A Stranger Like You Read Online Free PDF

trunk,” he stated in his underwriter’s voice.
    “Screaming!”
    “Your point?”
    She shook her head as if he were too stupid to understand her. “The device of the trunk—it’s been done. It’s a gangster cliché.”
    “It works, that’s why people use it. It’s convenient.”
    “Convenient?”
    “Everyone has one. It’s a good place to put someone.” He looked at her carefully. “There’s a certain irony in that.”
    She squinted at him as if the sight of him was hurting her eyes. “Irony is such a cheap writer’s trick. I didn’t buy it. I didn’t buy it for a fucking minute. And they weren’t going to buy it in Toledo, either!”
    He could feel the sweat on his back, dampening his shirt. He swallowed. His throat felt a little sore. He could feel his feet inside his shoes, heavy as door-stops. He could feel his legs, their weight, and his large hands on his thighs.
    The phone rang.
    They sat there listening to it. It rang and rang.
    “That’s my boss,” she said. “I have to go. I have to get to work.”
    At last her machine picked up. Hugh recognized the voice of Chase’s assistant, a man with a British accent. “Harold’s been waiting over an hour, Hedda. He’s leaving for the airport in fifteen minutes. He’s really getting pissed.”
    “I’m afraid you’ve kept Harold waiting.”
    “He’s going to fire me.”
    “And then what will you do?”
    She looked up at him almost hopefully then seemed to catch herself. “He’s not going to fucking fire me,” she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
    “It doesn’t matter now. It’s better not to think about it.”
    “What?”
    “I don’t want you to get your hopes up.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    He got up and took the phone off the hook. There was something intensely menacing about the sound it made and he could see it registering in her mind.
    “You don’t understand my boss. He gets insulted if I’m even a second late. He takes it personally.” Her cell phone began to vibrate inside her pocketbook. “Look, I really need to get to work.”
    “You’re not going to work today.”
    “What?” she said. “What?”
    “By law you’re entitled to a sick day.”
    “But I’m not sick.”
    “You’re looking very agitated.”
    “Well, I am agitated.”
    “I have some medication for that.”
    “You what—I don’t understand.”
    He took the pills out of his pocket and showed them to her. “You seem very anxious.”
    “Look,” she said. “You need to go. We’ve had our meeting. There’s nothing more to say. You said you would go.”
    “I know what I said. But I’ve changed my mind.”
    “What? Are you crazy ?”
    He didn’t like the question. “I thought we’d try an experiment. I thought it might be fun.”
    “Fun? Did you say fun ?”
    “I thought it might be fun to do a little test. To see who’s right.”
    “You’re crazy. You’re fucking insane.”
    “You have a very nasty mouth,” he said. “Why can’t you be nice?”
    “What? Nice?”
    He picked up the gun. Again, he showed her the pills. “It’s just some Valium,” he lied, “to calm you down.”
    “I don’t want to be calm,” she shouted and stood up and started for the door. He was quick—he grabbed her. He wrestled her to the ground, her little chest heaving. It was odd being on top of her. Her breath smelled of coffee. She looked at him; she refused to look.
    “You’re going to have to calm down.” He pulled her up and pushed her back into the chair. “Take the pills.”
    She shook her head.
    “Look,” he spoke as if to a toddler. “Either you take the pills, or I shoot you. You decide.”
    “You’re going to shoot me over this ?”
    “I’m not myself,” he admitted. “I’m feeling very,” he hesitated, “unbalanced.”
    “You’re not going to kill me,” she said in a patronizing tone. “Even I know that.”
    Just like the scene he’d written in his script, he pressed the gun into her