Dragonfly

by Farris, John

  "I think I said I fell for a woman named Abby. She had spirit and humor and was great to be with. I don't think she's around anymore."

  "What—who do you think you're—oh, I see. You're conning me again. You're evil."

  "Trust your instincts."

  "I don't want to trust my instincts!"

  "Then you're conning yourself. And you're beginning to bore me."

  "Shut up! I was in love with you, and you deserted me. The last couple of years, every good-looking guy who crossed my path, I fell for him. I got deflowered. That's a wretched way to put it, but it's the way I felt at the time. Deflowered. Shit. It wasn't any good. Hasn't been… I'm a mess, Joe!"

  "So you came looking for me. But if it's more therapy you're after, forget it. I'm not playing that game."

  She clenched and unclenched her jaw. "All right, I know it was dumb! I just wanted the chance to tell you how much I hated you!"

  "Sure. What's the other dumb reason?"

  "I don't—"

  "Last chance to level with me, Abby. I have better things to do with my life than to wipe the nose of a broken-down neurotic has-been writer who forgot how to fight back when things got really nasty."

  "You are the most despicable—"

  "Abby, it's a simple thing when you don't think about it. And so incredibly complicated when you do. So stop thinking, damn it, and stop gritting your teeth. Do you want me?"

  Her mouth was open, her throat locked as if she were choking. Chloe looked around at her, and whined.

  Joe reached across the table and blotted the first couple of tears that appeared on Abby's glossy tanned cheeks.

  "'Lovers and madmen,'" he quoted, "'have such seething brains, such shaping fantasies, that apprehend more than cool reason ever comprehends.'"

  Abby stared at him. The corners of her mouth tweaked. Her lips trembled, and he thought with a twinge of hope, Hey, maybe… And then she laughed, loud enough to turn heads in McAvity's Islander, that uninhibited contralto roll-out-the-barrel, from-the-gut laugh of hers.

  "Oh, my God," she gasped, when she was able to talk. "Somebody call the cops!"