The Ex

yours. You’ll have to have the wisdom to accept what you can’t arrange.”

“Where are you calling from?” Darlene asked.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“I’m going to the movies. In New York, you can go to the movies almost any time of the day or night. It’s wonderful.”

A man in a grimy green muscle shirt, cut off so his protruding stomach showed, appeared a few feet away from the phone. He looked like a small, chunky Burt Lancaster, only with darker hair on his head and more hair on his body Even his stomach was dark with hair. He grinned and Burt Lancaster was there even stronger, only uglier, with much coarser features.

“You don’t know the parts of town that are dangerous,” Darlene said on the phone.

“You about done talkin’, sweetheart?” the man asked. Above the grin, his eyes consumed her.

“Who said that?” Darlene sounded alarmed.

“Don’t worry. It’s just some guy waiting to use the phone.”

Burt Lancaster grinned wider.

“Deirdre, listen-”

“Sorry, Darlene, I’ve gotta hang up. The gentleman wants to make a call. I’ll phone you back later about New York.”

She replaced the receiver and started to walk away from the phone. Burt was suddenly in front of her, still with the toothy grin. Didn’t he know he was overdoing it?

“This is a bad neighborhood, sweets. Interesting things can happen to a looker like you.”

“You’re in the wrong role,” Deirdre said. “Even the wrong movie.”

“Role? Movie?” He shook his head, then glanced up and down the dark street. “You’re gonna play the scene just like I tell you, so you might as well accept that fact. You might say I’m gonna be your director.” His hand touched his crotch. “You really wouldn’t mind that at all, would you?”

Deirdre’s right arm shot straight out so the heel of her hand slammed into the man’s nose.

He backed up several steps, his fingers clutching his broken nose. There was blood on his shirt and dribbling down onto his hairy stomach.

For an instant rage almost propelled him toward her, then he seemed to notice what was in her eyes. It wasn’t the fear he’d expected. It was something else entirely. He stood still.

She stepped toward him, and he moved away.

“I was only trying to be nice to you,” he said, spitting blood.

“You’ve already been very nice to me,” Deirdre told him. “Maybe you can be even nicer.”

He stared at her with uncomprehending eyes, then turned and walked quickly away.

She stood still. He glanced back twice to make sure she wasn’t following.

When he saw that she was smiling, he walked even faster and crossed the street.

She shrugged and shook her head. “Men!” she said softly to herself.

13

David was sitting in his office Monday morning, staring idly at his desk photo of Molly and Michael, when Lisa walked in.

Her glance followed his gaze, and she looked quickly away from the photo with a momentary expression of pain. David didn’t notice.

“Someone in the outer office wants to see you,” she said. “A woman named Deirdre.”

David felt his body tense.

“Something wrong?” Lisa asked.

“No…no, nothing.”

“So you want me to send her back here?”

“No,” David said. He didn’t want Deirdre to see his office, didn’t want any more familiarity than was necessary. Or maybe he didn’t want to be alone with her. “I’ll go out front and talk to her.”

As he entered the anteroom, Lisa was sitting down at the curved receptionist’s desk, preparing to busy herself with paperwork. It was a sparsely but comfortably furnished area. Lisa’s desk was near oak double doors to the main offices. There was a black leather sofa, a low table with a smoked glass top with glossy magazines fanned out on it like a colorful poker hand full of face cards. On the wall behind the sofa was a glass-covered collage of dust jackets from books sold by the agency. Deirdre was seated on the sofa with her legs crossed. She was dressed down from Saturday night at the restaurant but still looked glamorous in very tight jeans, a green blouse, and low- heeled shoes. Her perfume, not so much sweet as a musky, primal scent, came to David as she stood up and smiled at him. There was no sound in the reception area other than muted laughter somewhere outside in the hall.

Deirdre took a step toward him. “I guess you’re surprised to see me, David, but I wanted to kind of clear the atmosphere. I got the impression at the restaurant that Molly was a little aggravated by the situation.”

From the corner of his eye David saw Lisa look up from her paperwork.

“No, no,” he said to Deirdre, “she’d just had a hard day and was a little touchy.”

Deirdre’s smile wavered slightly as if she were nervous. “I need your help, David. A favor.”

“Well…”

“A woman I met, Darlene, told me about a furnished apartment near here that’s for rent. I have a key and I’m supposed to go by and look at it. The rental agent should meet me there, but this is the big city, and I guess I’m a little scared to go alone. Anyway, I don’t even know what to look for in a New York apartment.”

“The agent gave you a key?”

“Well, I sort of talked him into it…”

David swallowed as he realized where the conversation was headed. “Listen, Deirdre, I’m not sure-”

She’d moved closer to him; she extended her arm and brushed his chest with the tip of her middle finger, somehow making the gesture extremely intimate. “It is lunchtime, David, and when I realized I was near your office, I thought, My God, I do have a male friend in the big city! I was sure you’d take ten minutes to walk around the corner with me and look at this place. I’d feel a lot better if a man-if you-okayed the apartment before I made any kind of commitment.”

David saw that Lisa was staring at Deirdre curiously now, her paperwork forgotten. Deirdre swiveled her head a few inches and stared back. Immediately Lisa turned her attention to the papers on the desk.

“I don’t know…” David said. He wanted to go with Deirdre, but something in the core of him told him to refuse.

“Ten little minutes out of your life is all I’m asking, David.” Deirdre smiled again, this time with subtle challenge. “Are you afraid Molly wouldn’t approve?”

“It isn’t that,” he said. He glanced over at Lisa, who was studiously not paying attention.

“Now, David…”

“All right,” he heard himself say “Give me a minute while I save what’s on my computer.”

“Sure,” Deirdre said. “Better safe than worry. And thank you, David! You don’t know how reassuring this is.”

She watched him as he disappeared through the oak doors behind the receptionist’s desk.

Now Lisa did look up from her paperwork. “There’s a copy of Home Companion on the coffee table for you to read while you’re waiting,” she said. “It might give you some decorating ideas.”

“Thanks,” Deirdre said. “I see it right next to a copy of Mind Your Own Business.”

Only seconds after Deirdre and David had left the office, Josh wandered in and stood at the desk near Lisa.

He gave her his amiable grin that always made her think he should be the host of a TV game show. “Looking out for your boss, Lisa?”