69 Barrow Street Read Online Free PDF

too, Susan. We hit it off pretty well together. I usually have trouble talking to people.”
    She smiled softly. “So do I. But I want to emphasize that no matter how well I get to know you or how much I get to like you, our relationship will have to stay on a purely platonic level. Just friends.”
    “Okay,” he said. “And I’m just as glad that you put everything out in the open at the start. Down here if a guy doesn’t make a pass at a girl the first day he meets her she feels insulted, or else thinks he’s a fruit or something. If you hadn’t said something I might have had to throw you a pass just to keep up appearances.”
    “Don’t ever do that. Maybe we’ll be very good friends, Ralph. That’s a rare enough thing.”
    “Right,” he said. “Hello, friend.”
    “Hi,” she said. “Hi, friend.”
    She insisted on paying half the check. Then they left the restaurant and walked back to 69 Barrow Street, walking slowly with the sun beating down on them. Ralph glanced at his watch and noted that it was close to noon. Where had the time gone to? Evidently they had been talking for quite a while.
    The traffic was getting heavier and he could hear trucks and buses rolling by on Seventh Avenue. Barrow Street was filled with neighborhood children playing the myriad games that children played in New York, where there was no place to play but the street. Stickball, stoop-ball, chinese handball—the kids never seemed to tire of the street games, never lacked a way to amuse themselves.
    Just like Stella, he thought. She can always find a way to amuse herself. And it’s usually in a horizontal position.
    Not always horizontal, he realized. Stella had a marvelous imagination.
    At 69 Barrow he opened the door for Susan and followed her inside. They said goodbye at the staircase and he returned to the door of his apartment, fitting the key in the lock.
    He listened to Susan’s footsteps on the staircase for several seconds before turning the key and entering his apartment.

Chapter Three
    S TELLA WAS SMILING when he walked into the apartment.
    “Well,” she said. “Two-timing me, huh?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Just now. With the little brunette.”
    “Oh,” he said. “The two of us had breakfast together. She just moved into the building.”
    “Sort of a long breakfast, wasn’t it?”
    “We were talking for a while,” he said defensively. There was nothing for him to be defensive about, but Stella had the knack of making him feel guilty for no reason whatsoever.
    “What’s her name?”
    “Susan Rivers.”
    “She’s very pretty, Ralph.”
    “I know. I’m thinking of doing a painting of her. That’s what we were talking about.”
    Stella pouted. “You don’t want to paint me anymore?”
    “I just wanted to try something different.”
    “That’s all right,” she said quickly. “I don’t really mind. As a matter of fact, I intend to get to know the girl myself.”
    He looked at her, puzzled.
    “You see,” she went on, “we’ve met before. She’s the one I was telling you about yesterday. The one I intend to take to bed sometime in the very near future. Susan Rivers, you said? I’ll have to remember her name.”
    His mouth dropped open but no words came out. Stella looked at him for a moment and suddenly burst out in harsh, strident laughter.
    “You mean you didn’t know? You couldn’t tell?”
    “You’re crazy!”
    “You couldn’t tell!” Her eyes were laughing at him. “My God, Ralph—why, it stands out all over her. She’s so obviously gay I’m amazed you didn’t spot her right away.”
    “Stella—”
    “You’re a real artist, aren’t you? One look at a person and you can tell things other people wouldn’t notice. But anything that’s perfectly straightforward and obvious sails right past you.”
    “Stella,” he said again. “Stella, I don’t want you to bother that girl.”
    “ Bother her?”
    “You know what I mean.”
    “Why don’t you say what you