Flesh

CHAPTER TEN

It was almost quitting time, and the rain outside Gabby’s showed no sign of letting up. Alison backed away from the window. She was glad that she’d borrowed Helen’s rain gear; she would have gotten drenched if she’d worn her windbreaker to work.

Not if Evan picks me up, she thought.

Fat chance.

Who knows, maybe he’ll surprise you. After all, he showed up last night when you didn’t think he would.

Alison went to a table that had just been vacated. She dropped the tip into her apron pocket and began to clear off the dirty plates and glasses.

If Evan cares at all about me, she thought, he’ll pick me up. He knows it’s pouring outside and I’ll have to walk home unless he gives me a ride. Coming to my rescue about now would go a long way toward getting back on my good side. He has to know that.

After wiping off the tabletop, she lifted the heavy tray and carried it into the kitchen.

Maybe he’ll show up, she told herself. And if he does, maybe he’ll be in for a surprise.

Before leaving the house that afternoon, Alison had tucked her toothbrush and her new nightie into the bottom of her flight bag. Then she had taken them out. She would have no use for them even if Evan should make an appearance. After all, she hadn’t changed her mind about sleeping with him. It was silly to prepare yourself for something that just wouldn’t happen.

But she thought about last Friday night. He had come into Gabby’s after the movie let out at the Imperial, sipped a beer while he waited for her to finish the shift, and they had walked back to his apartment. She hadn’t expected to spend the night. It was so wonderful, though, that she couldn’t force herself to leave and they had made love almost till dawn. That had been her first whole night with him.

If they could have another night like that…

We won’t, she told herself. Too much has changed.

But she’d gone ahead and put her toothbrush and nightie back into the bag. You never know. Maybe, somehow, everything would suddenly be right again.

She wanted it all to be right.

As she unloaded the dirty dishes in the kitchen of Gabby’s, she imagined Evan coming for her. “I just couldn’t stay away from you any longer,” he would say. “I tried to stay away and punish you, but I couldn’t. I’ve given it a lot of thought, Alison. Sure, I’d like to make love with you. I’d like nothing more, because it makes us part of each other, as if, for a little while, we’re one person. But I can live without that if I have to. The main thing, really, is just to be with you. I would be happy just looking into your eyes, just hearing your laughter, just holding your hand.”

And maybe she would go back to his apartment, after all. While he waited on the sofa, she’d close the door to his bedroom and slip into the negligee…

“Al!”

Startled, she turned around. Gabby, standing at the grill, was looking over his shoulder at her. “Go on and get out of here. Have a good weekend.”

“Thanks,” she said. “You, too.”

At the rear of the kitchen, she scooped her tips out of the apron and into her bag. She struggled into Helen’s heavy raincoat, put on the strange hat, and lifted the bag. “See you Monday,” she called, and pushed her way through the swinging door.

The table that she had just cleared was no longer deserted.

Evan sat there.

His arm was around Tracy Morgan.

More-Organ Morgan, Mouth-Organ Morgan, also known as Tugboat Tracy for reasons that had always been unclear to Alison.

Alison felt herself shrivel inside.

Evan, as if sensing her presence, looked around at her. His glasses were spotted with rain. One side of his mouth twitched upward.

Alison rushed for the door, shouldered it open, and lurched into the pounding rain.

She looked sideways.

Behind the lighted window, Evan watched her and calmly stroked Tracy’s long, auburn hair.