voice, like a TV game-show contestant, to show Kennedy she was just fine. “Bye, Sergeant. Thanks again for calling.”
He told her good-bye and hung up. The broken connection crackled in her hear.
Allie stretched out her arm and replaced the receiver.
After lying there motionless for about fifteen minutes, listening to Hedra scraping and thunking things around in the apartment, she got up, put on her robe, and left the bedroom. The floor was ice against her bare feet.
In the living room, Hedra had just set down a cardboard box of paperback novels by the door. Dust was stirring in the air from her activity; it tickled Allie’s nose and almost made her sneeze. Hedra glanced at her and didn’t change expressions. She said, “A cab’s on the way. I’ll have everything outta here by tonight.”
Allie was suddenly ill at ease. She didn’t know what to say to Hedra. She felt guilty and hated herself for it. Finally she decided to make small talk to hold back the silence. “You had breakfast?”
“Coffee and a couple of Danish,” Hedra said. “I went out and brought it back from the deli. There’s some left in the kitchen, if you want it.”
“Thanks.”
Hedra didn’t answer. She walked back to her bedroom and returned with an armload of clothes from the closet. Then she draped them over the arm of a chair. Allie couldn’t help thinking the pile of clothes looked as if they were from
Allie said, “You still working at that place over on Fifth Avenue?”
“Yeah, I’ll be there awhile longer,” Hedra said. Allie wasn’t sure she believed her, but Hedra was getting money from somewhere. Maybe she dealt dope; Allie wouldn’t be surprised. Not anymore.
Hedra put down her clock radio on the pile of clothes and looked at Allie. “If you don’t mind my asking, how do you plan on making the rent here alone?”
“I won’t be alone,” Allie told her. “Sam’s going to move back in.”
Hedra nodded. “I kinda thought so.”
There were three firm knocks on the door.
Hedra and Allie exchanged glances. Hedra said, “I’ll stand over where I can’t be seen. No point in giving ourselves away as roommates this late in the game.”
Allie thanked her again. She waited until Hedra had stepped around a corner. Then she yanked the sash of her robe tighter around her waist, walked to the door, and opened it.
Graham Knox stood in the hall.
He had on impossibly baggy pleated black slacks, and his woolly gray sweater with the leather elbow patches. He was so thin he looked lost as a child inside his clothes. His unruly hair was damp and combed more neatly than usual, and he was sporting his lopsided grin. Graham was so obviously glad to see Allie that she felt cheered just looking at him.
She moved in close to the partly opened door and stood so he couldn’t see Hedra’s possessions piled nearby.
He said, “I thought I better drop by and explain about the tickets.”
“Tickets?”
His face sagged like a sad clown’s, then lifted again to hide his hurt. “You know, my play …”
Allie had forgotten he’d promised her free tickets. To … what was it, “Dance” something? “Of course,” she said. “I’ve been waiting, wondering.”
She was sure she hadn’t fooled him, but he obviously appreciated her effort and forgave her. He held out two tickets he’d been squeezing in his right hand. Allie accepted them. They were damp from his perspiration and faintly warm. They felt good between her fingers; a friend’s gift that meant something and required nothing in return other than her presence.
“They’re center orchestra seats for the third performance. By then most of the kinks should be ironed out and the play should go smoothly. I want you and Hedra to see it at its best.”
Without thinking about it, Allie tilted forward on her toes and gave him a peck on the cheek. It surprised him and surprised her. “Thanks, Graham. Really. I’ll be there. I doubt if Hedra can make it, though.”
He was grinning almost maniacally. “If you have to come alone, that’s okay. Maybe we can go out for some coffee or something after the performance.”
“Maybe,” Allie said. He’d read something into that innocent kiss on the cheek. Too bad. “I’ll be there either way, Graham.”
Inside his baggy clothes, he shifted his weight awkwardly from one leg to the other; he wasn’t a graceful man like Sam. Dear Sam. “I better go down to Goya’s,” Graham said.
“Okay. See you.”
“Drop in sometime when things slow down after the lunch rush. We can talk.”
“I’ll do that. Bye, Graham.” She eased the door closed and heard his faint, retreating footsteps outside in the hall.
When she turned from the door, she found that Hedra had moved back into the living room and was glaring at her. There was an irrational kind of fierceness in her stare that frightened Allie. Hedra had gone into the kitchen and was holding half of a cheese Danish that had become mush in her clenched fist. “He mentioned my name.”
Allie said, “He lives upstairs. He knows we share—shared—the apartment.”
