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“That same strip’s got LaLaurie’s, and a hair salon, and Tara’s Togs?” Aside from the country club, La-Laurie’s was the only restaurant with any pretensions in the Bon Temps area. It was where you took your wife for your twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, or your boss when you wanted a promotion, or a date you really, really wanted to impress. But it didn’t make a lot of money, I’d heard.

I have no inkling of how to run a business, or manage business dealings, having been just a step or two ahead of poor all my life. If my parents hadn’t had the good fortune to find a little oil on their land and save all the money from it before the oil ran out, Jason and Gran and I would’ve had a hand-to-mouth time of it. At least twice, we had been close to selling my parents’ place, just to keep up Gran’s house and taxes, while she raised the two of us.

“So, how does that work? You own the building that houses those three businesses, and they pay you rent?”

Bill nodded. “So now, if you want to get something done to your hair, go to Clip and Curl.”

I’d only been to a hairdresser once in my life. If the ends got ragged, I usually went over to Arlene’s trailer and she trimmed them evenly. “Do you think my hair needs something done to it?” I asked uncertainly.

“No, it’s beautiful.” Bill was reassuringly positive.

“But if you should want to go, they have, ah, manicures, and hair-care products.” He said “hair-care products” as if it were in a foreign language. I stifled a smile.

“And,” he continued, “take anyone you want to LaLaurie’s, and you won’t have to pay.”

I turned in my seat to stare at him.

“And Tara knows that if you come in, she will put any clothes you buy on my account.”

I could feel my temper creak and give way. Bill, unfortunately, could not. “So, in other words,” I said, proud of the evenness of my voice, “they know to indulge the boss’s fancy woman.”

Bill seemed to realize he’d made a mistake. “Oh, Sookie,” he began, but I wasn’t having any of it. My pride had risen up and whopped me in the face. I don’t lose my temper a lot, but when I do, I make a good job of it.

“Why can’t you just send me some damn flowers, like anyone else’s boyfriend? Or some candy. I like candy. Just buy me a Hallmark card, why don’t you? Or a kitten or a scarf!”

“I meant to give you something,” he said cautiously.

“You’ve made me feel like a kept woman. And you’ve certainly given the people who work at those businesses the impression I am.”

As far as I could tell in the dim dashboard light, Bill looked like he was trying to figure out the difference. We were just past the turnoff to Mimosa Lake, and I could see the deep woods on the lake side of the road in Bill’s headlights.

To my complete surprise, the car coughed and stopped dead. I took it as a sign.

Bill would’ve locked the doors if he’d known what I was going to do, because he certainly looked startled when I scrambled out of the car and marched over to the woods by the road.

“Sookie, get back in here right now!” Bill was mad now, by God. Well, it had taken him long enough.

I shot him the bird as I stepped into the woods.

I knew if Bill wanted me in the car, I’d be in the car, since Bill’s about twenty times stronger and faster than me. After a few seconds in the darkness, I almost wished he’d catch up with me. But then my pride gave a twitch, and I knew I’d done the right thing. Bill seemed to be a little confused about the nature of our relationship, and I wanted him to get it straight in his head. He could just take his sorry ass to Shreveport and explain my absence to his superior, Eric. By golly, that’d show him.

“Sookie,” Bill called from the road, “I’m going to go to the nearest service station to get a mechanic.”

“Good luck,” I muttered under my breath. A service station with a full-time mechanic, open at night? Bill was thinking of the fifties, or some other era.

“You’re acting like a child, Sookie,” Bill said. “I could come to get you, but I’m not going to waste the time. When you’re calm, come get