The Loving Couple
Page 30
"Will you?" he shouted. Would she indeed! "Remember," he said warningly. "Tm off the payroll. There won't be any Mr. Santa Claus with a fat check every week . . ."
As though she cared! "And no fat hand on my thigh every night," she said. "Of course you'll quit. You never should have gone there. It was all my fault. You should have refused. You should have finished your play. You've wasted a whole year with Popescu." She had never before admitted any blame for his connection with Pulse Beat, but she knew it was true. He had gone there in order to indulge her; to give her the things he thought would make her happy. She felt ten years younger already.
"Not wasted," he said. "I've learned a lot. I've met a lot of people who know I can write."
"You'll finish it then?" she said rapturously. "We'll sell the house and come back here. I'll get another job . . ."
"And a baby?" he asked.
"Certainly a baby. Several perhaps. But we'll worry about that when the time comes. And when that time does come, there won't be any overpriced little housing development, no interfering sister, no Dr. Needles. We'll raise our children where we're happy. Then they'll be happy." She was breathless with excitement.
"In one room?" he asked.
"Perhaps in two or three." Other people managed, why shouldn't they? "But only when the time comes and then not in Riveredge. I don't even want to go back there tonight."
"Where do you want to go?" he asked.
She threw her natural conservatism into the air and watched it explode. "Let's go to a hotel. They'll think we're lovers—no luggage, no reservation, no nightie . . ." She felt as wicked as she had earlier this evening. But wicked in a nice, moral way.
"No money," he said. "It's a . . ."
She didn't even listen. If fate had meant her to have a kept gentleman tonight, that gentleman would be her husband who was, after all, the most attractive man in the world. "I have some," she said. "We'll go nearby. The Margate's said to be sinful. Then we can get up first thing in the morning and beard the superintendent here. I know he'll let us come back. You tipped him when we left, didn't you?"
"I gave him millions, my beloved." The darling! The generous darling!
"Then come, darling," she was so impatient. "Come before some horrible thing or some terrible person happens along to ruin everything."
'"Where to?" he asked. "The Margate?"
"Any place," she said wildly. "Just so we get there soon enough to save our lives—our life."
She saw a car turn slowly into East Sixty-eighth Street from Park Avenue. She was blinded, for a second, by its headlights.
"Stop the car, Fred," a voice shrieked. "There they are!"
She was petrified. She couldn't let the magic die.
"Wait, you two," the voice called. "I want a word with you!"
"My God," he groaned. "It's Alice!"
Her heart stopped beating. Then she tugged at his sleeve. "Run for it! It's our only chance!"
She felt him grab her hand and they dashed down the street together.
"Turn the car around, Fred," Alice called. "Follow them!"
She heard poor Fred's weary voice say, "I'm afraid we can't, dear. It's a one-way street."
Laughing and running down the sidewalk with her hand secure in his, she couldn't for the life of her remember just what their quarrel had been about.
Table of Contents
Title Page
By the Author
Copyright Page
To ebook readers
The Loving Couple: His Story
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
By the Author
Copyright Page
To ebook readers
The Loving Couple: Her Story
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten