Free Getting Rid of Bradley by Jennifer Crusie Page B

narrowed his eyes. “Why?”
    “I want to see what a rat like that looks like. You wouldn’t believe what a sweetheart Lucy is.”
    Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    “A sweetheart?” Anthony grinned. “She beat you up.”
    “She did not...” Zack closed his eyes and gave up. “Forget it. I’m sore. My head hurts. I need a hot
    bath and a beer. I cannot argue with you anymore. You win. She beat me up.”
    “When you can’t fight, we’re definitely finished for the day.” Anthony stood. “Want some help getting
    down to your car, old man?”
    “Drop dead,” Zack said, and got up carefully, trying not to groan from his bruises.
    Before Lucy went up to bed, she found the phone table on its side and the receiver thrown off its hook.
    “Did you do this?” she said to Einstein as she righted the table, and he immediately turned and walked
    away. “Most nights I wouldn’t care,” she said to his swaying rear end. “But tonight I thought maybe I
    might actually get another call from him.”
    Einstein turned his head and looked at her over his shoulder.
    “Right,” Lucy said. “That is pathetic.”
    Then she put the phone back on the table and went up to bed.

    Lucy got up to run at eight on Friday morning, but she stopped at the front door.
    She wasn’t supposed to go out. Every muscle in her body wanted to run, but she wasn’t supposed to go
    out.
    Zack Warren had forbidden it.
    “I don’t believe this,” she told the dogs. “He just says ‘Stay put,’ and I stay put. And today was
    supposed to be the first day of the rest of my independence. If I had any backbone at all...”
    On the other hand, he said he was coming by to search the house. She had to be home for that. It was
    her civic duty. Sort of.
    Also, she didn’t want to miss seeing him again.
    She sighed and started to run up the stairs. Two steep flights. About a thousand trips up and down
    should do it.
    But just for today. Tomorrow, she was going out to run like a rational human being, no matter what
    Zack Warren said.

    “He took two weeks off?” Zack glared at the immaculate matron behind the mahogany manager’s desk
    at Gamble Hills First National. She wore her dark hair styled like a helmet, and she glared back at him
    militarily through horn-rimmed glasses.
    Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    Zack scowled at her. “How can a bank manager take two weeks off?”
    “He was getting a divorce.” She jerked on the cuffs of her navy polyester suit jacket for emphasis. “He
    was very disturbed about it. The past two weeks, he couldn’t concentrate at all. Mr. Porter was always
    very efficient, so it wasn’t like him. Not at all. We all understood that he needed a little time off.”
    “We appreciate your help, Mrs. Elmore,” Anthony said, trying to reduce the fallout from Zack’s scowl.
    He was rewarded with a slight smile and a nod. “We have just a few more questions and we’ll go. We
    know how busy you must be with Mr. Porter gone. Now, his last day was yesterday?”
    “Day before yesterday.” Mrs. Elmore lowered her voice. “Yesterday was the Divorce.”
    “Ah.” Anthony smiled at her in sympathy. “This must make a lot of extra work for you.”
    The woman smoothed her jacket and smiled complacently. “I don’t mind. It’s the least I can do for the
    poor man.”
    “The poor man?” Zack said, thinking of Lucy.
    Mrs. Elmore glared at him.
    “Zack, why don’t you go over there and interview somebody?” Anthony jerked his thumb toward the
    tellers.
    “Fine.” As Zack wandered off, he could hear Anthony saying, “That’s terrible. Mr. Porter must have
    been very upset for the past couple of weeks. Did he say anything...”
    “Hi.”
    Zack turned around to see a very young, very blonde teller smiling at him.
    “Can I help you with anything?” Her smile deepened.
    “Full service banking?” Zack said and