Chapter 9

Life with Betty wasn’t going to be simple.

He sat for a time, crossed-legged and silent, letting her cry her eyes out, hoping that she would relieve herself of all of the tension and conflicts that had piled up inside her head.

Finally, she settled down and turned around.

She stroked his face with an affectionate hand.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured.

“Don’t worry,” he said, “do you feel better now?”

She nodded slowly.

“But what am I going to do?

“About what?”

“Him.”

Leonard shrugged. “Is he important?”

“He’s a damn nuisance, I’ll tell you.”

“I can handle nuisances.”

“He’s not your problem.”

“I can make it my problem,” Leonard reassured her, “if you want me to.”

She shrugged.

“It isn’t going to work, honey.”

She sounded so dejected, he didn’t know how to console her, and yet, he realized that sometimes people could get in the way. He thought of May and Janet and his attentions, and how they had fallen to pieces.

“I think the best thing for us,” he said, “is to go back to the country, where nobody else is.”

“You mean, just run away?”

“Why not? Does that worry you?”

“But we have to come back to New York.”

“What for?”

“Everything,” she said helplessly.

He laughed. “You don’t mean that.”

“I was born and brought up here. I don’t know if I could make it without the city.”

“But we just got ourselves a place far away?”

“I know, I know,” she said, sounding sad, “but I didn’t think it would be forever.”

“Well,” Leonard said, “what else is there to do?”

“I don’t know,” she said, “that’s why I feel so rotten.”

Life was beginning to get complicated, Leonard realized. He hadn’t expected this.

He thought of Jenny, and how happy she would be to hear this conversation between them. Jenny probably could have predicted that true love wouldn’t run smoothly. She knew.

Then a sudden nasty thought ran through Leonard’s head.

“Tell me, sweetheart,” he said, “how many other guys do we have to deal with?”

Betty looked at him very carefully.

She didn’t answer.

“Well, it can’t be so many,” Leonard said in a soft voice.

“No, not many.”

“Well?”

“Two more.”

“Oh, that’s not so bad.”

She swallowed hard.

“You know,” she said, “I don’t think I’ll ever be free.”

“Oh yes, you will,” he said, pulling her to him, “I promise.”

“Maybe we should go away. Maybe that is the only answer.”

She sounded so hopeless that Leonard regretted the house altogether.

“I wish I knew what made me get it for you,” he said.

“Because I wanted it.”

“Well, you certainly have changed your mind in a hurry.”

“No, I haven’t. It’s just that everything is so upside down. I don’t know what to feel or think.”

“Don’t bother to do anything,” he said, “just get dressed, and we’ll leave.”

“Go where?”

“Well, back to our place.”

“You mean it?”

He couldn’t understand her. Here she was, suddenly bright about a prospect that a moment ago had depressed her.

He wondered if the problems Betty faced were making her unstable.

But getting away from the city would also solve his own troubles concerning Jenny, especially. That was one brood he wanted to avoid.

Betty said, “I have a feeling you don’t want to go away.”

“The truth is,” he said, deciding to square with her, “I have a few commitments myself.” Betty nodded.

“Of course, you have. I realized it the moment you left me.”

“What do you mean?”

She shrugged.

“My intuitions. I know you have lots of girlfriends. It can’t be that you don’t like them just because we found each other.”

“That’s true,” Leonard conceded.

There was a long silence between them, and it felt weird.

How could it be, he wondered, that he could love this girl so very much, and he wanted to protect her, take care of her, be good to her, but at the very same time, he wanted to see everybody else too.

He still needed his freedom.

That was it. He had a free-roaming cock. It made all the difference. He just couldn’t settle down with one girl, not even Betty.

She realized it, too.

She got up from the convertible and went to the closet and took out some fresh clothing.

He watched her pulling on a pair of clean denim slacks and a white shirt.

The shirt was transparent, and he could see her breasts through it. She didn’t wear a bra at all.

She was startlingly beautiful. He loved the way her gold hair hung on her shoulders.

Her face was beautiful.

Her mouth, in the shape of a heart, had a natural pink color to it, that was delicious, like ripe fruit. The inside of a strawberry.

Suddenly, it flashed across his mind that this delicious, sweet girl could walk out on the streets and pick up a dozen other guys besides him.