The Trouble With Eden - Lawrence Block [145]
“Thank you. I’m afraid my husband isn’t home right now.”
“I know.” Her eyes met Melanie’s. “I stopped at the Barge to check and I saw he was working.”
“Oh.”
“I hope I’m not keeping you from anything, Melanie. Is it all right to call you Melanie?”
“I don’t see why not. Better that than Linda. And no, you’re not keeping me from anything. I’m just going to run upstairs and turn off the TV. I wasn’t even looking at it, just something to do. Why don’t you have a seat, I’ll be right down, okay?”
But she stopped in the upstairs john to check her hair, splash cold water on her face, freshen her lipstick. What on earth did the girl want? To warn her away from her father? That seemed completely crazy unless the girl herself was off her nut, and she seemed sane enough. Besides, she was being as well mannered as could be.
To set up a date for her with Markarian? That seemed even less plausible. In the first place, she doubted Hugh wanted to see her again any more than she wanted to see him. It had been a pleasant enough means for her to a dramatically agreeable end, and for Markarian it had no doubt been better than solitary drinking, but after the embarrassment with Karen and her black boyfriend she couldn’t imagine him wanting to renew their acquaintance. They had passed on the street once or twice since then and neither had said hello. In short, it had turned out precisely as she had hoped it would, a one-night fling that had served its purpose without getting her involved in anything more extensive.
Then what in hell did Karen Markarian want from her young life?
She went downstairs, hoping she looked more poised and self-assured than she felt. Karen was sitting on the sofa, legs crossed, smoking a cigarette. The tight dungarees showed off her legs nicely, Melanie noticed, and there was obviously no bra under Karen’s tie-dyed T-shirt. Well, there was no bra under her own blouse, as far as that went, but Karen’s T-shirt was more revealing even if the younger girl had substantially less to reveal.
“Would you like some coffee, Karen?”
“Not now. It’s kind of warm for coffee.”
“A cold drink?”
“Maybe a Coke or something.”
“I think there’s Pepsi.”
“That would be great.” She fussed in the kitchen, filling two tall glasses with ice cubes, pouring the Pepsis. Returning, she said, “I decided to have one myself. It’s Diet Pepsi, actually. I figure why take on the extra calories when you can’t taste the difference anyway.”
“With a figure like yours you don’t have to worry.”
“I ought to lose a few pounds.”
“I don’t see where.” She could almost feel the girl’s eyes on her body. “Anyway, I don’t think I could hassle with that whole routine of watching weight. My mother is always on a diet and always gaining die weight back and I don’t see what good it does her. I’d rather be a few pounds overweight than go through all that.”
“You don’t have to worry.”
“I’m probably thinner than I ought to be, I guess.”
“Not too thin, though.” She put her glass down on the coffee table. “It gets harder when you get to be a few years older.”
“How old are you, Melanie?”
“Twenty-five. Why?”
“No reason. I was nineteen last month. Melanie? My father doesn’t know I’m here. Not that it’s any big deal, but just that it isn’t about him or anything.”
“Oh.”
“In case you were wondering.”
“Well, I guess I was.”
“I was in town with nothing to do and I sort of thought of you. I thought maybe you get lonely sitting here all night while your old man is working.”
“Sometimes I do.”
“I get lonely myself sometimes.”
“I see.”
“Do you?”
The girl’s stare, so open and so penetrating, was to meet and harder still to turn away from. The voice, so flat and frank and … and young, went through her like a pin fixing a butterfly to a board. She remembered discussing this girl with Sully, remembered teasing him with the thought that she might make love to Karen as she had made love to Hugh.
The idea had excited Sully. But it had excited her as well, both at the time and in retrospect. And after she had been with Bert and Warren, her mind had