SWF Seeks Same by John Lutz Read Free Book Online

part, but hanging loose on the sides, like a Sixties folksinger. She wasn’t the type to duck into Bloomingdale’s and get made over. There was an inherent plainness about her, a subservience. Hedra, Allie knew, was no threat.
    Hedra used a finger to tuck a strand of cold cheese into her mouth. “I’m sure this is gonna work out, Allie.” Her voice was soft and carefully modulated. It suggested the same apprehension as her eyes. Had she ever in her life really been sure of anything?
    Allie the practical said, “You going to work today?”
    Hedra giggled, her hand covering her mouth, for a moment looking like sixteen-year-old concealing braces. Surprising Allie. “You sound like my mother.”
    Her mother! Jesus, loosen up, Allie told herself. Back away and breathe. She smiled. “Yeah, I guess I do. Sorry. I was just making conversation, not checking up on you. Hey, for all I care, you can stay out all night for the prom.”
    “I’m way past those years,” Hedra said. “Never was much of a dancer anyway. Do you dance?”
    “I used to,” Allie said, remembering nights out with Sam. “I love to dance.”
    “I never actually went to a prom. Did you?”
    “Twice. Back in Illinois. In a green world I barely remember.”
    “Musta been nice.”
    “No, not really. A little nerd named Pinky tried to rape me in the backseat of a ‘sixty-five Chevy.”
    For a second Hedra seemed shocked. Then she said, “Well, those things happen.”
    “I guess. It wasn’t really much of an attempt. Not the sort of thing you go to the police about.”
    “Oh, you should have reported him.”
    Allie laughed. “Then half the girls at the prom should have signed complaints against their dates. I mean, there’s attempted rape and then there’s attempted rape.”
    “I can’t see much difference.”
    Allie took a bite of toast. Swallowed. Now who should lighten up? Next they’d be discussing the social ramifications of date rape. “Well, maybe you’re right, but it was the consequence of teenage hormones, and a long time ago.”
    Hedra shot a frantic glance at the wall clock, as if suddenly remembering there was such a thing as measurable time. “Golly, almost eight-thirty. I am working today. Gonna be a receptionist for a while at a place over on Fifth Avenue. I better shower and dress.” She stood up and placed her dishes in the sink, carefully not clinking them too hard against the porcelain. “You
are
done with the bathroom, aren’t you?”
    “Sure. All yours.”
    “I’ll do my dishes when I get home,” Hedra said. “Yours, too, if you want.”
    “I’ll take care of them this time,” Allie said. “I’m coming home around noon to do some computer work.”
    “I won’t be here … home till this evening.” Hedra yanked the sash of her robe tight around her thin waist and carefully tied it in a bow, though she was on her way to the shower.
    She paused in the kitchen doorway and turned to look at Allie. “I think this is gonna work out just great, you and me. No, I don’t just think it, I’m positive of it!” She was like an enthused ingénue in a movie.
    Allie put down her half-eaten crescent of toast and started to agree, but Hedra was already gone. Deferential ghost of a girl, wanting to be somewhere else.
    She has a real problem with her shyness, Allie thought. A shame, because she wouldn’t be nearly as unattractive as she seemed to believe, if she’d learn to dress effectively and use makeup to advantage.
    But maybe she fancied herself the intellectual type. Those boxes she’d had brought in might have been stuffed with books. Or maybe, looking and acting as she did, she attracted the sort of men she liked. Who knew about men? Joan Collins? Madonna?
    Not Allie.
    Goddamn you, Sam!
    Hedra was humming what sounded like a hymn in the shower when Allie left to meet Mayfair.
     
Chapter 9
     
    HEDRA said, “I envy you, Allie. I mean, your looks, your clothes, guys always calling and leaving messages on your