Hide and Seek

I think I told them about Ben and Mary two or three days after we

met, no more. By then Casey and I were thinking about becoming

lovers.

That first afternoon in the bar I had all I could do to keep small talk

running and keep my hands off her. I'm not stupid. There are girls

you push and girls you don't. And there are some who only want you if

they can see no particular need in you, who want to know you're calm

enough and tough enough to live with or without them. Girls like Casey

want calm and confidence. You did not have to be a genius to see that

rushing her would mean a long walk home alone.

So I sat on my hands and tried to keep it nice and easy, willing but

not eager. I walked home alone anyway.

I was coming back from the diner on the corner that same night when I

saw them drive by in the white Chevy. All three of them waved at me,

laughing. But the car didn't stop.

I figured that was that.

The conversation in the bar had been innocuous, probably too innocuous,

and now I was the local horse's ass.

Not so.

They stopped by the lumberyard at lunchtime the next day.