cheekbones. I stood a few feet away.
KC wasn’t brave, but she was stupid. She stood there looking at Susan.
“Wha…?” she said.
Susan took hold of her blouse with both hands and yanked her to the bench and slammed her onto it.
“Now listen, you asinine little shit for brains,” she said with her teeth clamped hard together. “This is the last time you bother him, you understand?”
“Bother?”
Susan still had hold of her blouse. She pulled her close for a moment and slammed her back against the bench.
“Call, follow, whine at, see, talk to, touch, look at, annoy, anything – you understand? Annoy him again and I will knock out every stupid fucking tooth in your stupid fucking mouth.”
KC began to cry. She twisted loose from Susan and stood up.
“I need him,” she screamed at Susan. “You have no right to keep him from me, if it weren’t for you…”
With her clenched fist Susan hit KC on the jaw with a left hook just like I’d taught her, getting her shoulder into it so that the power came from the body, not the arm. KC fell backward and sat down hard on the bench. Her lip was bleeding.
“Are we clear?” Susan said.
KC touched her mouth and took her hand away and stared at the blood on it.
“My God, I’m bleeding,” KC said.
“You’ll be sleeping with the fishes, you neurotic bitch,” Susan said, “if you don’t stay away from him.”
KC nodded, still staring at the blood on her hand.
“Say it,” Susan said with such force that I was a little scared.
“I’ll stay away.”
“You bet you will,” Susan said.
She turned and looked at me and said, “Come on,” and started off toward The Ritz at a very fast pace. I followed her. We went in the Commonwealth Avenue entrance and across the lobby into the cafe. The maitre d‘ put us in a window seat only a few inches from passersby on Newbury Street.
“My hand hurts,” Susan said.
I nodded.
“You didn’t tell me that it hurts your hand to hit someone.”
“Mostly,” I said, “if you hit them on the face or head. It’s why I try to use my forearm or elbow when I can.”
“I’ll try to keep it in mind.”
“Were you influenced by Freud or Adler,” I said, “when you gave KC a whack on the kisser.”
“Wonder Woman, I think. Not very shrink-like, was I.”
“No.”
“Did you mind?” Susan said.
“No. I liked it,” I said. “It was what I wanted to do, but felt I couldn’t.”
“You knew I’d blow my top,” Susan said.
“I was hoping,” I said.
“What do you think she’ll do?” Susan said.
“Dash back to the shrink you sent her to, that she stopped going to.”
“So she can report me,” Susan said.
“Yep.”
Susan smiled.
“So maybe it was just the right thing to do,” she said.
“I’m sure it was. Will your reputation be destroyed in the psychiatric community?”
Susan smiled again, more broadly than before.
“No, my colleagues will envy me.”
“Good,” I said. “Want to see if they’ll bring you some ice for your hand?”
“No, but they’d better rush a martini out here pretty quick,” she said. “Before I’m overcome with pain.”
I signaled the waiter.
“Right away, Mrs. Silverman, I sure as hell don’t want to cross you.”
The drink came promptly, and a beer for me.
