"FWLS50" - читать интересную книгу автора (A Future We'd Like to See)

"Hi, guys. Man, she'll never know what she's missing,
passing me over like that. Hey, Benton, your coat's ringing."

"Hmm?" Benton asked, momentarily surprised. "Oh. Incoming
call. One sec."

Benton pulled out his tiny audio-only phone, and unscrewed
the antenna.

"Benton here. Andy? What? Ah, cripes... yeah, yeah, I can
fix it. I'll be by later today, I'm bus... yes, I KNOW they paid
fifty G for it... okay, okay! I'll be at the east end of the
mall. Goodbye."

"Trouble?" I asked, as he pocketed the phone.

"Yeah, trouble. One of the monofilaments on that absurdly
overpriced thing untied itself. Happens all the time... they
need me to go repair it, but don't wanna wait, so he has a
personal shuttle flying over right now to pick me up. You guys
have fun, I'll see you tomorrow."

"What?" Mitch asked. "You're leaving?"

"That's what 'personal shuttle flying over right now to pick
me up' usually means, Mitch. Don't worry, Jody'll get you home."

"But..."

"See yah," he waved, pushing his way eastward into the
crowds.

"But..." Mitch continued, as if the other end of the
conversation hadn't left.

"Hey, snap out of it," I said. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing," Mitch said, regaining his stability.
"Look, it's getting late. I've got a meeting with a patient
later this afternoon, so maybe I ought to just hail a cab home.
You go shop."

"I'm not actually looking for anything," I noted. "Just
providing you two with transport. I can drive you back."

"No, really, I wouldn't want to be a burden--"

"Mitch, I've schlepped you two all over the area hundreds of
times. If it was a burden I would ditched you guys long ago.