"Encounter, The by Kate Wilhelm" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nebula Award Stories 7)

Drawing back from her hand, tight and self-contained again, watchful,
he said, "Isn't it lucky that I can keep the two separated, then? How
successful a salesman would I be if I put on the wrong face when I went
to work?"

"I wonder if mixing it up a little might not be good for you. So you
wouldn't sell a million dollars' worth of insurance a year, but you'd be a
little happier when you're not working

"Like you?"

"Not like me, God forbid. But at least I haven't given up looking for
something. And you have."

"Yeah. You're looking. In a bottle. In someone else's bed. In buying
sprees."

"C 'est la vie. You can always buzz off, you know."

"And add alimony to my other headaches? No, thanks."

Smiling at him, sipping an Old Fashioned, infinitely wise and infinitely
evil. Were wise women always evil? "My poor Randy. My poor,
darling. You thought I was everything you were not, and instead you
find that I am stamped from the same mold. Number XLM 119543872-
afraid of life, only not quite afraid of death. Someone let up on the
pressure there. Hardly an indentation even. So I can lose myself and
you can't. A pity, my darling Randy. If we could lose ourselves
together, what might we be able to find? We are so good together, you
know. Sex with you is still the best of all. I try harder and harder to
make you let go all the way. I read manuals and take personalized
lessons, all for your sake, darling. All for you. And it does no good.
You are my only challenge, you see."

"Stop it! Are you crazy?"

"Ah. Now I know who you are tonight. There you are. Tight mouth,
frowning forehead full of lines, narrowed eyes. You are not so
handsome with this face on, you know. Why don't you look at me,
Randy?" Her hands across the table again, touching his cheeks, a finger
trailing across his lips, a caress or mockery. "You never look at me,
you know. You never look at me at all."

He leaned his forehead against the window, and the chill roused

him. Where was the woman? He looked at his watch and realized that
she had been gone only a few minutes, not the half hour or longer that
he had thought. Was the whole night going to be like that? Minutes
dragging by like hours? Time distorted until a lifetime could be spent in
waiting for one' dawn?