Single White Female Read Online Free PDF Page B

assumed she wanted to go back to sleep, that their discussion was over at least until morning.
    She said, “Get out, Sam.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œOut. Now.”
    â€œHey, I know it’s your place, but it’s midnight.” He switched on the lamp on his side of the bed, then glared at her so she could see he was furious. He hadn’t expected this, his look said. Didn’t deserve it. She was being damned unreasonable, and all because of some insignificant one-night stand that had come to light. “Where do you expect me to go at this hour?”
    â€œFind a hotel. Come back tomorrow for your things. Or the next day. Or don’t come back at all. I don’t care, Sam, not anymore.”
    He appeared puzzled for awhile. Injured. Then he tried a smile. It was male mastery time. But he was acting out of desperation and she knew it. “I don’t believe you,” he said, like a line from a movie, as if the script was on his side and their destiny was in the last reel.
    She wasn’t sure if she believed herself, but she looked away from him. “Get out.”
    Sam clutched her arm and she slapped his hand away. She was startled by how loud a sound it made.
    He stood up, naked, his maleness wilted between his legs. He located his jockey shorts and danced into them, yanking them tight. You’ll hurt yourself that way, Sam. He found his pants.
    She turned away from him, watching his madly writhing shadow on the wall as he stormed around, wrestling angrily into his clothes. A button clattered on the floor, bouncing and rolling.
    Then the shadow was still. He’d worn himself out; she could hear his deep and rapid breathing, like right after sex.
    Calmly, he said, “All right, Allie. I’ll send for the rest of my stuff.”
    Allie felt something pointed and sharp swell in her throat; she was afraid if she tried to answer him she might sob. She lay very still, listening to the night sounds of the city, to Sam’s ragged breathing.
    She heard him leave the bedroom. Heard the thump of his rubber heels as he crossed the apartment to the door. The metallic snick and rattle of the locks being worked on the door to the hall.
    The door slammed.
    Allie lost it. She pressed her face deep into her pillow and sobbed.
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    At four-thirty A.M. she gave up on trying to sleep and climbed out of bed. She switched on the lamp and put on her white terry-cloth robe.
    She padded barefoot into the living room and to the alcove where she had her desk and IBM-clone computer. It felt good, settling down before the computer; this was a world she knew, a dance whose steps were no mystery. She flipped the computer switch and booted the system.
    At first she’d considered working on the Fortune Fashions job, but she realized this wasn’t the time for that. In the green glare of the monitor screen, she sat idly toying with the keyboard, trying to relax her whirling mind. Computers and Allie were compatible. Right now, she envied them. Computers thought, in their basic way, but they didn’t feel. Allie didn’t want to feel. She wanted to see herself from a distance, so she could analyze and convert emotion to cold fact. An IBM clone—that’s what she wanted to be.
    She keyed in her household budget program and looked over the figures. Made a few calculations and studied the results on the screen.
    The computer played fair with her and gave her the hard truth. Without Sam, if she wanted to stay in the Cody Arms and pay her bills, she’d need help, even with the Fortune Fashions account.
    There was a way to obtain the right kind of roommate, she knew. She’d considered it before Sam had moved in with her.
    Allie keyed in the word-processor program. She typed “Wanted, roommate to share apt. W.70s,” then her phone number.
    Tomorrow she’d look at the classified pages of some newspapers and decide where she might place the ad. She wanted to do this