Free SWF Seeks Same by John Lutz Page B

like a conspirator in occupied territory. The big Hispanic kid stared back at him with flat, wary eyes, as if suspecting he was the subject of derision. “It’s all right by me if you have a roommate,” Graham said softly. “What am I, the police? I noticed her in the Cody lately, saw her a few times with you. Then one day I heard you two talking as you got off the elevator, and you or she said something that revealed she was living with you. That’s a major taboo in the Cody. I got out of sight in a hurry so you wouldn’t see me. Didn’t want to let you know that
I
knew.”
    “How long have you known?”
    “Oh, a couple of weeks. It’s okay, though, your secret’s safe with me. Honest!”
    “I believe it is, Graham.” What choice did she have? “But don’t mention it to anybody else. Please!”
    “My word of honor on that, Allie. In this friggin’ city, I never know when I might have to advertise for a roommate myself to share expenses.”
    “Not you, Graham. Not a successful playwright.”
    She was afraid she’d sounded patronizing, but he didn’t seem to think so.
    He wiped his hands together as if drying them on an invisible towel. Blushed. “I wouldn’t say successful. At least not yet. And there’s not that much money in it. Besides,
Dance
might fold after a week. Maybe after one performance. It happens.”
    “Don’t jinx yourself.” Allie spread cream cheese on her bagel, took a bite, and sipped her coffee.
    He began to back away, embarrassed. She realized for the first time that he had a crush on her. Well, that was all right. A natural enough phenomenon that happened between men and women. Mature, normal people didn’t let it upset their lives, didn’t act on those low-level emotions and let them develop into more than friendship, into something that seized control.
    Then she remembered the obscene phone call.
    Graham?
    No! Ridiculous.
I won’t let life in this city poison me
. Graham Knox was the nicest and least threatening male she’d met in months. She wouldn’t let urban paranoia destroy a burgeoning friendship.
    He said, “I better get busy or I’ll be fired and have to write like crazy.” He picked up a catsup bottle from the next table, then walked another table down and picked up a second bottle. A third. Where was he going, into the kitchen to water down the stuff so there’d be enough to last through lunch and dinner? “Hey, I mean it about those tickets, Allie.”
    “You better. I want opening night.”
    “No, let’s make it a few performances later. When all the bugs are worked out.”
    “Okay, you’re the playwright.”
    The lopsided grin. “Enjoy your breakfast.”
    “Already have.”
    After she’d eaten, while she was digging in her purse to pay the check, Allie realized she’d forgotten a disk she wanted to program into the Fortune Fashions computers. No problem. She could hurry back down the street to the apartment and pick it up, then still make Mayfair’s office on time.
    When she opened the door, she was surprised to find Hedra home. As soon as she saw Allie, she stood up from where she was sitting on the sofa. Her hands hung awkwardly at her sides, fingers working, kneading air.
    “Thought you were at work,” Allie said, striding to the alcove where her computer was set up.
    Behind her Hedra said, “I was just about to walk out the door.”
    Allie found the floppy disk she was searching for, slid it into a protective hard plastic cover, then stuffed it into her purse.
    When she walked out from behind the silk folding screen that formed a fourth wall of the alcove, she said, “I had an interesting conversation with a waiter down at Goya’s.”
    Hedra adjusted the belt of her brown skirt. The skirt’s hem hit her at an unflattering angle, Allie noticed. “It’s too easy in this city to have interesting conversations with waiters.”
    “This one turned out to be a nice guy.”
    “Far as you know from talking to him over the soup. You