FOR the next few minutes Jake helped her clear away, and Kelly gave up the attempt to make him go. She washed and he dried, until at last he said, ‘I don’t know where to put things away in this place.’
‘Leave them and sit down while I make some coffee.’
When she took the coffee in a few minutes later she found him sprawled on her sofa, dead to the world. It was a familiar sight. How often in the past had she yearned for him to return, only for him to collapse with jet-lag as soon as he walked in the door?
The clink of the cups roused him and he pulled himself upright, rubbing his eyes, then closing them again at once.
‘Long flight?’ she asked sympathetically.
‘Ten hours. I’m dead.’
He got to his feet, yawning and stretching, and began to wander around her apartment. ‘Nice,’ he observed. ‘Shops nearby, that little park outside, not too far from the college, just the right size.’ He was opening doors as he spoke.
‘Hey,’ she said indignantly. ‘This is my home.’
‘It’s all right, I’m only snooping,’ he said, so innocently that it was a moment before she realised he’d admitted the offence. He’d always done that. It was how he got away with murder.
‘Anyway, I already know what your bedroom looks like because people were leaving their coats here,’ he observed, standing in the doorway and regarding the double bed.
‘Come away from there,’ she said firmly.
‘What’s this one?’ he asked, swinging around to another door. ‘Let me discover your dark secrets.’
‘This’ was the tiny second bedroom that was filled with boxes.
‘I haven’t been here long and there are things I haven’t found a place for,’ Kelly explained. ‘So tonight I just tossed them all in there. I’ll get around to it soon.’
‘That’s not like you,’ he observed, letting her lead him away.
‘What isn’t?’
‘Leaving things. You were always so tidy.’
‘I guess my priorities have changed. I’m too busy to fuss about things these days.’
Jake sat down and immediately moved to reach for something that had been sticking into his back. It was a book.
‘Hey, what’s this?’ he demanded, studying it.
‘Marianne gave it to me,’ she chuckled. ‘It’s one of those New Age psychobabble things. Just a laugh.’
‘A laugh, eh? And all these bookmarks? Are those the places where you’re laughing hardest? Or did Marianne put them there?’
‘Some are hers, some mine.’
‘Which is which?’
‘Work it out. You met her tonight. The way you two danced you must know her very well by now. You should have followed up. She’s ready to move on and, goodness knows,
‘Will you let me organise my own sex-life?’ he demanded, harassed. ‘And what does this mean?’ He was stabbing the book which was open at a chapter headed ‘Time For a Toy Boy?’ ‘Did she mark this?’
‘No, Marianne’s done toy boys,’ Kelly said cheerfully. ‘If she wanted another one she wouldn’t be bothering with you. Let’s face it, Jake. You hardly qualify, do you? What are you? Thirty-eight?’
‘Thirty-two, as you well know.’
‘Are you sure? I’ve always thought-I mean you look-well, anyway, thirty-two is still past your best, and-’
‘All right, all right,’ he said, grimly appreciative of this wit at his expense. ‘So I take it the bookmark’s yours?’
She glanced over and shrugged. ‘Sure.’
‘Nice reading matter you go in for, Mrs Lindley,’ he said scathingly.
‘Miss Harmon, and it’s none of your business what I read.’
He recited aloud. “‘Don’t be half-hearted about the change you’re making. Feel the sense of liberation as you chuck out unwanted possessions”-would that include unwanted husbands, by any chance?’
‘Oh, don’t be a dog in the manger. You were bored to tears with me. You’re just mad because I made the first move to end our marriage-unless, of course, you consider Olympia the first move, which you
‘Do not,’ he said dangerously, ‘mention her again.’
Kelly shrugged. ‘OK. Nuff said-about everything. Give me back my book.’
‘Wait, I haven’t finished. Where was I? “Unwanted possessions. Replace them with something as different as possible. A change of partners works wonders. If years of sex with the same man has left you feeling bored-” now we’re coming to it “-your new lover should be somebody young. He’ll bring freshness and novelty to your bed, as well as strength, vigour, and a sense of adventure.”’ He set the book down. ‘You must be older than I realised. I wouldn’t have thought you’d reached the age for a toy boy.’
‘Shows how wrong you can be,’ she teased, running her hands over the tight black satin. ‘Underneath this I’m all droop and sag.’
‘Let me check the facts.’
‘You’ve seen the facts plenty of times,’ she said, fending off his hopeful hand.
‘Not
‘Well, look your fill of the outside, because that’s all you’ll ever see again.’
His eyes glinted. ‘Wanna bet?’
‘Jake! Do I look as though I was born yesterday?’
‘That’s what I’m trying to find out.’
‘I’m warning you. Keep your distance.’
‘All right. Let’s get back to the subject. Toy boy.’
‘I don’t have a toy boy-yet. I was just planning for the future.’
‘And this?’ He’d found a new source of outrage in the book. “‘If you’re tired of the old self, try a new one-or several new ones.” Oh, that’s great. How the devil are you supposed to know which “you” is on duty today?’
‘Easy. You give them each their own name.’
‘So I see. You’ve written a list of names in the margin. Yvonne-’
‘Sporty,’ Kelly said at once. ‘Likes the wind in her hair.’
‘Helena-’
‘Soulful and dreamy.’ Kelly was enjoying herself. ‘An intense inner life and a hectic imagination.’
‘Carlotta?’
‘A party animal. Always ready for a new experience.’
‘Don’t the fellers get confused?’
‘Not if you keep one personality for each man.’
He stirred his coffee, not looking at her. Suddenly he growled, ‘So which of them are you sleeping with?’
‘Carl, or Frank? Or the mysterious Harry who “misses you terribly”?’
‘Get lost!’
‘Or is it one of the other guys who were undressing you with his eyes tonight? Not that that would take much doing.’
‘Now you’re being offensive.’
‘No way. I like a woman who’s wise to herself. If you’ve got it, flaunt it. You’ve got it-and, boy, do you know how to flaunt it! That’s OK. You missed out a whole stage of life by marrying me, I know. I don’t begrudge you your fun.’
‘It wouldn’t make any difference if you did,’ she said pointedly.
‘Not since ten-thirty this morning.’
‘Further back than that. In fact, not since- Oh, don’t let’s go down that path again. We’d end up quarrelling and
