The Lonely Lady Read Online Free PDF Page A

where the dance floor had been set up and sit on the terrace listening to the music and watching the members dance. Bernie was one of the two boys who bused the small cocktail tables set up around the dance floor, and she would wait for him to take her home, usually around one o’clock in the morning.
    His father had gone in with him on the purchase of a 1949 Plymouth Belvedere convertible, and the payments took up almost all of Bernie’s salary. During that summer, between his responsibilities for the car and his job, Bernie seemed to acquire a maturity along with the dark summer tan and the sun-bleached hair. He was no longer a boy.
    The girl members at the club also had their effect on him. As lifeguard at the pool, he was one of the few boys who were always around and so it was inevitable that they would try to exercise their charms on Bernie.
    JeriLee saw it when in the afternoons she would change into a swimsuit and go out to the pool to cool off. The girls were always sending him for Cokes or cigarettes or towels or asking him to help them with their strokes or dives. She felt a twinge of jealousy as she saw Bernie glow under the attention. But she never said anything that would indicate she had noticed.
    Instead she would slip into the pool and begin to swim back and forth in strong steady laps until her arms were like lead. Then she would climb out of the pool at the far end, away from his lifeguard’s chair, stretch out on a towel on the concrete edge of the pool and read a book. When it was time for her to return to work, she would gather up her towel and leave the pool without a backward look.
    After a while Bernie began to notice and one night on the way home he asked, “How come you don’t talk to me when you come down to the pool in the afternoons?”
    “Keep your eyes on the road,” she said, not answering his question.
    “You mad at me about something?”
    “No,” she said shortly. “You know the rules. Mr. Corcoran doesn’t like the help to mix when the members are around.”
    “Come on, nobody pays attention to that and you know it.”
    “Besides, you’re always too busy.” Her voice took on a New York tone. “Bernie, is my stroke too short? Bernie, I would love a Coke. Bernie, would you get me a light?”
    “You sound like you’re jealous.”
    “I am not!”
    “It’s part of my job,” he said defensively.
    “Of course,” she said with a note of sarcasm.
    Silently Bernie followed the road that led out to the Point. He pulled into the parking area overlooking the Sound and stopped the motor. There were only a few other cars parked, their motors off and the lights out. It was still early. When the clubs and bars closed after two o’clock, the area would be full. A faint sound of music came from one of the car radios.
    He turned and reached for her. She brushed his hand away. “I’m tired, Bernie. I want to go home.”
    “You are jealous.”
    “I just don’t like them making a fool of you, that’s all.”
    “They’re not making a fool of me,” he said quickly. “I’m supposed to be nice to the members.”
    “Sure.”
    “Besides, there’s not one of them that can hold a candle to you, JeriLee. They’re all so phony and artificial.”
    “Do you mean that?”
    He nodded.
    “Even Marian Daley?” Seventeen and blond, Marian Daley had always been indulged by her doting parents. She wore the briefest bikinis at the club and was said to be even wilder than the New York girls.
    “She’s the phoniest of them all,” he said. “The boys know she’s the biggest teaser around.”
    Without knowing it, he had said exactly the right thing. She softened. “I was beginning to wonder,” she said. “She never lets you alone.”
    “She never lets any guy alone,” he said, clinching his case. He reached for her again.
    She slid next to him, lifting her face for his kiss. His mouth was warm and soft. After a moment she let her head fall on his shoulder. “It’s so quiet here,”