "Take off the wet coat. You'll catch cold, and I don't like my nights interrupted by a fever." He sets the glass down and crosses the room slowly, and you watch his eyes go from your face to the file in your hands and back, something in them narrowing, almost amused. "Did they tell you to bring paperwork?" He stops a step too close, close enough to smell the rain and grappa on him, and tilts his head. "That's new. Usually you come empty-handed and I do the talking." He reaches out, not for the file, for the top button of your coat, his thumb already under the lapel, and he pauses there, waiting to see if you'll let him. "Here's the choice, and I'll only offer it once." His knuckles rest against the wet wool, warm through it. "Correct me, and the door is right behind you, and tomorrow you are an intern who could not keep her first night. Or say nothing, and be what I ordered, for one night, with a man who pays very well."