The entire room was filled with the scent of cigar and Arthur gulped seeing Jerome swirling the glass of golden liquid.
When Arthur spoke about his condition, as expected Jerome had no change in his expressions.
"Does MaryAnn know?" he asked.
"No."
"Your family?"
"Not yet. You're the first person I'm speaking to about this."
"Why me first?"
"I wanted to ask you to take temporary control of the company until I recover from the surgery."
"When are you going to tell MaryAnn?"
"This weekend... I'm planning to tell her about my condition before I propose marriage to her."
Arthur expected some curt admonishment but Jerome was silent for a while, holding back his urge to speak. He then asked for a cigar to smoke.
Since he has quitted smoking for his health, Arthur just gave him a small stogie and Jerome was taking slow puffs for more than half an hour without speaking a word.
