The Last Time I Saw You by Elizabeth Berg Read Free Book Online Page B

he says, “I’m going , Nora, but I just need to ask you this one thing.”
    She crosses her arms, steps back. “What.”
    “I want you to consider moving your trip with Fred to another weekend and going to the reunion with me.” If she does this, he’ll still have a chance to get her back. If not, his goose is cooked.
    She starts to speak, and he holds up his hand. “No! Please, don’t answer yet! Come on, Nora, can’t I even…
    “It’s just that it would mean so much to me. It really would. And also, I think if you do this for me… If you do this, then I can start letting you go. I know you want me to let you go. I just want us to end on a pleasant note. You know?” He shudders, then, an autonomic response that humiliates him. He looks away from Nora, and when he turns back to her, he sees tears in her eyes.
    “Okay, so I’ll take off,” he says. From the corner of his eye, he sees a fork still on the table. He retrieves it and hands it to her. “Here you go.”
    “Thank you,” she says softly.
    “Finally helping with the dishes, huh?”
    She smiles.
    “Do you… The lawn’s gotten long. Do you want me to mow it? I won’t come in after or anything. Nothing like that.”
    “Pete,” she says. “Go home.”
    I am home , he wants to say. But he’s not, anymore.
    He walks out to the car on feet that seem to have become numb. Now what? Get some Viagra, he supposes. Then go home and screw the living daylights out of Spa Girl. That’s right. That will make him feel better. He climbs into his car, thinks about what he can try with Sandy that he hasn’t done yet. Then he rests his head against the steering wheel and stares down at the stupid tasseled loafers she talked him into buying. Nora looked at them when he flung them off before they went to bed, but she didn’t say anything. That’s what she does when she doesn’t like something. That’s what she used to do, anyway. Now she speaks up, at least about the important things. Well, so will he. He’ll call Pam Pottsman and he knows exactly what he’ll say, he can all but see the lines like they’re a script. He’ll say, “Hey, Pammy, how you doing , sweets?” Then she’ll blah blah blah . Then he’ll say, “Listen, I’m going to need another ticket for the reunion. Put me down for two instead of one. A little surprise for Nora, so don’t say a word.” He bets Pam will think that’s romantic. He bets she’ll flirt with him on the phone, too, just like she did last time. Any girl in their class would flirt with him, if she had the opportunity. Somebody like Pam Pottsman, that could be a trial. You didn’t want to be rude, but Jesus. Another kind of woman, though, that’s another story. Couple of months ago he ran into Beth Hillman at the airport in Detroit , for Christ’s sake, and she remembered him right away. He remembered her after a minute, too. Head cheerleader. They’d had a few sessions. Oh, yeah, they had. Bethie was a real blonde. At the airport, they’d gone to a bar and had a drink, had a real nice talk, too, no time for anything else, but if there had been time, he could have checked them into the adjoining hotel, no problem, he could tell; she was ready steady. “You know, you really haven’t changed a bit, Pete,” she’d said, and don’t think he didn’t know what that meant.
    He heads out onto the freeway, and when the traffic slows, he regards himself in the rearview mirror. Game so not over, not for this boy. Not by a long fucking shot. He starts to smile, to check out his killer dimples, but his smile becomes a grimace. He grabs at his chest, his hand over his heart and grunts, Unh! Unh! Unh! He manages to pull into the breakdown lane, to put the car into park, call 911 and give an approximate location. Jesus, it’s hard to talk, it’s hard to talk! He snaps the phone shut, then slumps down, closes his eyes, and waits to die.

FIVE
    D OROTHY CAN HARDLY DIAL THE PHONE FAST ENOUGH . When her friend Linda