The three of them walked out of the dining room in silence. And when Meredith introduced him a little while later at the presentation, she thought that the CFO was slightly mollified and a little better behaved, but she could tell that Callan still didn't think so. He was raging about him after the potential investors left, and he and Meredith were alone for a few minutes before the next one.

“Who the hell does he think he is, talking to you like that?” He was more upset about what the CFO had said to Meredith than about the insults he had flung at Callan.

“He's just a crusty old man resisting change, Cal. And there isn't a hell of a lot you can do about it. You can try to win him over, and I know you have. But if he remains unconvinced, you'll have to decide what you want to do after the road show. But this isn't the time to rock the boat. We have to make a great showing in New York, and we still have to get through a week in Europe.”

“I know that,” Callan said, still looking angry. He felt as though his hands were tied, and Charlie McIntosh knew that.

They got through their second presentation over lunch, and the three of them flew to New York together that afternoon, and Charlie McIntosh said very little to either of them. Meredith couldn't help wondering if he was sorry about what he'd said, and was just too embarrassed to admit it. But he never apologized to her, and Callan was barely speaking to him by the time they got to New York at six o'clock. Callan was so angry at him by then, that she almost felt sorry for the CFO and the situation he'd created. He had gotten himself way out on a limb, and Meredith had the feeling that Callan was about to saw the branch off.

She had hired a limousine to pick them up, and she rode with them to their hotel. They were staying at the Regency, and after that, she had the car drop her off at her apartment. She knew Steve wouldn't be home that night, but it felt good to be home anyway, and have some time to herself before they left for Europe.

On Tuesday their presentations went extremely well. They were already oversubscribed at the end of the first day, and investors were clamoring for more stock than she was going to be able to give them. It was exactly the situation they had wanted. But even then, Charlie Macintosh didn't have the grace to back down, and he stormed off after the last presentation to go back to the hotel, and if only to calm him down, Meredith suggested that she and Cal have dinner.

She took Callan to “21,” and they talked for a long time about the serious problem that the CFO presented for him.

“You don't need his support, Cal, but it would certainly be nice to have it,” she said sensibly.

“I swear, if he goes crazy on me in Europe, and alienates anyone, I'm going to knock him out cold right in the middle of his presentation.”

“That would certainly impress our investors,” she said, laughing, because she knew from dealing with Cal that he wasn't likely to do it, but he was understandably furious at the CFO who was continuing to give him an enormous headache. But the success of the IPO far outweighed the aggravation of his personnel woes, and he was still in pretty good spirits.

“How would you handle him in my place?” Cal asked as they finished dinner. It was all they had talked about all evening. He respected her advice, her cool head, and her sensible decisions, and she seemed to think about it for a minute before speaking.

“I guess I'd probably have to kill him. Poison him maybe. He eats a lot of sweets, mints mostly, I think. It would probably be pretty easy to slip a little cyanide tablet in his candy.” She had said it so seriously that for a minute Cal thought she meant it, and then he laughed at what she said. She had a way of adding a little levity at the right moment.

“All right, I guess I'll calm down about it until we get back from Europe.”

“I don't think you have any other choice. You can deal with the whole situation once you get back to California. ‘‘

“I think I'm going to have to.”

“Meanwhile, you should be celebrating. You took New York by storm. I couldn't have asked for anything better.”

“Neither could I.” Callan Dow looked extremely pleased, and in light of that, his problems with the CFO seemed to fade momentarily into the distance. They were meeting with more private investors the next day, and that night, they were leaving for Europe.

“Will you get a chance to see your husband before you leave?” Cal asked, looking concerned. He was beginning to realize how much of her time he was taking up, and how dependent he was becoming on her. And he felt a little guilty.

“No. I'll be in a meeting downtown with you by the time he gets off duty. I might see him when I go home to pick up my bag on the way to the airport, unless he gets called back to the hospital before that.”

“Hell of a life you lead, my friend. I don't know how you manage to stay married.”

