Free The Carlton Club by Katherine Stone Page B

something within him, something subconscious, made him want the banner. He didn’t want it for himself. He wanted to show it to Kathleen.
    It all made him very sad.
    For the first Christmas in years that Mark could have celebrated his wife’s birthday with her, Janet flew home, alone, to snowy Nebraska. They both knew that the well-greased wheels of uncontested divorce in California were moving efficiently, inevitably toward dissolution of the marriage of Janet Wells Collinsworth and Mark David Collinsworth.
    Mark, alone in San Francisco on December twenty-third, decided to call Kathleen.
    “It’s Mark.”
    “I recognize your, er, husky voice,” she said, barely able to breathe. If you don’t hear from me, you’ll know, he had said. And now she was hearing from him.
    “Cute Kitzy.”
    “So?”
    “We are getting a divorce.”
    “Are you OK?” He didn’t sound OK.
    “Yes. It’s hard. Sad.”
    “Do you want to talk about it?”
    “Not really. Nothing to say. It’s over.”
    Good, Kathleen thought. She didn’t want to nurse Mark through the recovery period of a failed marriage. She wasn’t interested in an event by event rehash. She had seen friends be helpful and sympathetic only to have the finally rehabilitated ex-husband spread his newly strengthened wings and find someone new, someone who didn’t know quite so much about his weaknesses and his past mistakes.
    Kathleen also knew that recently divorced men usually needed affairs with a number of women—a sexual spree—before even considering a serious relationship. Kathleen had slept with enough recently freed husbands. They were a drearily manic bunch.
    Kathleen almost told Mark to call her in six or eight months when he was ready for the serious relationship, but she couldn’t. Maybe Mark would be different. He was already so different from all the others.
    “Kathleen, are you there?”
    “Yes. Was it my turn to speak?”
    “It was.”
    “OK. Hi. There. Now it’s your turn.”
    “I have something to show you.”
    “I know. It is something.”
    Silence.
    “Sorry,” Kathleen said. This wasn’t really her usual style. She didn’t like it. He didn’t like it. Kathleen the perfect lady. But Mark made her silly and giddy. And sexy.
    “When can I see you?”
    “Anytime. Except it’s the holidays, isn’t it? Do you have plans for Christmas?”
    “I can’t do a family Christmas, Kathleen,” Mark said quickly, apologetically. “It’s very nice of you. How’s your mother?”
    “Well. A hundred percent. Taking it easy. I didn’t really mean family Christmas, though you would be welcome. I meant the Carlton Club Kids Christmas Celebration.”
    “That’s not Kathleen’s Carlton Club Kids Christmas Celebration, is it?” Mark teased.
    “You’ve heard of it!” Kathleen teased back.
    “Of course. Who hasn’t?” Mark sensed the feeling, the Kathleen feeling, pumping into his body. He wanted to see her. “What is it?”
    “Well, around here, the Atherton Mansion Gang—”
    “Atherton Mansion Gang?”
    “That’s the folks. They aren’t as alliterative as the Kids. Anyway, the AMG celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve with present opening early Christmas morning. The rest of the Christmas day and evening are boring. As kids we hated Christmas night. So, we invented the Celebration. It’s our biggest party of the year. It has grown as we have. Now it’s held on the top floor at the Fairmont.”
    “And you don’t have a date?”
    “Not if you say no.”
    “It’s fancy, isn’t it?”
    “Yes,” Kathleen admitted. “It really is. Black tie. Tuxedo. The whole bit.”
    “I haven’t worn a tuxedo since . . .”
    “Your wedding.”
    “Right.”
    “You probably don’t have time to go tuxedo renting, do you?”
    “No. Kathleen, maybe we could see each other another time?”
    “No, please, Mark. I really want you to come. The Kids have been asking about you. What I was going to say was, if you give me your size I’ll get the