Allan Heatherton had talked to Mary Trent, certainly, and he found that he liked doing so - as she evidently liked talking to him. They had run on together a few months before, after helping a friend set up a party. Both had shown up early to help, and found that things went so well that they had a good half-hour left, more or less alone, before others showed up.
And at another party, he went out on the unheated porch to get a can of soda and found her there, and when he reached around her, Mary half-seriously backed into his arms and they kissed for a moment. She softly said, "Now you could certainly keep someone warm at night," but she pulled away laughing when he tried to put an arm around her. When she had a party herself, though, he was feeling sick; and when there was one at the house he shared with two other men he was out of town and only got home in time to see her leave.
When she moved from an apartment into a house where she was going to live with another young woman, he helped her but could not stay around much afterward. She seemed nice, and looked good, but since he knew that she was just coming off the breakup of a long relationship, he thought it better not to get too serious with her. Besides, she lived an hour away.
Which was no barrier to Kathy Lydick asking him to get a 16mm movie print from his local library for a party she was holding on a Saturday. He could do that easily enough and deliver it, but then he had to miss the party because of a family thing. When he knocked on Kathy's door at noon on Sunday, there was no answer.
He reflected. Kathy lived only a few blocks from the house that Mary Trent shared with Elaine Cunningham. Maybe Kathy was down there.
Allan found a pay telephone and - rather more difficult - found the slip with the telephone number of Mary's new home. Mary answered.
"Hello?"
"Hello. This is Allan Heatherton. I was trying to get back from Kathy Lydick the movie that I got hold of for her party, but there was no answer when I knocked. Would you have any iodea where she might be?"
"No, not really." A quick conversation over her shoulder. "Elaine says that Kathy said she was going to spend today with her parents."
"Um. I guess there is no real hope then. I'll just have to go home and call her once in a while and then drive back over when I get an answer. I really would like to be able to drop off the movie from work at lunch tomorrow, or the library will charge me."
"Oh. Well, you are certainly welcome to come over here and spend some time. You can at least save the two hours of driving back and forth."
"I thank you for the offer, but I had better pass on it. I'm not in very attractive shape for socializing."
"I don't understand."
"Oh, well, I spent last night on a couch at my sister's, so I still have yesterday's clothes on. Some wine got spilled on my shirt last night. And I really could use a shower, since the wine got on me too, though I tried to wash off. For the ten seconds of collecting the movie before going home, I didn't think it would matter, but it would be impolite to spend the day with you like that."
"That doesn't matter. The Sunday paper doesn't have much in it that's interesting; I've finished it already. If you don't come over I'll just read a book, or more likely watch television, and I'd much rather talk to you than watch television. Or read nearly any book, really."
"You have made a very tempting offer."
"Good! You are just the sort that I like to tempt! I'll see if I can do something for the shirt, too."
"My sister did that already. The stain is gone, there's just a smell. I'll see you soon, then."
The door was opened, and he was greeted by Mary Trent, wearing a paisley-patterned cotton shift, bunny slippers, and, five and a half feet in the other direction, blur eyes and reddish-blond hair. Also a charming smile.
He smiled back at her, smiled and nodded to Elaine, and settled down to talk and wait. Elaine disappeared soon to go upstairs and type, and Allan found himself chatting more cozily than he had expected by a considerable margin.
Mary looked at his shirt and said, "There's at least one spot that your sister missed." She led him by the hand up to her bedroom, where she handed him a bathrobe and told him to take off the shirt.
"I wouldn't mind having you running around half-naked myself, but it might scandalize Elaine," - there was a snort from the next room -"and I don't trust the neighbors not to spy on us."
So they stood for a while and talked in the basement while his shirt was washed, and sat again while it dried.
He called Kathy every couple of hours, but there was never an answer.
The evening arrived, and Mary, with Elaine reinforcing, told Allan that he was staying for dinner. He tried to protest, and worked a compromise where he walked with Mary to a local grocery and paid for a few things they might need, then washing dishes afterward.
The conversation got more personal, and both began talking about their past relationships (though in general terms) and present ones (none in both cases), what they would want in that direction, and...
At fifteen of ten in the evening, Kathy's phone answered. "Oh, Charley Kandel took the movie with him when he left." Charley was one of the other two men in Allan's house.
"I certainly could not say that this day has been wasted, Mary," he said to her, "since I spent it with you, but there is no reason to stay around here any more. So I will say good night to you and Elaine and go."
"I tempted you into coming here," Mary looked up at him and said. "I would like to tempt you to stay. That would be a VERY good night for me."
Allan was startled at this, if not stunned.
"For one thing, I can give you the shower you wanted. In fact, I want to join you in it."
