Page 38 of The Playboy and the Widow
“No,” she answered smoothly, “but I need something more than magic.” She couldn’t explain it any better. If Cliff didn’t understand love and commitment, then it was unlikely he’d be able to follow her reasoning. And she had no intention of trying to justify it anyway.
“Come on, Diana, wake up and smell the coffee. Times have changed. Men and women make love every night.”
“I know.” She had no more arguments. There was nothing more to say. She twisted the knob and pulled.
Cliff’s fist hit the door, closing it with a sharp thud. “I don’t know what happened between Thursday night and now, but I think you’re being entirely unreasonable.”
“I don’t expect you to understand.”
His anger and disappointment were almost more than he could bear. “Please don’t leave.”
“I can’t see any other option.”
He gritted his teeth, trying to come up with some way to make her understand. “Diana, listen to me. I’m a sexual person. I haven’t been with a woman in a long time. I’ve got to have you for the pure physical release, I...”
Her stunned look caused him to swallow the rest of what he was saying.
“Goodbye, Cliff,” she said, and then jerked open the door and walked out.
Cliff stared at the closed front door for a full minute. He couldn’t believe he’d said that to her, as though she and she alone were responsible for easing his sexual appetite. He couldn’t have made a bigger mess of this evening had he tried.
Diana didn’t know she could walk so fast. Instead of going along the sidewalk, she cut between parked cars and crossed the street. Within a few minutes she was close to the marina. A Metro bus pulled to a stop at the curb, and its heavy doors parted with a whoosh. Without knowing its destination, Diana climbed on board. She had already taken her seat, when she saw Cliff’s sports car race past the bus and chase after a taxi. Her eyes followed Cliff and the taxi until they were out of sight.
Diana was able to get a transfer from one bus to another, and an hour later she walked inside her house, exhausted and furious.
“Mom, where were you? What happened?” Joan cried, running to the door to greet her. “Cliff’s been calling every ten minutes.”
She ignored the question and headed for the refrigerator. For the past half hour, she’d been walking. She was dying of thirst, and her feet hurt like crazy—a lethal combination. Both Joan and Katie seemed to recognize her mood and went out of their way to avoid her.
Diana had been home fifteen minutes, when the phone rang again. Joan sprinted into the kitchen to answer it.
“If it’s Cliff, I don’t want to talk to him,” Diana yelled after her daughter.
Joan reappeared a couple of minutes later. “He just wanted to know that you got home okay.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That you were mad as hops.”
Diana groaned, sagged against the back of the overstuffed chair and hugged a pillow to her stomach. That wasn’t the half of it. The next time she went racing out of a man’s condominium, she’d make sure she carried enough cash to take a cab home. She’d ridden on the bus with two winos and a guy who looked like a candidate for the Hell’s Angels.
“Are you mad at Cliff, Mom?” Katie wanted to know, plopping down at her mother’s feet.
“Yes.”
“But I like Cliff.”
“Don’t worry, kid, I got all the bases covered.” Joan sank onto the carpet beside her sister. “Cliff just phoned. I advised him to wait a couple of days, then send roses. By that time, everything will be forgotten and forgiven.”
The pressure Diana applied to the pillow bunched it in half. “Wanna bet?” she challenged.
Shirley poured herself a cup of coffee and sat at the kitchen table beside Diana. “It’s been a week.”
“I told you I didn’t want to hear from him.” Diana continued copying the recipe for yet another hamburger casserole that disguised vegetables. She had only a few minutes before the girls would be home from school, then the house would become an open battlefield. Both Joan and Katie had been impossible all week. Without understanding any of what had happened between Cliff and her, her daughters had taken it upon themselves to champion his case. Diana refused to talk about him and, as a last resort, had forbidden either girl to mention his name again.
For the first few days after their argument, Diana had held out hope that things could be settled between her and Cliff, It didn’t take long for her to accept that it was better to leave matters as they were. They were in a no-win situation. The bottom line was that they’d only end up hurting each other. Despite everything, Diana was pleased to have known Cliff Howard. She’d been living her life in a cooler; she’d grieved for Stan long enough. It was time to join the land of the living and soak up the sunshine of a healthy relationship again. Dating Cliff had shown her the way out of the chill, and she would always be grateful to him for that. In the past three years, she’d dated only occasionally. Cliff had helped her to see that she was ready to meet someone, pick up the pieces of her shattered life and move on.
“But I feel bad,” Shirley continued, holding the coffee mug with both hands. “George told me I had the wrong impression of Cliff—he isn’t exactly the playboy I led you to believe.”
