Part 47 (2/2)
”Well, what am I supposed to think?” She struggled not to cry. ”You didn't call me back yesterday. I mean, you completely went off the map. And today, it's like you don't even know me. I don't know about you, but I don't have enough friends to be able to take it lightlya”you know, just go, 'Oh, well'a”when I lose one of them.”
”You will never lose me as a friend,” he said quietly. He turned and looked at her, his dark eyes intense. ”That I can promise you.”
”Will you come to a meeting with me tonight, then?” she asked.
”I can't,” he said.
”Can't or won't?”
He sighed. ”I've agreed to meet with my brothers. At five o'clock. I won't be back in San Diego until late.”
”Tomorrow night, then.”
Another sigh. ”Tomorrow night I can't, either.” He paused. ”I mean, tomorrow night, I won't.”
”Well, there we go,” she said. ”I won't ever lose you as a friend, except it sure as h.e.l.l seems like you're already gone. Thanks a bunch. Have a nice life.” She turned and started walking back toward Haley.
”My feelings for you continue to be inappropriate.” He spoke in a low voice, but it was loud enough to carry to her. ”I'm struggling to do what I know is right instead of that which I all too humanly want.”
Of all the egotistical ... ”And, of course, I'm such a pushover that all you have to do is snap your fingers and I'll fall into bed with you. Is that really what you think of me?” She moved back to his track, aware that she wasn't good at keeping her voice down when she was angry, and afraid of being overheard. ”It takes two to tango, baby cakes. I want to go to a meeting with you, period, the end. I a.s.sure you, I have no intention of making any side trips to the Sunny Daze hourly rate motel to f.u.c.k you blind.”
Ihbraham just looked at her with those eyes that reminded her so much of pictures she'd seen of Jesus. ”You misunderstand,” he said. ”I know you have no intention of ...” He shook his head, with that strange little smile that was both sad and amused curling his lips. ”The struggle is mine; I know this to be true. It's a struggle of spirit as well as of flesh. I see you, and I want...” He sighed. ”I believe it is wrong to want something so mucha”something that doesn't belong to me, something that belongs to someone else.”
”This is America,” Mary Lou said. ”Women don't belong to men in America.”
”Yes,” he said, ”they do.”
”Well, Lord,” she said. ”If that's what you think, then good riddance to you. You're not someone I want as a friend anyway.”
”Are you not Sam's wife?”
”Well, yes, but he's my husband, too.”
”That's different,” Ihbraham said.
”No, it is not,” she argued.
”Yes, it is,” he said. ”Even here in America, the land of the free. Sam is a little more free than you are. And you are both more free than I am.”
He glanced at his wrist.w.a.tch, and Mary Lou knew it was really just a matter of seconds before he left. Lord help her, mad as she was at him, she didn't want him to leave.
”Why don't you come inside and have some iced tea and we can argue about this out of the heat?” she said. ”Please?”
He sat there silently for several long moments, just looking at her. ”You would invite me into your house?” he finally said.
”Is there a reason I shouldn't?” she countered.
”In some countries, such an offer would be considered an invitation to have s.e.xual relations,” he told her. ”An offer to enter a woman's home, to be there alone with hera””
”Yeah, and in some countries the penalty for a woman who has s.e.x with a man she's not married to is death. The man gets a rap on the knuckles and the woman is beheaded. I don't Jive in some countries, thank you very much,” she said. ”And neither do you. My invitation was for iced tea. Don't get weird on me now, Ihbraham.”
”You have never invited me inside your home before,” he pointed out.
”Okay,” she said. ”You're right. You're absolutely right. I'm dying to have s.e.x with you. Right on the living room rug. In front of my baby daughter, no less.” She rolled her eyes in exasperation. ”You know, I'd almost forgotten that you were a man. But apparently you're just as stupid and hormone-crazed as the rest of them. And you've got some really dumb foreign ideas to boot. I thought you were an American.”
”I am.”
”Then act like one!” She marched away from his truck, to Haley's playpen, scooping up her daughter before she turned back to look at him. ”Just out of curiosity, is that really what it would take?” she asked. ”For you to be friends with me again? A quickie while my husband's at work and my daughter's down for a nap?”
He shook his head. ”Mary Loua””
”Why don't you come back in a couple of hours,” she said, ”and see just how desperate I am for someone to stick around.”
He was looking at her as if he couldn't tell whether or not she was kidding.
Trouble was, Mary Lou wasn't quite sure herself.
”I'm sorry I upset you so much,” he said, and put his truck into gear.
She watched as he drove away.
The phone rang, and Mary Lou hurried inside the house out of force of habit.
Except, really, the only person she wanted to talk to had just rolled out of her life. Probably for good.
She would not cry. She would not cry. At least not until Haley took her nap.
Still, she had to take a deep breath before she picked up the phone. She tucked it between her shoulder and ear so she could use her hands to keep Haley from grabbing her earrings. ”h.e.l.lo?”
”Hey there, Mary Lou.”
G.o.d d.a.m.n it. It was Insurance Bob. His timing stank, as usual. He was the last person she wanted to talk to right now.
”So am I going to be able to talk you into dinner tonight?” he asked. His voice got softer, sweeter. ”I'd really love to see you, honey. I can't stop thinking about you.”
Dinner with Insurance Bob. Well, why the h.e.l.l not? Mrs. U. was always willing to watch Haley in the evenings. Sam wouldn't be back until late again and even if he did get home before her, he wouldn't give a flying f.u.c.k. And as for Ihbraham...
Shoot, she might as well be with someone who liked her enough to actually do something about it. ”Tell me where and when and I'll meet you over there,” she told Bob.
”Oh, baby,” he said. ”You just made my year.”
Commander Paoletti had looked hard at Muldoon when he'd first made his request to stand on the dais with the President and other VIPs during the SEAL demo.
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