SWF Seeks Same

Hedra was standing at the top of the steps, a confused expression on her face. In the beige dress and high heels, her legs looked very shapely from the sidewalk. Sam stared at her for a moment, as if he were seeing Allie in the dress. His teeth were clenched and his breath hissed like steam escaping under great pressure. Allie could smell liquor on his breath. Had he seen them in the bar? Beaten them back to the Cody and set up this scene?

No, she decided, it was possible but unlikely.

It began to rain then, slanting under the entrance canopy. Not hard, but steadily enough so another few minutes of standing outside and they’d all be soaked. Windshield wipers on passing cars started their metronome action. Some of them had their headlights on, wary yellow eyes lessening the chance of collision in the lowering gloom. The wet street became opaque glass, reflecting the late-afternoon traffic in muted colors.

A trickle of rainwater broke from Sam’s hair and ran down his forehead. Finally he stood aside and gave Allie room to go up the steps. She moved past, barely brushing his arm.

She took each step with deliberation, keeping the sway of her hips to a minimum, knowing he was watching. Behind her, the swish of tires on wet pavement was like harsh and secret whispering. Hedra reached out a firm hand as if to help her achieve the final push of a climb up a mountain. And maybe that’s what it was—climbing up out of Sam’s influence. Maybe.

She grasped Hedra’s hand, squeezed it as if to say “Thank you,” and pushed ahead of her, through the door into the cool, dry lobby. Sanctuary.

“We’ll talk later, Allie!” Sam called up the steps.

She didn’t answer. A raindrop clung to her eyelash; she brushed it away impatiently with the back of her hand.

As they were rising in the elevator, Hedra said, “An awkward situation, but you handled it fine, Allie.”

Fine? Allie interpreted it differently. “Did I?”

“I mean, you seemed so calm. So in control. More so than I coulda been; that’s for sure.”

“Didn’t seem that way to me, Hedra. I wasn’t so calm on the inside.”

“That doesn’t matter. You’re here, and you and Sam aren’t having the conversation he was demanding. You didn’t let yourself get bullied. That’s the important thing.”

“No, it isn’t,” Allie said. “The important thing is that now Sam’s sure we’re living together.”

“Huh? How could he be? He only saw me in the apartment that one time, and he supposed I was a friend waiting for you to get home.”

“Don’t believe what he says.”

“But what could he prove?”

“I don’t mean he could prove anything,” Allie said. “But he doesn’t have to.”

“What do you mean?”

“If he wanted, he could notify Haller-Davis I have a roommate and get us both evicted.”

“Would they believe him?”

“They’d send someone to look over the apartment, and they’d see there are two people living there. No way you can conceal that from somebody looking for it.”

“What if we didn’t let them in?”

“They’d sneak in with a pass key. Then they’d serve an eviction notice, and it’d be up to me to prove I was living alone. They’d know I couldn’t do that.” Allie wasn’t sure that was exactly how the eviction would go, but she was sure Haller-Davis could and would force her out.

She remembered how Sam had noticed the beige dress, how he’d said he recognized Hedra from when she’d answered the knock on the apartment door. He was letting Allie know that he knew: Hedra was her secret roommate. She didn’t like that at all. There was no way to predict what might happen; divorces, from affairs as well as marriages, could take unexpected bitter turns.

The elevator arrived on their floor and the doors rumbled open, admitting a press of warm air from the hall.

A vision of the countless street people she passed every day invaded Allie’s mind. The ones the rest of the human race avoided thinking about, even avoided seeing, with a convenient selective blindness. She might become one of them. Sam had it in his power to do that to her. A Svengali in jogging shoes. That was what really ate at her, the knowledge that he could do it.

Absurd! she told herself. I’m self-supporting and every bit as capable as Sam. My life’s in my own hands.

Hedra stopped halfway down the hall and stared incredulously at Allie. “Sam wouldn’t really turn you in to the management company, would he?”

“I don’t know,” Allie said. “A month ago I wouldn’t have thought so, but he’s hall of surprises. All men seem to be full of surprises.”

“Not to me.”

Allie smiled. “I know what you mean, Hedra.”

But she didn’t.

In the apartment, the phone rang and Allie absently answered it, still thinking about Sam.

“Allie?” A man’s voice. Not Sam’s.

“Yes?” There was only silence on the line. “Hello?”