The Collector
Page 4

“They’re wonderful, and the herbs? She started them from seeds.”
“Can you do that?”
“Macey can. I—as they told me I could and should—harvested some. I had a big, beautiful salad for dinner last night. Ate it out here, with a glass of wine, and watched the window show.”
“You have the oddest life. Tell me about the window people.”
Lila poured wine, then reached inside for the binoculars—just in case.
“We have the family on the tenth floor—they just got the little boy a puppy. The kid and the pup are both incredibly pretty and adorable. It’s true love, and fun to watch. There’s a sexy blonde on fourteen who lives with a very hot guy—both could be models. He comes and goes, and they have very intense conversations, bitter arguments with flying crockery, followed by major sex.”
“You watch them have sex? Lila, give me those binoculars.”
“No!” Laughing, Lila shook her head. “I don’t watch them have sex. But I can tell that’s what’s going on. They talk, fight, pace around with lots of arm waving from her, then grab each other and start pulling off clothes. In the bedroom, in the living room. They don’t have a terrace like this, but that little balcony deal off the bedroom. They barely made it back in once before they were both naked.
“And speaking of naked, there’s a guy on twelve. Wait, maybe he’s around.”
Now she did get the glasses, checked. “Oh yeah, baby. Check this out. Twelfth floor, three windows from the left.”
Curious enough, Julie took the binoculars, finally found the window. “Oh my. Mmmm, mmmm. He does have some moves. We should call him, invite him over.”
“I don’t think we’re his type.”
“Between us we’re every man’s type.”
“Gay, Julie.”
“You can’t tell from here.” Julie lowered the glasses, frowned, then lifted them again for another look. “Your g*ydar can’t leap over buildings in a single bound like Superman.”
“He’s wearing a thong. Enough said.”
“It’s for ease of movement.”
“Thong,” Lila repeated.
“Does he dance nightly?”
“Pretty much. I figure he’s a struggling actor, working part-time in a strip club until he gets his break.”
“He’s got a great body. David had a great body.”
“Had?”
Julie set down the glasses, mimed breaking a twig in half.
“When?”
“Right after the Hamptons Wedding Week From Hell. It had to be done, but I didn’t want to do it at the wedding, which was bad enough.”
“Sorry, honey.”
“Thanks, but you didn’t like David anyway.”
“I didn’t not like him.”
“Amounts to the same. And though he was so nice to look at, he’d just gotten too clingy. Where are you going, how long will you be, blah blah. Always texting me, or leaving messages on my machine. If I had work stuff, or made plans with you and other friends, he’d get upset or sulky. God, it was like having a wife—in the worst way. No dis meant to wives, as I used to be one. I’d only been seeing him for a couple months, and he was pushing to move in. I don’t want a live-in.”
“You don’t want the wrong live-in,” Lila corrected.
“I’m not ready for the right live-in yet. It’s too soon after Maxim.”
“It’s been five years.”
Julie shook her head, patted Lila’s hand. “Too soon. Cheating bastard still pisses me off. I have to get that down to mild amusement, I think. I hate breakups,” she added. “They either make you feel sad—you’ve been dumped—or mean—you’ve done the dumping.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever dumped anyone, but I’ll take your word.”
“That’s because you make them think it’s their idea—plus you really don’t let it get serious enough to earn the term ‘dump.’”
Lila just smiled. “It’s too soon after Maxim,” she said, and made Julie laugh. “We can order in. There’s a Greek place the clients recommended. I haven’t tried it yet.”
“As long as there’s baklava for after.”
“I have cupcakes.”
“Even better. I now have it all. Swank apartment, good wine, Greek food coming, my best pal. And a sexy . . . oh, and sweaty,” she added as she lifted the glasses again. “Sexy, sweating dancing man—sexual orientation not confirmed.”
“Gay,” Lila repeated, and rose to get the takeout menu.
They polished off most of the wine with lamb kabobs—then dug into the cupcakes around midnight. Maybe not the best combination, Lila decided, considering her mildly queasy stomach, but just the right thing for a friend who was more upset about a breakup than she admitted.
Not the guy, Lila thought as she did the rounds to check security, but the act itself, and all the questions that dogged the mind and heart after it was done.
Is it me? Why couldn’t I make it work? Who will I have dinner with?
When you lived in a culture of couples, it could make you feel less when you were flying solo.
“I don’t,” Lila assured the cat, who’d curled up in his own little bed sometime between the last kabob and the first cupcake. “I’m okay being single. It means I can go where I want when I want, take any job that works for me. I’m seeing the world, Thomas, and okay, talking to cats, but I’m okay with that, too.”
Still, she wished she’d been able to talk Julie into staying over. Not just for the company, but to help deal with the hangover her friend was bound to have come morning.
Mini cupcakes were Satan, she decided as she readied for bed. So cute and tiny, oh, they’re like eating nothing, that’s what you tell yourself, until you’ve eaten half a dozen.
Now she was wired up on alcohol and sugar, and she’d never get to sleep.
She picked up the binoculars. Still some lights on, she noted. She wasn’t the only one still up at . . . Jesus, one-forty in the morning.
Sweaty Naked Guy was still up, and in the company of an equally hot-looking guy. Smug, Lila made a mental note to tell Julie her g*ydar was like Superman.
Party couple hadn’t made it to bed yet; in fact it looked as though they’d just gotten in. Another swank deal from their attire. Lila admired the woman’s shimmery orange dress, and wished she could see the shoes. Then was rewarded when the woman reached down, balancing a hand on the man’s shoulder, and removed one strappy, sky-high gold sandal with a red sole.