Amateur City by Katherine V. Forrest

Author:Katherine V. Forrest [Forrest, Katherine V.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, General
ISBN: 9781594932700
Google: sPVtpwAACAAJ
Amazon: 1594932700
Publisher: Bella Books
Published: 2011-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

9

Stephanie Hale said, “You embarrassed me today.”

Ellen, folding underwear into a suitcase, stopped and confronted her, hands on her hips. “I embarrassed you?”

Stephanie looked at Ellen, ocean-gray eyes cool. “As soon as you called, I came. Didn’t I? You were upset enough to call me in the middle of a class, weren’t you? I came all that way as fast as I could. Through that rotten Westwood traffic.”

“I didn’t ask you to come. I just needed to talk to you. We love each other, don’t we? But no, super butch has to try and drag her little hot house flower home, her little shrinking violet!”

“Ellen, you found a dead man. You could’ve been killed yourself!”

They were shouting; Ellen lowered her voice and hissed, “Well, I wasn’t. And the detective in charge told me I handled myself with great presence of mind.”

“So what does she know? When I got there you’d been crying.”

Stephanie had taken her jogging shoes from the closet to bring with her, and Ellen picked them up off the bed and hurled them into the suitcase. “For God’s sake, you of all people should know tears are emotion, not weakness!”

Calmly Stephanie picked up the shoes and slid them into a plastic sack and stacked it neatly on top of her socks. “I had every right to want you out of there, not have you any more upset than you already were.”

“Answer me this,” Ellen said icily. “If you’d been me, if this had happened in the hallowed halls of UCLA, would you let me take you home because you were upset?”

“There are simply some things I handle better than you.”

“What goddamn bullshit.”

“So you can swear like a man,” Stephanie said contemptuously. “I’m impressed.”

“Good,” Ellen said. “Fuck you.”

She stalked into the living room and sat on the sofa with her arms crossed, furious, as Stepahnie finished packing and walked past her into the kitchen.

Carrying plates of food, Stephanie came into the living room. She deposited the plates on TV trays and sat in her usual armchair, eyes drifting to the television screen as she pushed at the contents of her plate. She lifted a forkful of Stouffer’s pasta shells and looked at it. “This stuff,” she said.

“You used to love it, raved about the sauce,” Ellen said nastily. “Good for jogging, you used to say. Before I decided to go back to work.”

“You really want to get into all that again? The food’s fine, my taster’s off. Okay?”

For some minutes they ate in silence. Grudging the conciliation of changing the subject, Ellen muttered, “I can’t stand Dan Rather.”

Stephanie contemplated the TV screen, drawing curly strands of graying hair over her forehead with the absent-mindedness of habit. Twin furrows formed between her deep set gray eyes. “Honey, what do we do next week when Julie comes and you’re not here?”

Ellen sighed inaudibly. “What we did before when I was working. Stephie, why do we have to do anything? She’s nineteen. Your kids are both old enough to amuse themselves.

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