Page 9 of Keeping Lucy

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Of course, Seattle in November meant rain. Lots of it. We decided to move to my hotel, since Lucy was due to check out anyway and I had my room for the rest of the weekend. So we packed her stuff and took a cab to my hotel, even though it was only a few blocks away, then headed to a nearby diner.

“What would you like?”

Lucy didn’t even look at the menu. “Blueberry pancakes. And coffee. What about you?”

“Think I’ll go with bacon and eggs. And coffee.”

The server came and took our order, and when she’d gone, I leaned back in my chair, watching Lucy as she gazed out at the pouring rain. She looked so pretty, wearing a soft pink wool sweater and with her hair falling around her shoulders. I spoke softly. “Hey, you wanna know something?”

She turned her green eyes back to me and I lost myself for a moment, just looking at her.

“What?”

“Your tits look great in that top.”

As I knew she would, she blushed and quickly looked around to see if anyone had heard. “You can’tsaystuff like that!” Her eyes were dancing, despite the blush.

I shrugged, grinning. “Why not? It’s the truth.”

“Well… Thank you, I guess.”

“You’re welcome.”

I found myself deeply curious about her. I wanted to know everything about her. What she’d been doing married to a dickless wonder for so long, for a start. But instead I asked, “So tell me, what made you go into IT?”

She paused so long that I almost forgot what my question was. Then she shrugged and said, “Richard thought it was the best option.”

I frowned. “And what about you? What did you think?”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t like he forced me into it or anything like that. It was just that as we neared the end of high school, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do.”

“Really? If I’d had to guess, I would have expected you to go work with your dad.”

She tilted her head and eyed me curiously for a moment. “That’s very interesting.”

“Is it? Why?”

“Because that’s kind of what I was thinking at the time. Dad used to take me and Matt to work with him during summer vacation and I really loved it.” She stopped, turning to look back out the window, maybe pondering what might have been.

“So, what stopped you?”

“He—we—just thought IT was probably an easier option for a woman than construction. And that there would be more opportunities for both of us if we left Esperance. It seemed like a solid, practical career. Which, to be fair, it is.”

“Do you like it?”

“I don’t…hate it? I can’t say I’m passionate about it, but it pays the bills really well, plus I have a lot of flexibility with my hours. I’m certainly not complaining, put it that way.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah.”

The server came back with our coffee just then, so we let the conversation go for a moment. Once she’d gone again, I said, “So, can you tell me what happened between you and Richard?”

Shadows flickered in her eyes and for a moment I thought she wasn’t going to answer. “When we first got together, I thought we were so alike, so compatible. We’re both very particular.Anally retentiveI believe is the term.” She smiled ruefully. “We got along really well. We had the same goals, same interests…mostly.”

That caught my attention. Something about her tone when she said “mostly” made me think she’d blended her interests with his in a way that was less than fair to her. “That sounds…good?” I said, the faint question in my voice encouraging her to go on.

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