скачать книгу бесплатно
“Who’re you busy—with?”
“The Davies are having their annual picnic. I’m helping get it organized.”
“It was fun last year. Since I’m—was married to you, do I get to go this year?”
“No.”
He had coaxed, “We had a good time last year.”
“How nice.”
“Let’s have coffee tomorrow. I’ll come by your office and get you.”
She wasn’t encouraging. “I’ll be busy.”
“Not...that...busy. We need to talk.”
“My other phone’s ringing. Take care.”
And she’d hung up.
Oddly enough, the stiff, aloof exchange had made Tyler exuberant! It was the first time she’d talked to him in a long while!
His counterself had said a sour: Goody.
And he’d replied to his counterself, Well, we exchanged words. Those were the first exchanged words that weren’t about divorce!
In spite of his counterself, Tyler had gone to bed that night with a smile. His dreams had been erotic. He’d been faithful. He had dreams. He wakened with the stimulation. And he lay and wondered if that hungry body of hers dreamed like his. His sex was named Godzilla. Yeah. He’d done the naming at age fourteen. Half his lifetime ago.
At the office, since his divorce, he referred to Barbara as Miss Nelson...relentlessly.
She told him, “You needn’t be so formal.”
He smiled at her and replied, “I’m being formal. You’re my boss. To call you by your name would sound pushy.”
“I don’t mind...pushy.”
“It isn’t businesslike and respectful.” He was adamant. So he went right on calling Barbara, Miss Nelson.
For a while she sassed back by calling Tyler, Mr. Fuller. But he accepted that term with a slight, serious nod. So she went back to calling him Tyler.
If Barbara had been any younger she would have torn her hair. But she just waited.
For Tyler, her waiting was a whole lot like realizing a big spider knew where he was and was watching him from some crack in the wall. It was scary.
He shared that fear with Jamie.
Jamie said, “Tell me which crack, and I’ll take care of it for you.” Jamie said that not even looking up from his papers.
So Tyler told Barbara, “Jamie admires you.”
And she asked, “Jamie...who?”
Tyler blinked. She really didn’t know which man was Jamie. So Tyler was gentle. “We share an office. He’s Jamie Oliver. A fine lawyer. He looks at you with admiration.”
Barbara slitted her eyes and watched Tyler but she didn’t respond, so he went off. He could feel Barbara Nelson’s eyes under his clothes all the way down the hall. He shivered.
So then Barbara-who-was-now-referred-to-as-Miss Nelson met Tyler in the hall. She asked Tyler to lunch with her.
But he said earnestly, “I’ve a meeting with Kayla. She has a problem.”
He hadn’t even said thank you or looked directly at the woman. And he just went on off down the hall.
And he didn’t dare to look back to see if the prickles down his backside were actually from her lascivious stare.
He called Kayla at work and said, “If you have any sense of compassion at all, you’ll have lunch with me today. That barracuda who is Barbara Nelson has her eye on me.”
In a dead voice, his ex-wife said with no emphasis at all, “How exciting.”
“Don’t be nasty. You could help out a little. You owe me something.”
“I owe you something? I do not!”
“Kayla, you are the most compassionate woman I’ve ever known. I’m not asking you to come back home and get into my bed—” And the very idea of her doing that ruined his breathing. He was silent.
She sighed into the mouthpiece and said, “Okay. This once.”
He left his office early to avoid walking out with Miss Nelson...and having her glued to him for the lunch hour...with Kayla. No way.
At the bank, Tyler went to Kayla’s office before she was ready to leave it, and he sat patiently in the waiting room until Kayla came to fetch him.
Kayla groused, “Everybody in the building knows you’re here! They all think we’re bonding. This has got to be the last time I see you.”
“Why?”
And Kayla sighed with great patience and reminded Tyler, “We’re divorced!”
He told her logically, “We married because there is a bond between us. WE understand each other—”
“Oh, no, we don’t!”
“—most of the time.” He had continued. “You tend to be more structured in your conduct and not open to new ideas—”
“I will not see you again!”
“—but we are friends.” He finished his words.
Kayla was positive, “No. We are not.”
With legal logic, Tyler was firm. “We were friends in our marriage. And we were lovers. I want to continue the friendship.”
She scoffed, “You want a shield. You can’t handle one woman, much less two.”
Their argument continued all the way down the street and into the restaurant, through the line as they chose what they wanted, to their table and all the way through their lunch. It was like old times. What else can a woman expect from a lawyer? He argues all the time!
Tyler cheerfully walked Kayla back to her building. He would have escorted her to her desk, but she was firm that he did not.
So that night at the park’s baseball diamond, Tyler batted in two runs. He was thrown out both times. But the team cheered the runs. At least Tyler had helped somebody else make it to home plate.
But Kayla wasn’t in the bleachers. He looked. He watched. He almost missed a ball. He settled down, accepted that she wasn’t there and he played baseball.
At the office, at that time, Tyier’s primary concern was drafting the contracts for a hospital, which was buying out a doctor’s private medical practice. This was done under Miss Nelson’s watch. The hospital would put the doctor on their payroll as a full-time employee. The hospital would bill the patients, and the doctor would rotate with the other doctors in being available on night call and weekends.
