City Boy by Jean Thompson Read Free Book Online Page A

there; it took the pressure off. And he was able to listen to the two of them talking in a way that she would not have talked to Jack alone. Dex asked Chloe how the new life plan was going and she said not bad, not bad. By this time next year, everything was going to be back on track.
    Jack nursed his beer and pretended he was a turnip, deaf and dumb and incurious. Dex said, “Good for you, honey. You deserve a lot bet-ter.” Jack wondered if Dex was gay. He didn’t know any straight men who called people “honey.”
    Chloe said, “He’s wondering what we’re talking about but he’s too polite to ask.”
    “Who, me? No, actually I’m kind of slow-witted. People are always saying things I don’t understand.”
    She laughed at that. Jack smiled and hoped he could keep his streak going. So far, attractive silence broken by witticisms was serving him well. Chloe said, “We were talking about this guy I used to be engaged to. I call him El Beefhead. Enough said.”
    “And the new life plan?” Jack ventured, all spy casual.
    “Oh, I left the Ph.D. program in English and started over in business school.” She seemed a little embarrassed. “I’ve taken a vow of pragma-tism.”
    “Nothing wrong with that.”
    “No, there’s not. It’s just different. Grad school that actually trains you to earn a living.”
    “That can be important.”
    She leveled her eyes at him. They were as blue as the impossible skies in a child’s storybook. “Yeah. Especially if you don’t want to depend on some total prick to support you.”
    Dex said, “You gotta lay off the rich boys, Cece. There’s always hidden costs involved.”
    “So this guy,” said Jack, not wanting to dwell on the topic of rich boys, “is he in school here too, do you have to trip over him all the time?”
    “He’s not in school,” said Chloe, in a way that was meant to close off discussion, but here was that damned Dex winking at him, either because there was a good story that wasn’t getting told, or—He didn’t want to think for what other reason.
    “So the poetry class,” he said. He knew he was asking too many questions, like an interview. “How did that fit into business school?”
    “Oh, that was just like a last fling. My little humanities fix. And you know how well that turned out. Okay. Why did you say what you did that day, were you trying to shut me up?”
    “I was trying to shut both of you up.”
    “Ooh,” said Dex, appreciatively.
    “Seriously. You were both getting your feelings hurt. I didn’t want that to keep happening.”
    “
His
feelings,” Chloe snorted.
    “Sure. You were telling him he was irrelevant and fusty and out of it.”
    “Oh, let’s get off it. Let’s put it behind us.” She looked at her empty glass and Dex rose obediently to go to the bar. When he was gone, Chloe said, “So you think I was mean to him. I’m a mean person.”
    “No. You had an opinion and you were very articulate in expressing it.”
    “You think I’m opinionated.”
    “I didn’t say that either. What do you care what I think, anyway?”
    “It’s not really about you. El Beefhead used to tell me I was a smart-ass. That I was too competitive.”
    “You mean, you were smarter than he was.”
    “Yeah, I guess.”
    “Why do you care what he thinks either? He’s not worth it,” said Jack. He thought this would be easy enough. A few cheap shots at the old boyfriend. Girls liked that kind of thing.
    Chloe gave Jack another of her appraising looks. He was more used to it this time, but it was also from closer range, and it made all his ignorant gallantry cleave to the roof of his mouth. She said, “It’s just a confused time for me right now. I probably shouldn’t even be allowed out in public.”
    “Sure.” Jack nodded, as if he knew what she was talking about. She was drinking faster than he was and he wondered if she was a little drunk now. He was trying to take it easy himself, which was a change from the way he and his