CHAPTER TEN
Joe opened the door and she almost dropped her purse. He looked ghastly—too pale, with puffy, bloodshot eyes. He was sipping whiskey from a glass the size of a mixing bowl on a stem.
“Uh...I got your message.”
He shrugged. “That bitch.”
“Do you mean Curtis? Don’t tell me, let me guess—he thinks you’re too smart for his own good.”
“He’s thinking about going back to his ex-girlfriend. He’s with her right now...” Joe actually shuddered. “Discussing it.”
“What an ass! Both of them.”
He stood back from the doorway. “C’mon in.”
She followed him in, wrinkling her nose at the state of the apartment. Drawn shades, dirty dishes everywhere, television blaring.
“Sit,” she ordered.
He listlessly complied. She bustled about, throwing open the shades, picking up dishes, making a cheerful racket. Joe remained unmoved. He was slumped in front of the television, gulping at his beer and feeling pretty damned sorry for himself.
She came over and shut off the television. Joe jerked in surprise and glared at her.
“Dammit! Let me rot in peace.”
“Forget it, pal. Hey, this ought to cheer you up—I have to work here for the next few days. They’re painting my apartment.”
“After seven years?”
“They finally believed me when I said the walls weren’t supposed to be beige.”
“Good,” he said listlessly. “I could use the company. Especially now that you’ve pulled out of your years-long pity spiral.”
“You bet I have! Let me tell you about my great day. Then you’ll realize that even though your life sucks, just being associated with me is something to be grateful for.”
Joe’s rebuttal was a snort.
“I went to see the guy, Tony Freeman, at Mutch and Munch?”
“Try to keep my name out of these meetings, okay? I don’t want him to find out I sicced you on him.”
“He’d thank you!” she said brightly.
“Sure he would.”
“Well, he’s going to pitch some of my book proposals to his boss, how about that, wise guy?”
While speaking, Marie had been rooting through her tote bag, pulling out a T-shirt and shorts, and changing out of her “serious author” costume. She had just stripped down to her bra and panties when Joe sat up straight.
“Oh my God!”
She froze, startled. It never occurred to her that Joe might be shocked—maybe aroused?—by her undressing in front of him.
She smiled tentatively. “What?”
“What the hell is that thing on your leg?” She glanced down and saw the fist-sized bruise on the outside of her thigh.
“Oh. Walked into the corner of a low bookshelf. Then started swearing. A lot.”
“Jesus, you scared me, that looks nasty. Anyway...you were saying about meeting Freeman’s boss?”
She stared at him for a long moment. He stared back. His hair was so untidy it was actually standing up in spikes all over his head without hair product, but he still looked yummy to her.
Don’t do this, she thought. “Do you feel anything? I mean, with me here...like this?”
Bad idea.
“What?” he asked.
Stop now. It’s still possible to stop. “Right now. I’m in my underwear, and it’s expensive stuff. How does that make you feel?”
“Like you must be freezing your ass off. Want a sweater?”
She shook her head and got dressed, amazed at her stupidity. She cleared her throat. “So...what? Curtis was just using you to get back at his lady love? Or you were an experiment?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. I can’t believe he’d use me like that, though.”
“I could. Didn’t you do basically the same thing to me?”
He glared. “This is fun. You should come over more often when I’m depressed. Are you implying I deserve this treatment?”
“No. I’m implying that it’s ironic.”
“Is that what you think I did to you?”
“That is what you did to me. I was your experiment, your ‘Hey, maybe I’m not gay’ attempt to fit in. You told me so. I was just dumb enough to think I could—” She coughed, surprised at how anger surged up at the thought, even after all this time. “Anyway. I was your token woman.”
“You’re nobody’s token anything. And jeez, that happened almost a decade ago. We were seventeen...that hardly qualifies you as a woman.”
“It doesn’t qualify me as a trout.”
He put his arm around her and hugged gently, dropping a kiss to the top of her head. She submitted sulkily.
“For what it’s worth, you really confused me. You were the only woman I was ever attracted to. You know, besides Marilyn Manson.”
“Well, you really confused me . You were the only man who had sex with me and then decided he preferred men.”
“I dunno...maybe you should have switched deodorant...or something?”
She stared at him incredulously, then realized he was teasing. She seized a couch pillow and let him have it right across the face. He retaliated with a couch cushion. They fell to the floor, shrieking and wrestling.