A Fashionable Affair Read Online Free PDF Page A

Earl Hibbard, his trainer, says he’s a late bloomer. He was a bust at three, and now at four, he’s turning into a winner.”
    “And a tax deduction.”
    Patsy laughed. “Yes. And he’s much more fun than shopping-center shares.”
    “Uncle Michael!” Steven raced back into the room, and in a few minutes he had both adults on the floor playing blocks with him.
    * * * *
    Sally fed the kids first and then put them to bed, so when the four adults finally sat down to dinner, peace reigned.
    “I’m delighted to see you, Patsy,” Steve said as they ate Sally’s delicious veal parmigiana, “but sur prised. You don’t usually spend your Saturday nights so tamely.”
    “Yes,” Sally added, “where’s Don?”
    “Sulking,” Patsy replied.
    “Did you stand him up?”
    Patsy smiled and took a bite of her veal. “Ter rific,” she approved. “I told him I was having a problem with my taxes.” She shrugged gracefully. “Really, he was quite petulant. Just like a little boy. Or—no. Little Steven and Matthew aren’t petulant at all. They’re much nicer than Don, in fact.”
    “Exit Don,” Sally remarked dryly, and her hus band laughed.
    Patsy took another bite of veal. “Yes,” she said, “I rather think so.” She looked at Sally’s husband. “How do you like the hospital, Steve?”
    His blue eyes blazed. “It’s great,” he raved, and proceeded to tell her all about it.
    Sally, seated across the table from her friend, turned to Michael. “I’ve got a particularly tricky math problem for you,” she said. “One of the grad uate assistants brought it to me and it’s a beaut. Will you look at it after dinner?”
    He looked suddenly alert. “Sure.” He began to ask her questions and soon the two were involved in a highly technical, totally incomprehensible conversation.
    “Do you still have that crazy cleaning woman?” Steve asked Patsy, abandoning the topic of the hos pital.
    “Who? Oh—May, do you mean? Yes. She still cleans my apartment, and yes, she’s still trying to convert me.”
    “Convert you to what?” Michael asked, and Patsy, glad of an excuse to look at him, turned her head.
    “She’s an evangelical type, always trying to save me from my sinful life. Poor thing, she’s a bit bonkers, I think.”
    “She’s not only bonkers,” Steve said, “she’s damn offensive. I don’t know how you put up with it.”
    “I usually try not to be home when she comes,” Patsy replied. “The day you were in with the chil dren was the last time I actually saw her.”
    “It’s ridiculous,” Steve said impatiently. “Why should you have to flee from your own house? Why don’t you just hire someone else?”
    “Because if I fire her, she’ll be out of work. I mean, who else would put up with her, poor soul? And the money she makes from me supplements her social-security check.”
    “Michael, do you remember Mr. Gerstner?” Sally asked.
    “God, yes.”
    “Mr. Gerstner was another one of Patsy’s sad cases,” Sally explained to her husband. “He taught history at Central High, and he was a disaster. The kids literally ran wild in his room. Once some boys set a pigeon loose in the classroom—a real live pig eon.”
    Steve looked unimpressed. “So? Every school has an ineffective teacher like that.”
    “Patsy felt sorry for him,” Sally continued. “She felt so sorry for him that she stood up in class dur ing the third week we had him and told everybody off. It was quite impressive. Patsy, who never lost her temper at anything.”
    “Did they listen to you?” Steve asked.
    Patsy just smiled.
    “What do you think?” Michael said. There was a look of humor around his mouth.
    Steve grinned. “Everyone’s dream girl. Of course they listened to her.”
    “For the rest of the year,” Sally reported, “that class was angelic. Mr. Gerstner thought he had died and gone to heaven.”
    “Adolescents can be horribly cruel,” Patsy said. “They don’t necessarily mean to be, but