"Nina Kiriki Hoffman - For Richer" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hoffman Nina Kiriki)

except they ended up on the floor, since the couch was less comfortable than
the
rug. I had planned my escape so well. And now I just walked back into the
cage.

I could take my purse and a few things and head out the door. I could find
refuge with several people -- Gretchen, even. Although I hadn't told her
everything about my relationship with Rich. I hadn't told anybody the full
extent. I tried not to know it myself. I hated victim statistics.

"Penny?" Rich peered out of the kitchen. He had his shin sleeves rolled up.
"Where are the spices?"
I let go of my stomach, sighed, and wandered over to join him in the kitchen.

He had spread thin frozen fillets of fish on the broiling pan, and cut uneven
slices of bread off a round of sourdough. He was also mixing something in one
of
the glass mixing bowls; a fork lay beside the bowl, dripping light yellow
batter. Rich had never cooked while he lived with me, but he could have
learned
something from two months of neo-bachelor life -- or maybe he knew it before
we
got married and just concealed his ability? "Lemon pepper, I thought," he
said.

A long teasing appetizer before we got to his idea of entree, I thought. He's
going to be nice to me until I really believe this fiction of a new him, and
then the real him will come back and savage me. I should leave now.

"Are you okay, Pix?" he asked.

I went to the slender cabinet recessed into the sidewall and opened it to
reveal
our well-stocked spice shelves. I picked the lemon pepper from its spot in the
center of the alphabet and handed it to him. He liked things organized in
easily
understandable order, even things he never used.

He gripped my shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"Would you leave now, please?"

He blinked. "What, you don't like fish?"

"I like fish all right. I'm just wondering if you'd leave."

"Okay, if it means that much to you. Can we have lunch tomorrow, then? Maybe
in
a public place?"