“We love each other,” she said simply, and then decided to tweak him a little bit, “in spite of the fact that I don't want his children.”

“You're beginning to make me think I should review my theories on that one. I'm beginning to think you do have the perfect marriage. Maybe because you don't have children. What do I know?”

“What do any of us know about relationships? Sometimes I think it's all blind luck, or luck of the draw or something. Who could have guessed fourteen years ago that Steven and I would be this crazy about each other, or lead a life where we practically never see each other? When we got married, he thought he wanted a rural family practice in Vermont, and I was thinking about going to law school. And the next thing I knew, he fell in love with the trauma unit and said he had to live in New York, and I fell in love with Wall Street. Things never work out exactly the way you expect them to. Maybe it's better like that, sometimes at least.” Callan's life hadn't worked out the way he expected either. She wondered sometimes if anyone's did. “I'd probably have been bored to death in Vermont, and we might have broken up years ago. I don't know why, but this works for us.”

“You're damn lucky, Merrie.”

“Yeah, I know,” she said softly. “One of these days you'll have to meet him.”

“Not professionally, I hope. Maybe we could have dinner when we get back from Europe.”

“He'd love that. He's familiar with what you do. Actually, he was the first one to tell me what your products do, and how good they are.”

“Obviously, a great guy,” he said with a smile as he paid the check, and they left the restaurant, and then walked slowly back to his hotel. After she dropped him off, she took a cab back to her apartment.

And the next morning, they were back downtown, meeting with investors, and making their pitch to them. After that, they had lunch with some of her partners, and yet another group of investors, and were finally finished for the day. When the partners congratulated him on the success of his venture, he tried to give Meredith as much credit for the IPO as he could, but they were more interested in talking to him, than in giving Meredith accolades. As far as they were concerned, she had only done what was expected of her, and there was no reason to celebrate her for it. It annoyed Cal to see the way they handled it, and he mentioned it to her in the car on the way back to the hotel to pick up his bags, en route to the airport.

“They sure don't throw you a lot of roses,” he said, looking disgruntled for her.

“They would have done the same things I did. They know that. And as far as they're concerned, Paul Black brought you in as a client. I didn't.”

“That's stretching it a bit, isn't it? He made the initial contact, but you've done everything since then.”

“That's just the nature of the business. There are no heroes among investment bankers.”

“And not much gratitude either.”

“I don't expect that. I'll make plenty of money on this deal. We all will.”

“It's not just about money, Merrie, and you know that. You can't tell me that's the only reason why you do this. You do it because you believe in the companies you take public for them, and you love what you're doing.” He had more respect for her than that, and it bothered him that they didn't.

“That's all true. But there isn't a lot of romance in this business. They figure I'll make plenty on it, and so will they. They don't feel they need to throw me a lot of kisses.”

“I think they're harder on you, and expect more, because you're a woman. It's almost as if you have to prove something to them, that you're as good or as smart or as capable as a man, and there's something wrong with that. You're a hell of a lot smarter than most of them, Paul Black certainly. He's nothing but an old windbag with good social connections. All he is is a rainmaker.” She laughed at his description.

“Thank you for noticing, on both counts. But there are plenty of those in this business.”

“And not enough like you. I've had a great time working with you.” And more than that, he had really come to like her, and admire what she stood for. She was honorable and decent and loyal and as far as he was concerned, brilliant. And a hell of a nice person. He was also impressed that she spoke so highly of her husband.

“I've had a great time working with you too. And that's a good thing, Cal, because you're stuck with me for another week.” She laughed, and a few minutes later, they picked up Cal's bags and Charlie McIntosh at the hotel, and then went on to her apartment. Her bags were standing in the hall, and she ran upstairs alone to get them, and was back in less than five minutes. Steve had left her a note. He had gone back to the hospital, for a meeting, and was sorry that he'd missed her. She jotted down a few words at the bottom of the note, mostly just to tell him that she was sorry that she had missed him too, and that she loved him.