Jennifer Crusie – Anyone But You (страница 4)

Nina stopped her search for paper. Amaretto milk shakes could mean only one thing: a My-Life-Is-In-Trauma party. And with Charity, who ran her life as efficiently as she ran the boutique, trauma could mean only one thing. “Not Sean, too?”

Charity nodded. “Sean, too. How do I do it? How can I live in a city full of men and always pick the rats?”

Nina searched for something comforting to say. “Well, they’re not always rats.”

“Oh, yeah?” Charity folded her arms. “Name the one who wasn’t.”

“Well…” Nina searched her memory. “Of course, I didn’t know you for all of them—”

“Twelve of them,” Charity said. “Twelve guys since I was sixteen, twelve significant guys since I was sixteen, twelve guys in twenty-two years, and I can’t come up with a winner.”

“You’re sure it’s over?” Nina tried to find a bright side. “Maybe he’s just having second thoughts because you’re both getting so serious. Maybe—”

“I caught him in bed with his secretary,” Charity said. “I don’t think she was taking dictation. Not with what she had in her hand.”

“Oh.” Nina wrote down Amaretto and ice cream on the list. Amaretto milk shakes might not be the healthiest way to get over a life trauma, but it was Charity’s way. Come to think of it, she could use one, herself. “Get chocolate syrup, too,” she told Charity. “Let’s go for the whole enchilada.”

While Charity went shopping, Nina and Fred practiced on the fire escape.

“Come on, you can do this,” Nina coaxed him, and together they climbed in and out over the low polished wood windowsill.

Fred was not crazy about the metal staircase, so Nina spread out a rag rug so he’d land on something soft.

On the other hand, he loved the leap from the window.

“Try not to overshoot,” Nina warned him, but the fire escape was wide, and Fred was not aerodynamic, so after an hour, Nina was content that Fred would not be plummeting to his death from overexuberance.

She was also sure it was time for Fred to see some grass. “It’s a shame you’re not a cat. I could just get a litter box,” she told him as she coaxed him down the two flights of fire escape with a piece of ham.

Fred whined a little as he eased himself down to the second floor.

“Shh.” Nina glanced in the closed window of the second-floor apartment. “I don’t know this guy yet. He keeps strange hours. Be very, very quiet here, Fred. We want the neighbors to love you.”

Fred shut up and eased himself down another step.

“I love you, Fred,” Nina whispered as she backed down the metal stairs. “You’re the best.”

By the time Charity came back, Fred had done the fire escape twice and was philosophical about it. “We’ll take walks, too,” Nina promised him. “But this is going to work.”

“He can do it?” Charity walked back into the room after putting the ice cream in the freezer and shook her head, amazed. “I wasn’t gone that long.”

“Fred is very intelligent,” Nina told her. “Watch.” She opened the window. “Here you go, Fred. Born free.”

Fred scrambled onto the box Nina had put by the window to aid his exit. He turned to look once over his shoulder, and Nina nodded.

Then he hurled himself through the window.

“Oh, my God!” Charity ran to the window, Nina close behind.

Fred sat on his rug on the fire escape, looking smug.

“Part basset, part beagle, part kamikaze,” Nina said. “We have to work on his takeoff, but he’s pretty good, don’t you think?”

Charity stepped back from the window. “I think he’s great.” She smiled at Nina. “I really do. He smells, but he’s great.”

“Well, that’s what I thought, too.” Nina watched Fred sway down the fire escape to the backyard.

“Here’s the rest of your stuff.” Charity handed over the paper bag she’d been clutching. “Your change is at the bottom.”

“Thanks, Char.” Nina dumped everything out onto her round oak dining table and pawed through it, stopping only when she found a small jeweler’s box tied with a silver ribbon in the middle of the pile.

“That’s a baby present,” Charity told her. “I’ll give you a shower later.”

Nina opened the box and took out an oval sterling-silver name tag engraved with Nina’s address under a lovely script “Fred Askew.”

“Oh, Charity, it’s beautiful,” Nina said.

“Just in case he gets lost.” Charity watched as Fred’s top half appeared in the window, wobbling back and forth as his toenails scrabbled on the brick outside. “Or stolen.”

“I think I’d better put a box outside, too.” Nina put the tag down and went to haul him in. “He seems to have a rear-end-suspension problem.”

“Among other things,” Charity said. “Listen, I’ve got to go.”

Nina put Fred on the floor and straightened. “What about the Amaretto?”

Charity bit her lip. “Can we do it tomorrow night? We both have to work tomorrow morning, and I’m going to need you a lot more tomorrow night since it’s a Friday and…you know.”

Nina nodded. “I know. Fridays are the worst. Sure. That’ll be better. You can spend the night.”

Charity looked down. “That all right with you, Fred?”

Fred sighed and waddled off.

“He’s delighted,” Nina said.

“Yeah, I could tell he perked right up,” Charity said. “See you tomorrow.”

THE PHONE WAS RINGING when Alex let himself into his stuffy second-floor apartment. He answered it, cradling the receiver between his shoulder and his ear as he struggled to put the window up and let a little air into the place. “Alex?”

Great. Debbie. “Yep, it’s me.” Alex stuck his head out the window, trying for some fresh night air. The hell with it. He climbed out the window and sat on the fire escape, taking off his shoes and socks and throwing them back in through the window as he talked. “What’s up?”

Debbie’s voice was relentlessly cheery. “I thought we might do something tomorrow since it’s your birthday. And my sister’s kids want to go to the movies, so I thought we could—”

“Sorry,” Alex lied.

“Alex, if you’d just try—”

“No, really, I’m booked the whole day with my family. One after another the whole damn day.”

“Why?” Debbie sounded frustrated. “Why can’t they see you all at once?”

“Because they’re all trying to talk me into specializing in their areas.” Alex flexed his toes in the breeze and felt better. Maybe if he gave up wearing shoes—

“Well, I think they’re right,” Debbie said. “If you specialized in something else, you’d make more money.”

“I have all the money I need.” Alex stripped off his white T-shirt while she was talking, so he missed what she said next. “Give me that again?”

“I said, you have loans to pay off. Being in debt isn’t bad for a bachelor, but what about when you want to get married and have kids?”

Alex sighed and threw his shirt through the window. “Debbie, we’ve had this discussion. I don’t want kids.”

“Well, not right now, but someday you’ll want a family and then—”

“I have a family,” Alex said. “They drive me nuts. Why would I want another one?”

“A family of your own,” Debbie said.

“Debbie, you’re not paying attention. I don’t want kids. Ever.”

There was a long silence on the end of the phone, and Alex realized that she’d heard him for the first time.

“I do,” she said.

“I know,” Alex said. “That’s why I’ve been trying to warn you. I like you a lot. I have a good time with you. But I don’t want kids. I don’t even want to get married. I’ve had family up to here. I don’t want any more.”

“Well.” Debbie cleared her throat. “Well, all right. I guess there’s not much point in us seeing each other anymore then, is there?”