"Lisa Tuttle - Tirnanog" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tuttle Lisa)

"You do seem happy, which is hopeful. But -- wasn't it hard at first?"

"What's all this about?" she asked. "William? Has William --"

I shook my head. "Not yet. He hasn't said anything, but...I think he's met
someone, or if he hasn't, he's looking. He's tired of me, I can feel it."

"Poor baby."

She sounded so detached, as if she'd never had to worry about being left by a
man in her life. It annoyed me, because I remembered when things had been
otherwise. Three years ago. What was the guy's name? Jim. His marriage had
ended, his affair with Lecia continued, and then he'd been offered a job in
Albuquerque -- and he'd taken it, just like that. Not that she would have, but
he didn't even ask Lecia if she'd go with him. She had been devastated. Looking
at her now, remembering her face distorted with tears and the sympathetic
tension in myself, I could hardly believe it was the same woman.

"How long did it take you to get over Jim?" I asked. "Did you just decide to
give up on all men after he left?"

"Something like that. I decided...I decided I'd never be at the beck and call of
another man. I was going to be in control from then on, and get what I wanted,
take what I wanted -- ouch!" James went flying off her lap. Lecia put her hand
to her mouth and licked the scratch. She grinned crookedly. "Well, of course,
there's got to be give and take in any relationship. There's bound to be
conflict sometimes. But why let him make all the rules, call the shots, decide
to leave you?"

"Are we talking about me or you? I mean, you said -- are you seeing someone?"

She wouldn't meet my eyes. "You see me as I am, a woman alone except for her
cat. And her women friends. You're the one with man-problems."

"And you've solved yours. So what do you advise me to do? Drop him before he
drops me?"

"Only if that's what you want."

"It's not. I want him." To my annoyance, tears came to my eyes. "And if I can't
have him, well...then I want to be happy without him. The way you seem to be." I
pressed harder, trying to make her acknowledge me and my right to know. "You and
Janet and Hillary...you all seem so content to be alone. What's your secret?"

She looked at me, but there was a reserve, a withholding, in her eyes. "You
should get a cat; then you wouldn't be so lonely."

"I have a cat."
"Oh, yes, I was forgetting Posy." She looked across the room at James, who was