Jennifer Crusie Bundle (2 page)

But think how much excitement she would have had before the end.

“No, that would have been dumb,” she said aloud.

“What would be?” Tina asked.

“Nothing.” Lucy turned back to her. “That's a beautiful suit you're wearing.”

“It should be. It cost a fortune. You couldn't afford it. If you had to make a bad marriage, and I suppose you did since it runs in the family, couldn't you at least have chosen somebody with money?”

“No.” Lucy picked up her fork and jabbed at her salad, spearing a cucumber slice because it was there. “Money isn't important.”

“Oh? And what is important? And, whatever it is, why did you think that loser Bradley Porter had it? In fact, why did you marry him at all?”

Lucy thought of several cutting things to say about her sister's second and third husbands and then blinked instead. “I married him because of the second law of thermonuclear dynamics.”

“You married him because of a physics theory?” Tina put her cigarette out in one of her salad tomatoes, pushed the bowl away, and lit up another. “Well, at least you didn't say ‘for lo-o-ove.”' She blew her smoke away from Lucy. “So what's the second law of thermodynamics?”

“It says that isolated systems move toward disorder until they reach their most probable form, and then they remain constant.”

“I don't get it. And what does that have to do with Bradley?”

“Nothing. But it has everything to do with me.” Lucy pushed her bowl away with one hand and shoved her hair out of her eyes with the other. “I was an isolated system. I mean, there I was, living alone in that little apartment with Einstein for company, and Einstein is great company, but he's also a dog.”

“I wondered if you'd noticed that.”

“Well, of course, I noticed. And I'd been teaching science for twelve years. Lecturing to kids all day and then going home alone to grade papers at night. The only real social contacts I had were at your weddings.”

Tina stuck her tongue out at her and pulled a pepper strip from Lucy's salad bowl.

“And then one day in class, we got to the second law, and I thought, ‘That's me. I'm an isolated system, and I'm just going to get more isolated until I reach my most probable form which is probably where I am now, living in an apartment with Einstein.' So I decided to get un-isolated. And that's when Bradley picked me up in the library and I thought, ‘This must be it. Physics has brought us together.' I mean, his timing was so perfect. It was so logical.”

Tina shook her head. “No wonder you're so screwed up. Life is not logical, and marriage certainly isn't. Stop analyzing things so much. Try impulse for a change.”

“I was impulsive once. I married Bradley after I'd only known him two months.” Lucy felt a twinge of shame even as she said the words. She'd been stupid. Really stupid. “So I'm not a fan of impulse anymore. And, no offense, but I don't see impulse doing much for you.”

Tina smiled. “I've got twelve and a half million dollars, darling. And what have you got? A moth-eaten house and custody of three dogs. Impulse has done more for me than logic has for you. Just look at you. Do you ever have any fun?”

“Fun?” Lucy's eyes went to the dark-haired man across the room. “Fun.” She shifted her gaze back to Tina and picked up her fork to attack her salad again. “I don't think I'm the fun type.”

“Well, I think you're taking life too seriously. It's time you cut loose. Do something wild. Something spontaneous.”

Lucy frowned at her. “I told you. I did something spontaneous once. I married Bradley. Face it, Tina, I'm not the spontaneous type.”

Tina shook her head. “Marrying Bradley was not spontaneous. You just gave me a very sensible reason why you married him. Spontaneous is when it's not sensible but you do it anyway because you want to.”

“That's not spontaneous, that's irresponsible.”

“Fine, then do something irresponsible. In fact, do something spontaneous
and
irresponsible. Do something just because you have the urge to do it, because it feels good. Do something selfish, just for you.”

Lucy's eyes went back to the dark-haired man across the room. “I don't think so.” She stabbed her salad again.

“How do you know unless you've tried it? You've never done anything selfish in your life.”

“Well, you know, I did,” Lucy said slowly, her fork frozen in her hand. “Once. In fact, I think that's the real reason why I married Bradley. I dated Bradley because of the second law, but I think I married Bradley to get my house.”

Tina looked interested. “Really? That's so unlike you.”

Lucy nodded. “I think I just convinced myself I loved him because he offered me the house.” She poked at her salad again, averting her eyes from Tina. “I love the house more than I ever loved Bradley. I think he knew it finally, and that's why he cheated on me.”

“Well, I'll be damned.” Tina put her cigarette out and leaned back in the booth. “This explains a lot. Is this what that fight you had last October was about?”

“How did you know…?”

“That's when you moved upstairs to the attic bedroom. I never bought that story about Bradley snoring. I knew there had been a fight.”

“No.” Lucy frowned. “There wasn't. We never fought. We just had a…disagreement. Over one of the dogs.”

Tina winced. “For anyone else that would be a minor disagreement. For you…if Bradley did something to one of those dogs, he couldn't have known you very well. And this explains why you're not brokenhearted over the divorce. You're upset, but it's not because you miss Bradley. You're glad he's gone, aren't you?”

“Yes,” Lucy whispered. “That's awful, but I am.”

“No, it's not. That's healthy. What I don't understand is what you're so upset about. You're free. You can do anything you want. What's wrong with you?”

“I feel stupid,” Lucy said.

“What?” Tina leaned forward. “You? You've got more brains than…”

“Not real-life brains. I have science brains. But real life?” Lucy shook her head. “I don't even know what happened in my marriage. I know it was awful for me, but I would have sworn to you that Bradley was happy and he loved me, and then out of the blue, I come home and find him with a blonde. In my house. And she says they've been having an affair in my bedroom, and he flusters around, obviously guilty, and when I get upset, he leaves.” She sat back. “He just leaves.”

