'Can you find out?' Lisa persisted, conscious that she was making a fool out of herself but determined to find out what she wanted to know anyway.
That night, by making several phone calls, Beth not only found out where Dave was living, but also found out several other interesting things.
Things that would not make Lisa happy hour the least.
At first, she decided not to tell her anything about it, but when Lisa became persistent about the whole matter the next day at work, Beth decided that there was nothing to do but lay the truth on Lisa and let her deal with it her own way.
'All right. I'll tell you where he's living. Right here.'
'What do you mean?'
'I mean he moved away, but something went wrong and he's been back here ever since. Right in his same old house.'
Lisa was silent.
'So do like I told you,' Beth said, 'and forget about him.'
Lisa didn't say anything. She had never felt so foolish in her life. Obviously the time they had spent together hadn't meant the same thing to him that it had to her.
'What're you going to do?' Beth asked, her voice softer now.
'I don't know.'
But she did know.
As the first flush of embarrassment passed, Lisa suddenly began to grow angry. Why did this have to happen to her? What had she done to deserve it?
'Shit.'
Beth smiled and shook her head.
'I won't say I told you so.'
'It doesn't matter, I don't care.'
For the rest of the night Beth didn't try to talk to Lisa; it was obvious that she wanted to be left alone. When time came to close up, Lisa didn't even say goodbye in the parking lot, instead just climbing into her car and driving swiftly away.
Beth wondered vaguely what Lisa was going to do.
The same wasn't true for Lisa herself.
She knew exactly what she was going to do.
She was going to go get fucked. She didn't know where, or how, but she knew she was going to do it.
And she didn't care who she did it with.
She didn't care about anything except getting rid of all the hostility that was seething inside her. And right now going out and getting fucked by anybody seemed like the best way to do just that.
The singles bar Lisa walked into was obviously nothing more than a meat rack, with the men outnumbering the women by about four to one. In her present frame of mind that suited Lisa just fine. In fact, the more she thought about it the more the idea of having more than one man appealed to her.
There were several reasonably nice-looking types at the bar, but nice-looking types weren't what Lisa had in mind. They reminded her too much of Dave, and right now all she wanted to do was to forget Dave.
And hurt him.
The biggest frustration was that she knew there was no way she could hurt him; no matter what she did he not only wouldn't know about it, but he wouldn't care if he did know.
It took her ten minutes to pick out the men she wanted to be with, and five more to catch their attention. There were three of them, and they were sitting at a booth along the far wall. From where she was standing it was impossible to see them well, but from what she could see they were definitely right in line with the frame of mind she was in.
Two were big and burly; construction workers, probably, while the third was just the opposite; short, frail and thin. They were just the type of threesome who would come into a place like this and sit in a corner all night getting drunk and eyeballing every woman in the place, talking obscenely among themselves, but ultimately going home alone.
When she walked over to their table and asked, 'Mind if I sit down?' Lisa thought they were all going to choke on their drinks. But, needless to say, they were only too accommodating.
'I'm Lisa,' she announced, taking a stiff pull of her drink. This was bizarre, but she was going to go through with it.
'I'm Buzz,' said the largest of the three with a leer. He had a long, droopy mustache that went oddly with his thick features. 'This is Ralph,' he said, indicating the other construction-worker type, 'and over there's Jason.'
After that there was an awkward silence. Lisa obviously wasn't the type of woman they were used to being around; not only was she better-looking than anyone they'd been near in a long time, but she was also obviously a totally different kind of woman than they were used to talking to. She looked more like a schoolteacher than anything else.
It was this impression which served to further confound all three of them when she spoke again.
'I want to get fucked,' Lisa said tightly, hearing herself as if it were someone else speaking. 'Nothing else.'
They didn't have a car, so Lisa drove them to Ralph's apartment. Nothing much was said in the car, but Lisa had a dim feeling that all three of them thought she was crazy.
Maybe she was, but right now it didn't matter.
It didn't matter because she also knew they were thinking that this was the best bit of luck that had come their way in a long time.
It was odd, she thought in a brief moment of tranquility, how most men would absolutely jump at the chance to fuck her. Not very long ago she had felt like if she had walked naked down main street nobody would have paid any attention to her.
The apartment was a dismal affair. It looked like it hadn't been cleaned in at least a month. No, that wasn't quite right, she corrected herself mentally. It wasn't really dirty. Just messy.
The main room was lit harshly from overhead, and the only furniture was a couch and chair with a plastic- like coating that looked guaranteed to stick to the skin of anyone who sat on it.
Lisa didn't want to sit on it.
'Bring the mattress out here,' she commanded, enjoying the way she was dominating these men. Ralph and Buzz looked at Jason, who practically jumped into the bedroom to meet her demand.
'What do you have to drink?' Lisa asked.
'Nothin' much 'cept some tequila,' Ralph drawled.
'Get it out,' Lisa said. She had never drunk tequila, but she knew she was going to need something to get her through this.
Five minutes later the four of them were squatting on the mattress that Jason had dragged out into the middle of the room, indulging in the entire lemon-and-salt routine with the tequila. As the liquor shot into her body Lisa suddenly felt hot. The bare light overhead seemed brighter than the sun.
'Can't you do something about that?' she complained, pointing overhead to the offending bulb. She knew she was being a bitch but she also knew they didn't mind.
Not as long as they got to fuck her.
A few moments later the bright light had been replaced with a much dimmer one that Ralph had pilfered from the inside of the refrigerator. Now, suddenly, the room didn't seem so bad, and with the second shot of tequila Lisa felt the last of her inhibitions leave her.
She could also feel the sweat pouring from her body, and the combination of this and her growing high from the liquor gave her an idea.
'Music. I want music,' she announced, standing up and pulling her long blonde hair up over her head. A moment later Ralph had put on a record; very earthy blues.
Through the heat and the haze that was drifting in aver her, Lisa began to dance around the room. She could hardly hear the music, but she could feel it and that was all that mattered.
'Take it off, baby, take that top off,' Buzz whispered as he took another shot of the liquor.
