Payback Read Online Free PDF Page A
Author: Francine Pascal
Time: 2:48 P.M.
Re: Thanksgiving
Gaia,
Thanks for an . . . interesting Thanksgiving. I'll never forget it. I want to see you, but I have finals right now and I really have to concentrate on that. Can I call you when I'm done?
-- Sam
<
KIBBLE
GAIA REALLY WANTED A DOG. AS she stood outside the fence that surrounded the dog run in Washington Square Park, watching the little pink tongues and the little padded feet and the little twitching noses, she wanted nothing else more.
Imagine having something in your life that lived for nothing but you. Imagine unconditional love. Imagine a friend that could hide no secrets. A friend that couldn't hurt you, who would protect you at all costs, and all you had to do was throw him some kibble every once in a while. A friend who, yeah, smelled bad but hung out by the door every day just to see your face.
Gaia grinned. She could have just described Ed Fargo.
She gripped the fence with her frozen hands and watched a scruffy little mutt with a black body and brown ears chase a squirrel out through a hole in the other side of the fence.
Of course if she did get a dog, she'd probably figure out how to drive it away. She seemed to be very skilled at that. But maybe, just maybe, she only repelled humans.
With a huge sigh Gaia leaned back her head and watched the steam of her breath dance up into the air. After ten minutes of doing the go-in-don't-go-in boogie in front of Sam's dorm, she felt good to be momentarily still in the presence of the frenzied mayhem in front of her. For once she felt like the one sane being in a twenty-yard radius. Funny how she had to be in the company of a bunch of ankle-biting, loudly yelping animals that sniffed each other's butts in order to feel normal.
"Sadie! Sadie! Over here!" someone called, causing a little collie to look up from its dirt inhaling.
"Crystal!"
"Katie!"
"Buffy!"
"Aaaahhh! Get it off me! Get it off me!"
"Katie! Katie, no! Bad dog!"
Gaia smirked as she found Katie at the far side of the run, outside the fence. She was a beautiful golden retriever who had latched onto some suit's shoelace and was pulling back, her four feet planted firmly on the ground.
"Katie!"
"Gaia!"
"Katie! Stop it now!"
"Gaia?"
"Gaia?"
A hand landed on her shoulder, and Gaia spun around so fast, her hair whipped into her eyes and temporarily blinded her. She brought her hands to her face and shoved the hair away.
"Hey," a familiar voice said. "This is some exciting after-school entertainment."
Mary. Gaia felt a little stirring in her stomach at the memory of her last encounter with Mary Moss. And everything that had come after it. The cocaine, followed up by the cold, the beating, the theft, the explosion, the blood, and then all the stuff she couldn t quite remember.
"I can see how it doesn't live up to
your
standards of excitement," Gaia replied. She wanted to take back the words a moment later when she saw the hurt flash through Mary's eyes, but she didn't. Gaia was bad at relationships and even worse at apologies. She turned back to the dogs and focused on a patch of ground in front of her.
Mary stepped up beside her, shoving her hands in the pockets of her long wool coat. "Guess I deserved that," she said tentatively, seeming to stare at the same spot of dirt as if it could reveal Gaia's thoughts. "Did you get my letter?"
"Yeah," Gaia said. The letter had explained how Mary had a serious problem. How she wanted to get clean. How she wanted to get clean for Gaia. And Gaia was happy for Mary. She really was. But the whole doing-it-for-Gaia was just a little too much pressure, even if it was accompanied by a lot of chocolate. "I got it," she said finally.
"And?" Mary asked. She reached out and laced her pink-gloved fingers through the fence. Her fingers looked very small and very thin. Gaia looked into Mary's questioning, vulnerable eyes.
"And . . . I think it's . . . good that you want to, you know, quit," Gaia said. Damn, she was
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