Jill Emerson - The Trouble With Eden

“I’m exhausted already. I wouldn’t be good company.”

But there was something he wanted to discuss with her, something that wouldn’t work at all over the phone. Couldn’t he just see her for half an hour? He could even come to the shop if she wanted.

She gritted her teeth. People just wouldn’t leave you alone. Over the telephone, face to face, anywhere. They wouldn’t leave you alone. You couldn’t give them free paintings and shove them out the door. You couldn’t turn down a dinner or a drink or a marriage proposal, couldn’t get them off the phone.

“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice firmer than she had intended. “Not tonight. It’s impossible; everything is impossible.”

She broke the connection before he could force any more words into her head. There were too many words there already. She couldn’t handle the ones she had.

She didn’t want to marry him. She didn’t want to be his wife or Karen’s mother. She didn’t want to be anybody’s anything.

People never left you alone.

“Wasn’t that a dynamite dinner, Petey?”

“Just sensational.”

“I’m still a little hungry, though. Maybe we could go out for a milk shake. Would you like that?”

“Well—”

“A milk shake’s just what I want.”

A milk shake was not just what he wanted. What he wanted, what he really wanted, was to go somewhere private and vomit up the mountain of food he had just finished stuffing down his throat. It would be such an overwhelming sensual pleasure to vomit. He had never before appreciated the potential enjoyment of nausea.

“Then milk shakes are what we’re going to have,” he said. “Let’s go someplace good.”

Someplace with a men’s room. If he could get to it first, he could make room for the milk shake.

Karen came down the stairs and pulled up short when she saw her father. He was sitting in the living room with the telephone receiver in one hand, and he looked as though he had been sitting in that position for some time.

She said, “Daddy?”

He looked up, his eyes blank for a moment. “Oh,” he said. “Hello there.”

“Hello. Is something the matter?”

“Just lost in thought. Brown-study time.” He became aware that he was holding the telephone receiver, looked at it, hung it up. “Maybe something is the matter. I don’t know. I was talking to Linda and I didn’t like the way she sounded.”

She listened as he recounted the conversation.

“I’m a little worried about her,” he added. “She didn’t sound right at all. She seemed very troubled. I wonder if I shouldn’t drive over there and make sure she’s all right.”

“From what she said—”

“She said not to, I know, but it might be right for me to ignore that. Sometimes people say things in the hope that they’ll be ignored.”

“I don’t know if I should say anything or not.”

“What do you mean, kitten?”

“I don’t know. If it’s my place to say anything.”

“Please do.”

She hesitated, working things out in her mind first. She said, “Well, I dropped in on Linda awhile ago. I stop in and see her every once in awhile when I’m in the neighborhood. And we got to talking.”

“And?”

“She told me not to say anything. What it is, she likes you very much. But she doesn’t want to get serious. She didn’t say it that way but that was what she was saying, if that makes any sense.”

“It makes a lot of sense.”

“She doesn’t want to be rushed. She isn’t ready for it.”

“She said that when I first started seeing her.”

“And she... well, she’s also seeing somebody else. She didn’t come right out and say it but that’s what’s happening.”

“Oh.”

“I don’t think she’s serious about him or anything. I think she’s seeing him mostly because she doesn’t want to be seeing just one man. I’m just guessing, but... I guess I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Well, I’m glad you did. I’m very buoyant right now because of the book and it’s made it hard for me to judge things properly in other areas.” He picked his pipe off the table. “I’ll be finishing it tomorrow.”

“Hey, that’s terrific!”

He brightened. “It is, isn’t it? I could have been done a long time ago, you know. I usually just get a first draft done and go back to it later. But this time I kept thinking of things I wanted to change and reworking earlier stuff.”

“I can’t wait to read it.”

“You won’t have long to wait. Hey, you know something, kitten? I still feel like a premature celebration. How about if you put on something beautiful and I’ll buy you a fancy dinner?”

“I had a sandwich while you were working.”

“Understandable. So let me have a sandwich myself and we’ll go out and do the town. What there is of it.”

She chewed her lip. “Well, I sort of have a date.”

“Just sort of?”

“There’s this girl, I was going to go over to her house for a few hours. Oh, there’s no reason not to say it. It’s Melanie Jaeger.”

“I didn’t know you were friendly with her.”

“I run into her in town now and then, and lately we’ve gotten to talking. She’s sort of interesting. Now that the summer people are gone there aren’t that many fascinating heads in town.” She hesitated. “I could call her up and tell her to make it some other time, I suppose.”

“No, don’t do that.”

“The thing is, I’d rather celebrate after you finish the book. And after I read it.”

“You may not feel like celebrating then.” He got to his feet. “But I’ll hold you to it,” he said. “You can read the book tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow night we’ll go out for dinner. Deal?”

“Will it be done by then?”

“I’m going to finish it tonight,” he said. “I’m not going to be able to unwind unless I drink too much, and I don’t feel like it. The only way I’ll get the book out of my head is by finishing it. Is there arty coffee?”

“I’ll make some. I’ll bring it to you.”

Hours later she got out of Melanie’s bed and took a shower. She toweled herself dry, then called out, “Hey, is it okay to use your toothbrush?”

Melanie burst out laughing.

“I’m hip, it’s a terrible question. Which one is yours?”

“The yellow one.”

As she was dressing, Melanie said, “I’m not going to brush my teeth. I want him to taste you on me.”

“Wow, that’s kinky. But you weren’t going to tell him about us.”

“Oh.”

“I mean, do what you want.”

“No, I’ll have to make up something.”

“Look, tell him the whole thing but make me some stranger you picked up in a gay bar in Trenton or something. Describe me and everything, but make me someone you don’t know and never saw before or since. You let me pick you up and you brought me back here and we made it in your bed, the whole trip just the way it happened.”

“And then you used my toothbrush.”

“Right.”

“You are devious,” Melanie said.

“I’m more devious than I used to think. It almost scares me how devious I am.”

Warren drove directly home from the theater, brushing off several cast members who wanted him to join them for a drink. By the time he got to his house Robin had been sleeping for hours and Anne Tedesco was yawning. He talked to her long enough to learn that everything was all right, then sent her off to bed.

So Bert’s entrance, fifteen minutes later, could not have been better timed. He was sitting in a corner of the living room when Bert walked in, and after one glance he knew that his assumption had been correct; Bert was leaving him, and with any encouragement whatsoever Bert would tell him so tonight.