It would be awkward now. . . . She should get Karen out of here.
Get her started on her new world before they both called the whole thing off because of one tender moment.
“Jerry’s going away for a month,” Dee said absently, sitting down near the fire. “Would you like to use his place till you find one of your own?”
“I . . . I suppose so. When’s he leaving?” Karen stood in front of the fire, looking like some displaced waif.
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“This weekend, I think he said. You could go to a hotel tonight and stay until then . . . in fact, you should leave right away.”
“Before we change our minds?” Karen smiled weakly.
Dee looked at her a moment. “People should hate each other before they try to break up. . . . It’s so much easier that way.”
“I’ll . . . I’ll start packing.” She finished her drink and went upstairs.
As if out of compassion, Cho-Cho followed her up the stairs and stayed with her. Dee listened to the sounds of doors opening and closing and Karen’s footsteps.
“Here we go again,” she whispered to herself, thinking of that period after Rita. But this was going to be different. She didn’t know why—she just knew it would. She still loved Karen, deeply . . .
but not in the same way. She’d done a little growing up, too, perhaps.
She stood up and took a look in the refrigerator to see what she was going to make for dinner. The telephone rang again. Damn thing! Dee thought, but answered, “Hello?”
“It’s Karen. . . . I left straight from upstairs.”
“You what?”
“I’m . . . I’m down the street. The cab’s waiting for me.”
“But Karen . . . good God, why?”
“I, well, I couldn’t face you to say good-bye—even for just a little while. I feel like a rat to be such a coward, Dee, but if I’d had to say good-bye . . . well, I don’t think I could have gone.”
Dee felt the tears come into her eyes. “I understand.` Will you let me know tomorrow where you’re staying?”
“I’ll write it to you. . . . I don’t think I’ll be able to talk to you for a while yet—you were right about not seeing each other. It . . . it’s all beginning to hit me now.”
“All right, Karen, but you know where I am if you need . . . anything.”
“Don’t cry. . . .”
“Hell! Who’s crying? You promise to let me know?”
“Yes . . .”
“That’s it, then. Have a good life, baby.”
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“You, too . . .”
Neither of them said good-bye—they simply put the receiver back on the hook. Dee smiled a little uncertainly, then went back into the kitchen and started dinner—tears or no tears.
Martie would be arriving soon.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Another Kind of Love Page 35