Weekend by Jane Eaton Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page B

kids?”
    Ajax told them about her kids.
    Though Joe had been hoping to avoid a feeding, Scout got hungry so she fiddled with fixing the tiny voracious mouth to her nipple. Crackles from the fire, the sound of the baby slurping. Preamble gotten through; how they all knew each other. How Logan and Ajax had met twenty years earlier and lost touch and met again. When she sat down, Ajax leaned into Logan as if she’d known them always. Joe had half a mind to say, “Wait a second, that’s Logan you’re talking about,” but it hadn’t been Logan’s hand on Elliot’s ass, but the reverse—Elliot’s hand on Logan’s ass. Joe was surprised that Ajax was older—Logan usually dated down, dated thirty-year-olds. Ajax, she said, was turning fifty; it was her birthday weekend.
    Toby musically shook his collar, put his large head on Logan’s lap, and Logan petted him as long ropes of spittle fell. He didn’t sit long before he melted into the ground, his big head tucked onto his paws. Logan offered Dos Equis; Joe couldn’t, Elliot begged off, and Ajax didn’t.
    Logan said, “Sure am glad to be up here again. I didn’t know when I was going to make it back.” Logan hugged Ajax close. “Was waiting for the girl to be able to come with me.”
    â€œI thought we were going for an afternoon’s drive,” said Ajax.
    â€œOh, Logan is a real card,” said Joe dryly. “All about romance and true love.”
    â€œI think they really are,” said Ajax, beaming over at Logan.
    â€œLet me tell you about love. Here’s what I know about love,” said Logan. “My cousin Miranda met this woman when she was young—nineteen. She met Daisy straight after she broke up with this loser dude she’d been dating in high school. She was in college at the time, taking a two-year program in insurance brokering. She wasn’t worldly. She hadn’t travelled. She didn’t really excel in school, and she certainly didn’t make any real friends, not in all those twelve years. Miranda was still living at home with her mother, but she worked at a foot-long shop, mostly for tips, and this woman came in a lot. She always ordered a BLT sub, and it got so my cousin was excited to have her come in, you know, looked forward to seeing her? She was always in nice clothing, and she flirted. I don’t know at what point Miranda figured out that Daisy was married and had a newborn, but by then she was in love. We all said, don’t hold your breath; she is not going to leave her wife. Go out with somebody else. But she couldn’t. She slept with Daisy in Daisy’s marital bed when her wife was out. She slept with her year after year until, eventually, yeah, Daisy left her wife and they moved in together. But then she caught Daisy having sex with other people—”
    â€œWell, we all do that, pretty much,” said Elliot. “I mean, speaking for myself as someone poly.”
    â€œWe’re not,” said Ajax and reached for Logan’s hand. “Right, hon?”
    â€œWe’re not,” Logan confirmed. “I’m not anymore.”
    â€œIt’s a question of what a couple promises each other,”said Ajax. “It’s a question of being honourable. Pretty much if you’re keeping an element of what’s going on hidden from your partner, you’re about to be sucked under on the honour thing.”
    â€œExactly,” said Logan, raising her beer. “So Daisy did the opposite, and my cousin found out, but she was still really young, and she believed Daisy when she said it wouldn’t happen again. She liked to believe people were basically good at heart.”
    â€œHow very World War II,” said Elliot.
    â€œSo she got married to Daisy and it happened again, of course, and Miranda finally left Daisy. Then Daisy got into a bad car wreck, and my cousin took her back. Daisy