“By not pressing me.”
Stone picked up the tray and returned it to his lap. “Consider yourself unpressed,” he said.
“Stone,” she said, sitting next to him on the bed. “I like you, I really do; I want this to go somewhere…”
Stone took a bite of his muffin. “Arrington, it can’t go anywhere until it goes somewhere.”
Her shoulders slumped. She crossed her arms, took hold of the sweater, and yanked it over her head. “All right,” she said, “let’s do it.”
Stone took another bite of the muffin. “No thanks,” he said, his voice muffled by the food. “I’m eating.”
“Tell me what you want,” she said.
Stone washed the muffin down with some orange juice. “I don’t know what I want, beyond the immediate urge to make love to you, but I know what I don’t want; I don’t want to be kept at arm’s length.”
“I don’t mean to do that.”
Stone sighed. “I think what we need to do is start over.”
“Okay.”
“When would you like to do that?”
“Oh, Jesus, it’s a really bad time for…”
“Arrington, you owe me nothing; you don’t have to change your life to make room for me.”
“But I want to make room for you.”
“Then what you have to do is figure out what’s clogging up your life, and do something about it.”
“That’s just like a man,” she said. “Figure out your life, rearrange it, order your existence.”
“This may have escaped your attention, but I am a man, and I don’t see what’s wrong with ordering your existence. Everybody has to order his existence, just to get through the day.”
“Well, if that’s how you feel about it,” she said huffily, struggling back into the sweater.
“It certainly is,” he said. “You go and take a look at your life, and if you find some room in it, call me.”
“Typical,” she said, throwing things into her duffel.
“Typical?” he nearly shouted.
“Don’t raise your voice to me!”
Stone’s bedside phone buzzed, and the intercom light flashed. He ignored it and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“Good for you.”
“Is this our first fight?”
“It could be our last one,” she shot back, getting into her coat.
The intercom buzzed again. Stone picked it up. “Yes?” he said.
“Stone, I’m sorry to disturb you,” his secretary said, “but Bill Eggers left a message on the office machine last night. He wants you to be at his office this morning at ten for a meeting; he said it was important.”
“Thanks,” Stone said and hung up.