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with a note that read Had to take a short trip to New York, but I m
coming back to live with you in two weeks. Better find me a stall. Love,
Hlatur. PS. Bringing my girlfriend Rune with me.
Liz called at 5:45 p.m. and squealed into the phone, so excited she
could barely contain herself. Her excitement fueled me; I was happy
she was happy.
 How did you do it? she demanded.
 No one can resist me when I negotiate, I said playfully, with
intentional arrogance.
 You are very good, she said sweetly.
 I am, actually, I said, aware I was speaking to her in a tone I
reserved for someone with whom I d been very intimate.
 What do I owe you?
 We ll settle up later. I was feeling rather proud of myself. Cool,
confident, even cocky. I had the horses and Liz Chase was impressed.
 Would you like to have a late dinner?
 Tonight? Oh, I, uh& have dinner plans, and just the sound of her
voice told me it was a personal dinner with someone.
 No problem. We ll& talk soon, I said, deflated and disappointed.
I hung up and turned on the TV, tuning in to watch Liz on the six o clock
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ANDREWS & AUSTIN
news. She was so poised. What if someone saw her and offered her a
network job in New York or a cable job in Atlanta? And who was she
having dinner with? If I were Anselm, I d just hire her to work for me
so I could be around her all the time. Morality was hell, and I wasn t
sure it had much upside. When the station went to commercial break, I
phoned Madge to see if she d have dinner with me.
 Let me try to work through this with you, Madge said as we
ate Chinese food at a ratty little neighborhood restaurant and I sulked.
 She wants you. You want her but won t go through with it because it
could end in four years. She goes out with someone else and you re
heartbroken.
 Hardly heartbroken, I said, trying to sound nonchalant.
 So you could just quit seeing her altogether, or you could just say
what the hell, it ll be a great four years, or you could get psychiatric
help.
 Oh, please!
 Face it. You ve got your gears jammed in neutral. You need a
tune-up. Personally, I d get my pipes blown out by the blonde, but for
two hundred and fifty dollars an hour you can have some old broad tie
your four-year fear back to the way you were breast-fed 
 I thought you said I should stay away from Liz Chase! I
interrupted what I feared was about to become a tirade.
 That was plan A and you failed. So now we re on plan B, which
is just go have sex with her and be done with it, so we can all quit
hearing about it.
 Shut up and eat, will you, I said morosely.
 Dinner with you every night would be no damned picnic. I should
tell her that.
The following afternoon, I walked into my office to find a dozen
people standing around my conference table, a cake in the center and
baby shower gifts around it. I was certain I was in the wrong room.
 Surprise! they yelled in concert, and Jane giggled with glee at having
stunned me.  It s a baby shower for your horse!
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MISTRESS OF THE RUNES
I could not have come up with an event I would have disliked
more than my own personal horse baby shower, unless it was a root
canal without anesthesia. Baby showers were insipid enough, but baby
showers for horses were completely ridiculous, and from the look on
Jack s face he could not have agreed more. I swiftly went into gear,
overpowering my aversion to the event and seeking to find something I
could effervesce about. The cake had horses on it, the wrapping paper
had horses, albeit a three-year-old s rocking horse, and the gifts were
items like tiny horse blankets and tiny bowls and candy treats.
 What have you named your baby horse? the young director
of human resources, whose name escaped me and, therefore, whom I
merely called HR, asked me.
 Well, my horse is five years old so she has a name Rune.
 Ruined? Like spoiled? HR wrinkled up her nose in displeasure.
 R-U-N-E. Jane jumped in.  But it means ruined, she said in a
Shakespearian aside, the kind of sidebar that made me want to skewer
her.
Guilty over that thought, I plastered a large smile on my face and
tried not to say anything I hadn t edited in advance. Hugh and Jack
escaped the moment a piece of cake was slung onto a napkin for them,
and the rest of the crowd stayed only a polite minute more. I was relieved
when it was over and Jane headed back to her desk in a euphoric state,
having surprised and pleased her boss.
I sank into my chair as e-mail pinged onto my desktop.  Did you
survive it? was the only line from Liz. I dialed her on my cell phone.
 You knew in advance? Rotten of you not to warn me. Did you
have a good dinner last night?
 It was okay, she said, not offering to tell me with whom she went,
or where.  I m excited about our horses coming, she said, changing
the subject.  I went to the tack store on Beauville Road today and got a
few things for Hlatur. You should stop over there. I was annoyed that
she d gone without me, and she must have sensed that.  I would have
bought Rune something, but I didn t know what you want for her.
 World peace, I said, and we both laughed, even though I felt
like anything but laughing. Liz was separating from me. That s an
interesting thought, I told myself, since we ve never been together.
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" 90 "
MISTRESS OF THE RUNES
CHAPTER TEN
t had taken me only a few days to move into an airy new town
Ihouse, spurred on by shared domesticity with Madge, whose
demeanor after forty-eight hours was crocodilian. This morning I
awoke to my brand-new abode, stretched out in the clean white sheets,
smiled up at the big beams overhead, and luxuriated in the ceiling fan s
slow breeze on my naked body like a soft summer wind, making me
wonder how Liz Chase felt.
I picked up the PDA at my bedside and clicked the photo file,
staring at the picture taken of Liz Chase, not asking myself why I kept
her photo by my bed or why I continually looked at it, dissolving into
those eyes and wondering was she deliciously soft, did she have muscle
tone, or no tone, could she kiss? She advertised that she could kiss.
Kissing was so critical. I couldn t remember how long it had been
since I d been met at the door with kisses. Maybe seven years ago,
before Clare, with the crazy redhead who carved good-bye notes in my
furniture. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]