Tamara moved into Patrick's house a week later. At first she was shy about making love to him right under Laurie's nose, but she got used to that pretty quickly. Each of the women had Patrick three times a week; on the seventh night (Sunday), they took pity on him and left him alone. Anyway, neither of them wanted to engage in a long session of lovemakingâthe only kind Patrick enjoyedâjust before the start of the work week.
A few weeks later, on an idle Saturday afternoon, Laurie found herself in front of an apartment building a few miles from Patrick's house. It was a long time before she could press the button to announce herself to the person that lived in apartment 3C.
When at last she did so, a voice at the other end said: "Hello?"
"Is this Dorothy?"
"Yes." The voice was faintly suspicious.
Laurie let out a big breath, then spoke rapidly into the intercom. "Hi, I'm Laurie. You don't know me, but I know your ex-husband, Patrick. I wonder if I could come up and talk to you for a bit."
There was a dead silence on the other end. It lasted so long that Laurie was fearful that the woman had terminated the conversation. She was about to say something more when the voice said sharply: "What exactly do you want?"
"Look, I really can't explain from down here. Can't I just come up for a minute?"
After another long pause, a buzzer indicated that the front door of the building had been unlocked.
As she made her way to apartment 3C, Laurie's whole body began to tremble. Bold and decisive as she usually was (outside the grasp of Patrick Williamson, at any rate), the encounter to come filled her with trepidation. She couldn't even explain to herself why she had come here; something deep within her told her that there was a pressing necessity for it.
When the door to the apartment opened, Laurie walked in and set her eyes for the first time on Patrick's ex-wife.
Dorothy was petiteâno more than five foot four. Slender but curvy, with an ample bosom that seemed even bigger than Laurie's, she had an achingly beautiful face framed by meticulously coiffed auburn hair. There was something of a pre-Raphaelite look about herâa look that was augmented by what seemed to be a perpetual air of melancholy that hovered over her.
She glared at Laurie as she grudgingly let her in. The apartment, though small, was well kept; and she sensed that its austerity was in keeping with the house Laurie lived in now. Patrick's influence continued to work on his former spouse even three years after their breakup.
"Pardon my being so blunt," Dorothy said in a high and shaky voice, "but what are you doing here?"
Laurie wasn't ready for such an early confrontation. "IâI just wanted to talk a bit."
"Talk," Dorothy said derisively. "You say you're a 'friend' of Patrick's. You must mean you're his girlfriend, his lover. Am I right?"
"Yes."
"So you've come to gloat, I suppose," Dorothy said bitterly.
"God, no! I'd never do that! We women have to stick together, don't we?"
Laurie was so obviously sincere that Dorothy's expression softened.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I justâ Oh, I don't know. But I really do wish you'd explain why you're here."
"I'm not sure I can. I just feel that I need to know something more about you. Patrick pretty much chews my head off every time I try to get him to talk about you, so I think there must be more here than what he's said."
"What has he said?"
"Oh, just that you two were married for about four years and then split up. That was three years ago."
"That's not very much, is it?"
"No."
Dorothy drifted over to the sofa in the small living/dining area and dumped herself on it. She didn't trouble to offer her visitor any refreshments.
"Well, if you really want to know, here's the story in a nutshell. I met Patrick when we were juniors in college. I knew he was talentedâhe'd published lots of stories in the college literary magazineâbut we didn't become a couple until senior year. After we graduated he just kept on writing. You know he published his first book at twenty-four?"
"Yes, I know that."
"Sure, it was only a detective story, but it's still pretty remarkable. And, if you've read any of his books, you'll know there's a lot more to them than just the mystery. He really has a way of understanding people."
"Most people," Laurie added ruefully.
Dorothy paused a moment, trying to digest her guest's comment, then went on. "Well, that book was a success, and so Patrick just plunged into writing. He also showed himself to be a shrewd critic and even a commentator on the political scene, so pretty soon he had more assignments than he could handle. I was thrilled for him, of courseâbut as the years passed he became so obsessed with his work that he seemed to have little time for me.
"Don't get me wrong. I was really proud of him, and I also wasn't just sitting at home like a lonely housewife. I have my work, and I'm good at it. But with the passing of time I just felt more and more cut off from him. We had bitter arguments, and after each one we nursed our grudges more and more. The whole situation was just getting intolerable. Soâ"
"You left?"
"Well, what else could I do? I didn't want toâI loved himâbut he didn't seem to be the same guy I'd married. Some of the things he said to me were so... cruel." Dorothy was weeping now. "It was just awful."
"That was three years ago?"
"Yes."
"And... you've not found anyone else?"
"I haven't tried much. My heart's just not in it."
Laurie paused significantly before her next question. "You still love him?"
The look Dorothy gave her was enough to wrench her heart. "Of course I do! Can't you guess?"
"Sure, I can."
Dorothy leaped up from the bed and started pacing around the small room. Then she whirled around and faced her now unwelcome guest.
"I think you'd better leave. There's nothing you can do here. You're only making things worse by bringing up all these bad memories."
But Laurie remained on the couch, seemingly lost in thought. As if to herself, she said, "You know, I think we should get you and Patrick back together."
"What!" Dorothy exploded. "
You
say that? Are you crazy? You're his girlfriend!"
"I know, and I want to stay that way."