While it was interesting to Tyler, he felt some hesitancy for the doctor. However, he was again impressed with Miss Nelson’s ability and knowledge. She was a superior mentor.
She scared him spitless.
The contract would take about a week to finalize the draft to present to the hospital for their input. Somebody at the firm would meet with the hospital authorities to agree on the final version.
The hospital would then present the contract to the doctor, who would consult his own lawyer. His lawyer could make suggestions for changes. After that was done, she would return the contract to the hospital.
The hospital then might or might not agree to the changes. And they would have to have a meeting. If there were no changes they could sign the contract. If there were changes and the hospital agreed with them or the parties agreed with some modification, they would ask the law firm to include the modified changes into the contract. Then it would be ready for execution.
The entire process was interesting to Tyler. He found it stimulating to smooth people’s problems and help them. His mind worked differently from nonlegal minds. He always considered ramifications.
He had decided against being a candidate for any local or federal political office. He had given the idea thoughtful consideration. A political career wasn’t for him. He was a home boy. But he could help a candidate. He’d help somebody he believed in.
And he found it was annoying that Kayla wasn’t there as his sounding board. She had taken that position since he’d first known her.
She’d taken other positions since then. Now her position was to be gone from him. What an irritating woman! Why couldn’t she be pliant and fascinated like she was supposed to be? Instead she was out of his life, on her own and not needing him around!
It was depressing to understand an ex-wife didn’t need him any longer. She adjusted well to being on her own. Actually, she wasn’t entirely. She and her dogs were sharing a place with Henrietta and her cats.
So one noon who should Tyler run into on the street but Henrietta! He smiled his smile of greeting women and didn’t look at her chest. He said, “Welt, how’s it going?”
Henrietta grinned. “Great! Thanks for getting me a new roomie.”
Sourly, Tyler replied, “I didn’t have anything at all to do with Kayla leaving me. I’m trying to get her back.”
“I don’t think she’d be interested.”
“We’ll see. How are the dogs and cats getting along?” And his eyes were cool as he waited for her reply.
But Henrietta said airily, “We got rid of the dogs before she even moved in. Most were prime dogs. They were snatched up. One of the prime ones went with his original owner! We couldn’t find where they’d stolen the other dogs.”
“I thought Kayla bought those dogs.”
“Oh, she did. And she got her money back. But the dogs had been stolen. Well, one hadn’t.”
Tyler frowned. “I didn’t know the dogs had been stolen.”
“Haven’t you ever seen the papers when the pit dogs are killed by an opponent, the pit people then drive through the city and just leave the dead dogs In an alley somewhere?”
“Poor dogs.”
“They use female dogs, in heat, to lure the male dogs away from the owners’ yards.”
“Females have always been a trial for males. Even dogs.”
Henrietta laughed, gave Tyler a casual wave and went on off down the street.
Tyler walked along to a café for lunch. He was deliberately alone. With a group a man can’t offer to sit down with a single woman. He needed a woman. Actually, he needed Kayla. Even going alone this way, he wasn’t really interested in finding another woman to be permanent. He wanted to talk and be listened to.
He went through the lunch line not seeing anyone he knew. The place was Nick’s. The owner was named Bob. The place had been Nick’s for something like thirty years. Tyler greeted Bob, didn’t see Tim wave to him and went to a table with one woman.
No rings. Not bad looking. Slender. Reading a book. She needed company.
Tyler inquired with courtesy, “Vacant?” And he indicated the chair across from her.
She looked up from her book to look only at the chair. She said, “Nobody’s around. You can have it.” And she went back to her book.
She didn’t say one word to Tyler. She didn’t even look at him. He felt like a ghost. Women looked at Tyler. He was always careful to only smile and never wink. Winking can get a man in trouble.
His table partner went on reading. He tried to see what the book was. Not a clue. He asked, “What’s the book about?”
She briefly looked up and said, “Huh?” But she instantly went back to the book.
That’s a put-off. So Tyler didn’t try for dialogue.
It was diminishing to have a book be more interesting than being a man like he was. He asked for the salt.
Blindly, she handed it to him from the middle of the small table. She didn’t look up from the book.
He pretended to salt everything without salting anything. He didn’t tilt the shaker but he moved his hand up and down as if he was salting it all. She never looked up. Then he put the shaker in the middle of the table. He asked, “Why is the book so interesting?”
“I’m on my lunch hour.”
Tyler narrowed his eyes. That was another put-off. She was on her lunch hour therefore she didn’t need to discuss anything with a stranger.
She ate and read. Tyler sat silently and ate. He looked around somewhat. No one was staring at him with knowledgeable sneers. People went on with their lives not needing to know what Tyler Fuller was doing or how he was doing or if he was deliberately being ignored by another indifferent woman.
It’s diminishing to realize no one really cares about a recently divorced man.
He remembered the sci-fi motion picture of The Shrinking Man. Tyler’s clothes still fit. He could sit on a chair. He wasn’t actually shrinking.
That was something to be thankful about. He drew a breath that was rather sad. She didn’t look up. A man could sigh that sadly and that heartless woman didn’t even have the courtesy to ask what was the matter. What was the world coming to?
So Tyler took the long way back to the office. He told Jamie, “I met a woman at lunch.”
