Questions

Time 12:15pm

Barbara didn’t like the question about twenty-four hour service.

He repeated it to her as she finally sat behind her desk.

She seemed to be moving slow for him. He didn’t like it but he couldn’t say anything yet. He leaned forward nervously.

He was glad at least she’d sat down, so he could fumble with the phone and prepare the first check-in text. Raquelle had insisted on heart emojis. He’d text every five minutes.

If he didn’t text, she was supposed to call. DH insisted it wouldn’t happen, the plan would go off without a hitch and it wouldn’t get to that point.

Nevertheless, she objected to DH telling the bank president she’d kill her husband if she didn’t get a text every five minutes, and insisted he say she’d call first.

He still wasn’t sure what exactly he’d tell Barbara. Now he was annoyed he’d have to keep better track of the time so she wouldn’t call him and interrupt what he considered his delicate operation.

Sitting across from him, she didn’t like the look of this guy in the ill-fitting suit Lloyd told her was a vice president at Winans. Fiddling with his phone.

And the question didn’t make sense to her. Winans was a lunch spot, wasn’t it?

-Our bank is actually open until five, you must know, Mr. Winans.

-You can call me DH, please, he said, trying to be a little flirty. He felt it always came natural to him.

She looked at him. Sophisticated first name, going by two initials. An ill-fitting name, she thought, and she didn’t like that he wanted her to call him that. He wasn’t even a client yet.

-Of course, DH, she said, formulaically. You may call me Barbara. And I hope you’ll be balling Forrester your banking home, she added, remembering an old phrase a teller used to use when she’d first started interning there. But I guess I’m a little confused, Barbara continued ,Mr. Winans—DH, because Winans Markets don’t stay open that late do they?

Why wouldn’t she just answer his question? He had three minutes to text, and was trying to set up a silent timer while paying attention to Barbara.

-Well, Barbara, DH said, trying to feel like he was still in control, the Winans coming to do big business, not the scheming extortionist with a master plan. Could I trust you to hold a secret?

Barbara leaned forward. What was he putting on? Her attention turned to the ill-fitting suit again. Was he going to try to sell her something? A secret, that’s a good hook, Barbara thought.

-We’re a very discreet bank, Barbara decided to say, of course.

-Discretion, of course, DH replied. Good word. You see, when we expand into this market, we intend to try to open a 24-hour location.

Two towns over, where the Winans Food Markets were located, this would’ve been big news. Some people put in lunch orders to save for dinner, the food was so good.

Twenty-four hours wouldn’t be possible because of local ordinances, but even staying open until ten would be a treat. The locations all closed between three and four. Barbara Darcy knew some of that.

She couldn’t get over the idea he was trying to sell her something. It explained the posture, which probably made the suit seem ill-fitting. She’d like to have asked Lloyd what he thought. She had some idea of her own.

-I see, that’s quite interesting, Barbara said. Where are you planning to open it? Barbara asked, idly thinking of the places in town a Winans Food Market might be put.

DH mentioned the street Allen & Co was located.

-I was just there, Barbara said, having even thought of the street and Billy and how ill-fitting the street would be for a Winans Food Market as she thought where this new business this guy in the ill-fitting suit was telling her about.

-Our lunch spot will be better, DH said. He thought about what Barbara might look like eating, imagining her biting into a burger. If she hadn’t been late, he thought, this would’ve been going a lot smoother.

What a strange thing to say, Barbara thought.

-It’ll be twenty-four hours, but still a lunch spot?

-Sure, twenty four hours includes lunch, right? DH said, mildly annoyed. He tried to reel it back in. He didn’t want to text Raquelle early. So you do have twenty four hour service right?

-We do, Barbara said, condescendingly. There’s an overnight guard for cash drop-offs. I suppose the sums would be too high for an ATM, Barbara added, almost to herself, as she tried to work her thoughts out on her own. So you need a local bank to hand late night deposits for this 24-hour location you’re planning to open. Where do you bank now?

DH almost started to explain that he banks with one of the mobile cash apps, then remembered that DH Winans would have a big city bank or something, and in any case, that that wasn’t what she meant.

She had thrown him off more than he realized by coming in late. Hopefully Raquelle still knew what to do. Did he?

He gave Barbara the name of the country’s largest bank, having no idea what bank Winans Food Market used and not having thought about it until she’d asked the question.

-Well, Barbara said. She asked DH why Winans Food Market, calling it Winans Food, didn’t choose another national bank, naming the country’s second-largest bank, which unlike the largest, did have a branch in town.

It didn’t occur to DH that the kind of bank a company like Winans Food Market chose to do business with would matter. He hadn’t thought farther than needing a local bank to drop money off twenty-four hours a day.

DH kept going back to the idea that things would’ve been going better if she hadn’t been late. He remembered to hit send on his text.

It had been six minutes, but Raquelle hadn’t called.