"Lawrence Watt - Evans - One of the Boys" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watt-Evans Lawrence)

That startled him. “I don’t remember seeing you there.”
“I just watched.” She pressed up against him. “I saw those other women talk to you, and you seemed to
think they were pushy, or something, so I…” Her voice trailed off as she looked up at him. She frowned.

Maybe the whole dream was based on a wrong assumption. Maybe the all-American hero wasn’t quite
what people thought he was. She was sweating, and the stench was beginning to get to her; she didn’t
think she could stand any more subtlety—and she wasn’t really being subtle at all, in any case.

So she would have to be absolutely direct.

“Damn it, are you gay?” she demanded. “Is that it after all?”

“No,” he said. He had finally realized what she wanted, though he still had no idea why; he certainly
hadn’t meant to lead anyone on. He paused for a moment, debating, then decided on the truth. “I don’t
want men, either,” he said.

She stared into his face, his eyes.

His eyes, she thought, were a very strange color, a shade of brown she had never seen in eyes before,
and there was something odd about the shape.

Or maybe there was something wrong with her eyes. They were beginning to sting from the fumes,
whatever they were.

At least, she thought it was the fumes, and not tears.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“You don’t like women?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I like you all fine,” he said. “As people. But that’s all.”

“You don’t…” She hesitated. This was all wrong. She knew she should just turn and run out, but she had
come so far. “You don’t, um, want…”

He shrugged. He wondered if he ought to blush, but that was something he had never learned to do.
“Well, not with anyone I’ve ever met,” he said.

“Are you…” She hesitated. “I mean, is there something physically wrong?”

He shook his head. “There’s something missing,” he said. “But it’s not anything simple or obvious. I don’t
know what it is. I don’t know if it’s in me, or in all of you, but whatever it is, it isn’t there.”

She pulled away. “This isn’t at all how I pictured it,” she said, her voice unsteady, and he could see that
her eyes were now as moist as her forehead.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

The barrier was broken, and the words poured out in a torrent of confusion and misery. “It’s all so