1
“The last time I fell for a man so fast, it was all wrong,”
2
she said as I was rubbing body oil into her shoulders. “It 3
felt wonderful, but he wasn’t the man for me.”
4
“But he was right for a moment,” I argued.
5
“He was awful. He would take things from my house.”
6
“Really?”
7
“Yeah. A pearl ring, twenty dollars that I kept in a 8
cookie jar, even large things like a toaster that I kept under 9
the sink. At first I thought I was going crazy. But then one 10
day I set a paper clip on the back of my jewelry box. He 11
must have lifted the lid without noticing the pin. I knew 12
immediately that he’d taken my zircon earrings. He did it 13
three more times after that, and I broke up with him.”
14
She pulled away from my massage and lay on her back.
15
I reclined, resting my head on her small stomach.
16
“Why did you wait?” I asked. “Why didn’t you get rid 17
of him after the first time?”
18
She sat up, pushing my head down into her lap. I kissed 19
her stomach. I remember because she had a ticklish reac-20
tion and then grabbed my hair to make me stop.
21
“It was weird,” she said. “Like
knew he was doing it, but he didn’t know that I knew. I’d 23
leave money in my purse or an earring on the night table 24
and then he’d come in and do that love thing he did.”
25
“It was that good?” I asked.
26
“He was a wonderful lover,” she said. “But that wasn’t 27 S
why I kept him on for so long. It was like he was my shy 28 R
prostitute, you know? He didn’t want to feel like a whore,
3rd Pass Pages
ManInMyBasemnt_HCtext3P.qxd 10/24/03 8:16 PM Page 205
The Man in My Basement
so I would let him steal from me and pretend that I didn’t 1
miss it.”
2
I kissed her stomach again. This time she didn’t grab 3
my hair.
4
“So then why did you finally decide to break it off ?”