“Men,” Tina said.

“So I don't have a clue where I went wrong. The only thing I've ever known for sure in my whole life is that I'm smart. And now I'm not even sure about that. It's upsetting.”

“Well, if you think he was angry about the house…”

“It's not just that he cheated on me. It's that he won't talk to me now. In the lawyer's office, all he said was, ‘Is this what you want?' And I said yes, because it was, but…” Lucy bit her lip. “He hasn't even come by to pick up the rest of his papers and things. It's like a chunk of my life just dropped out of sight.”

“Oh.” Tina shifted uncomfortably. “Well, I may have had something to do with that.”

Lucy froze. “What did you do?”

“Well. You know how upset you were when you called me that day and told me that Bradley and the blonde had just been there?”

“What did you do?”

“Well, I had the new locks put on….”

Lucy nodded. “What else did you do?”

“Well, when he came to the door to talk to you…”

“He came to the door to talk to me?”

“You were upstairs in your bedroom crying.” Tina paused. “I was…angry.”

“Oh, no.”

“I know, I know. I lose it when I get angry.” Tina lit another cigarette, inhaled, and blew out another stream of smoke before she went on, faster now to get it over with. “Anyway, I told him that if he ever tried to talk to you again, I would have private detectives digging up every slimy thing he'd ever done, and that I would personally see that they all made the front page of the
Inquirer,
and that I would also find every asset he possessed and take it from him.”

Lucy looked at her, stunned.

“I think I might also have mentioned bodily harm. I was really upset. You never cry.”

“So that's why he hasn't called? You are something else, Tina.”

“I'm sorry,” Tina said. “But I could just see him talking you back into that damn marriage. I couldn't stand seeing you unhappy anymore.”

“I wouldn't have gone back. But I would have liked to have talked to him.” Lucy took a deep breath. “I love you, Tine, and I appreciate everything you've done for me, but you've got to get out of my life. It's my life.”

“I know, honey.” Tina fiddled with her cigarette. “But you need help. I mean, I let you pick the restaurant and look where we ended up.” She glanced around at the plastic walls and the chipped Formica. “This place is a dump.”

“I had a reason for wanting to come here,” Lucy said. “Bradley wrote to me. He said if I'd have lunch here with him, he could explain everything.” Lucy looked around the cheap diner again, perplexed. “It doesn't seem like his kind of place.”

“Do you want him back?” Tina asked. “I'll get him back if that's what you want.”

“No.” Lucy pressed her lips together and stabbed her salad again. “That's not what I want.”

“Well, what do you want? Just tell me what you want. I'll make it happen.”

Lucy smacked her fork down. “You can't. Or you won't. I want to live my own life. I want to make my own mistakes. I want you to be my sister, not my keeper. You don't have to take care of me.”

“I know I don't have to.” Tina frowned. “But I want to. I want you to be happy. You never have any fun.”

“I don't want to have fun.” Lucy took a deep breath. “Do you know what I want?”

Tina shook her head, her eyes on Lucy.

“I want to be independent. I want to take care of myself, without you racing to the rescue with money and lawyers. You always tell me what to do, and you're always right, and most of the time I don't mind it, but then I married Bradley, and he was worse than you are. Between you and Bradley, I haven't made a decision on my own in almost a year because everything you told me to do was the sensible thing, and it would have been stupid for me to argue. Only I did all the sensible things, and now look at my life. It's a mess.” Lucy stuck her chin out. “So, I'm changing. I want to make my own mistakes and mop up after them myself. I want to talk to my ex-husband without you threatening him with death. And if I want to dye my hair purple or adopt another ten dogs or…or…” Her eyes twitched to the man across the room. “Or go out with inappropriate men. I want you to stay out. It's my life. I want it back.”

“Oh.”

“I appreciate everything you've done for me. Just stop doing it.”

“All right.” Tina picked a cucumber slice out of Lucy's salad. “Inappropriate men, huh?”

Lucy slid down a little in her seat. “Probably not. That was just big talk.”

“What about that guy across the room you keep looking at?”

“Oh, no.” Lucy closed her eyes. “I'm that transparent?”

“Well, he doesn't seem to have noticed.” Tina glanced across the room. “He really is attractive, though. Your instincts aren't so bad.”

Lucy looked at the two men across the room again out of the corner of her eye. The one in the black was talking, his fingers slashing the air while he spoke.

“He's gorgeous,” Lucy said.

“Actually, he looks a little dull. But if that's what you want, let me see what I can do.” Tina started to get up.

“Dull?” Lucy said. “He looks insane.”

Tina stopped. “You're talking about the one in the tweed, not the one in the black leather, right? You can't be serious about the black leather.”

“It's my fantasy,” Lucy said. “And sit down. You're not going over there and embarrass me.”

Tina sat down. “The black leather would not be good for you.”

“I can't tell you how tired I am of things that are good for me,” Lucy said.

“I know.” Tina nodded sympathetically. “But that doesn't mean you should commit emotional hari-kari. That guy is unstable.”

Lucy's eyes went back to the black leather. “Actually, you know, he's just what you ordered. What I'm feeling for him is definitely spontaneous and irresponsible.”

Tina looked at him and frowned. “Maybe if you just used him for the cheap thrill and then discarded him.”

“I couldn't do that.” Lucy tore her eyes away from him. “I could never do that. I'd better just concentrate on being independent without the inappropriate-man part.”