"James Patrick Kelly - Chemistry" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kelly James Patrick)

of cloudless climes and starry skies; and all that's
best of dark and bright, meet in her aspect and her eyes
...."
Lily held in her laughter until they were safely past,
then she burst. After a second, Steve roared too,
although she suspected that it was only because he was
relieved that she was finally unwinding.
"So you can laugh," he said. "What an improvement!"
"It's just ... the old Byron trick." She couldn't catch
her breath. "The corniest, the lamest ...." She started
to dissolve again.
"This Byron writes poems?"
"Lord Byron, you dope." It didn't seem to help. "Hey,
even I know Byron and I took hackers' English in
college."
He leaned forward and reached between his feet for a
sprig of thyme. He said nothing.
"I can't believe anyone over eighteen would fall for a
line like that."
He started defoliating the thyme. "Maybe she likes
poetry."
"But don't you see, that's the whole problem! Tired old
poems work, dumb songs work, honesty works, lies work,
every trick in the book works. There's no choice
involved, we're practically defenseless here."
"You know what the problem is, Lily?" He looked unhappy.
"You're too busy thinking to enjoy yourself."
She was surprised at how much his disapproval stung.
"Excuse me?" He was nobody, a pushy salesman she hardly
knew. "Using your head isn't exactly a handicap, you
know." She waited for him to apologize, explain himself,
make her feel better, but he let the silence stretch.
The dumb little bastard. He wasn't going to get away
with hurting her; she could retaliate. "So Steve, what
was your major in college?" She already knew the answer.

"Didn't have one."
"Oh come on, everyone ..."
"Didn't go."
The stream babbled through another long silence. She
thought of twelve different things to say, but couldn't
speak because she was too ashamed of herself for
humiliating him. What a snob she was! If this was
neuromance then she could do without it; she'd had more
conflicting feelings in the past half hour than she'd
had in six months. Steve stood up, put on his jacket,
sat down again. She watched him, an emptiness growing
within her. Maybe she couldn't fall anymore, maybe the
parts of her brain that loved had atrophied.
"You never answered my question, Lily," he said.