Op-Center

CHAPTER FOUR

"You really ought to spend more time with him, Gregory. You're glowing, do you know that?"

Donald tapped out his pipe against the seat of the grandstand. He watched the ashes fall from the top row to the street below, then put the pipe back in its case.

"Why don't you visit for a week or two at a time? I can run the Society alone."

Donald looked into her eyes. "Because I need you now."

"You can have both. What was that Tom Jones song my mother was always playing? 'My heart has love enough for two…' "

Donald laughed. "Soonji, Kim did more for me than he'll ever know. Taking him home from the orphanage each day helped keep me sane. There was a kind of karmic balance to his innocence and the mayhem we were planning at KCIA and when I worked at the Embassy."

Soonji's brow knit. "What does that have to do with seeing more of him?"

"When we're together— I guess it's part cultural, and part Kim, but I was never able to instill in him that trait American kids embrace so easily: forget your folks and have a good time."

"How can you expect him to forget you?"

"I don't, but he feels as though he can't do enough for me, and he takes that very, very personally. The KCIA doesn't have a tab at that bar. He does. He knew he wouldn't win our fight, but he was willing to accept a public drubbing for me. When we're together, he carries his sense of obligation with him like a millstone. I don't want that eating at him."

Soonji hooked an arm through his and pushed back her hair with her free hand. "You're wrong. You should let him love you as he needs—" She froze for a moment and then shot erect.

"Soon? What is it?"

Soonji fired a look toward the bar. "The earrings you gave me for our anniversary. One of them is missing."

"Maybe you left it home."

"No. I had it in the bar."

"Right. I felt it when I brushed your cheek—"

Soonji shot him a look. "That had to be when I lost it." She stood and hurried to the end of the grandstand. "I'll be right back!"

"Why don't I call them?" Donald shouted. "Someone here must have a cellular—"

But she was already gone, making her way down the steps and, a moment later, hurrying down the street toward the bar.

Donald slumped forward and rested his elbows on his knees.

The poor girl would be devastated if it was lost. He'd just had the earrings custom-made for their second anniversary, with two small emeralds, her favorite stones. He could have it made over, but it wouldn't be the same. And Soonji would carry her guilt around.

He shook his head slowly. How was it with him that every time he showed someone love, it came back as pain? Kim, Soonji- Maybe it was him. Bad karma or sins in a previous life or maybe he was a black cat with a résumé.

Leaning back, Gregory turned his eyes toward the podium as the President of the National Assembly stepped to the microphone.