[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

cotton. Her upturned palm led him in and he liked how ringlets of
her hair slipped off the nape of her neck when she looked down to
hide her Cheshire cat grin.
A jazz station rattled away on the stereo. His senses turned
keen at the prompt of Averyl s perfume. And this was no ersatz
apartment: French doors led to a dining room with a chandelier
above a table, and each of the table legs was carved to a claw
clutching a ball.
He pushed hair off Averyl s shoulder.  I didn t know if I was
going to ever make it here.
 Same here. I almost called you at home, Averyl said with the
mock emphasis he liked to hear.  I ve been planning our little get-
together. She grabbed his elbow, trying to steer him to the dining
room, but he used his free arm to catch her for a single long kiss,
ripe with a week s worth of anticipation.
 Over here. Over here. She tugged at his shirt sleeve.
He stepped into the dining room with her. He gave the table a
quick look, a look he swept to Averyl, then to the table again. He
was confused.
 Certainly don t serve coffee at this table, he said softly. His
thumb and fingers clamped the thick, dark mahogany table edge.
Averyl had set out a magnum of Dom Perignon on ice, two
empty champagne glasses, small boxes of wooden matches, two
homemade cigarettes with ends twisted shut, and four unfamiliar
capsules.
 Do you want me to explain, Averyl said with cheer,  the
exact order, or do you prefer the surprise route?
 A glass of champagne would be okay, he said, wracking his
brain for a way to patch the situation.
 What? Averyl leaned closer in disbelief.
 Why don t we each just have a glass of this champagne, he
said somewhat louder. He cringed at the idea Averyl s free and
natural spirit was most likely half drug-induced.
 No. No. Don t you see that you have to take these in the right
order? She spun the champagne on its bed of ice.
 Averyl, what are you getting at?
She clasped the wet magnum and began untwisting its wire
catch.  We have to take these in the right order, at the right time, to
get the best effect. Averyl s eyes cut to him, quick with the
challenge.
Talk about sex objects, being used. And he knew a nasty thing
or two, didn t he, about drugs? Not to mention, he also had,
eventually, to drive home.
He would be assertive: clear off the table with glass breaking
everywhere and then take Averyl in one big hug. But his desire was
dead.
No, it was Clark Gable in Gone With the Wind: The exit was
less complicated if first you got them mad.  Why? Do I look like a
guy who needs this for a little hardbody interaction?
Averyl held up one of the capsules.  Worried what a little amyl
nitrite will do for your old ticker, aren t you?
He looked at the ceiling and then, after a deep breath, her.
 Averyl, I think your attitude s gone nonlinear. Why don t we do
each other a favor, wait until this emotional stackup s outta the
way. His eyes widened at the finality of it all.
Averyl picked up a homemade cigarette.  I won t hold my
breath about it. At least not until after you ve gone and I ve lit this
joint.
He gave her the peace sign he remembered from the Sixties,
when he protested the draft before going off to serve anyway, and
then he left the building, drove for a couple of hours and went
home.
* * *
After some killer food that night Kate was, he had to admit, a
wondrous cook asparagus, shrimp over pasta, he was of a mind
to relax from the trials of the day. So he grabbed the last Shiner
Bock he d brought back from the Texas trip and set himself up at
the rolltop desk in the den. He slipped open the shell of his laptop
and rollerballed to his sign-on macro. Some mindless Web surfing
could only help the beer s effect in untangling this business about
Averyl.
He sipped the heady beer, shirt-sleeved his lips dry. What was
he thinking to get involved with her? God! And if she was perverse
enough, no, burning-hemp stoned enough, she could just tell Kate
what her husband had been up to.
He went to the GO line, typed airwire.com/~averyl. That s the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]