Chapter Eleven
Strictly Friends
There is listening, and there is looking like your listening; both require a drink.
“Thanks for letting me stay,” Mavis said with tearful eyes. “Lumpy and I had a terrible row. He seems to think he knows what I want without asking.”
“He wants to surprise you,” I said.
“Yes,” said the Bag Lady, pushing a glass of water Mavis’s way, “Lumpy just cares.”
“So he asks Fanny?” said Mavis.
“She’s your sister,” said the Bag Lady, pushing the water closer.
Mavis looked from the Bag Lady to me. “Fanny has as much idea about what I want as Tenzam.”
I slid the whisky from Mavis’s hand. She pulled it back and took a sip.
“I told him he was not thinking about me at all. ‘You should have asked,’ I said. And do you know what he said?”
The Bag Lady and I shook our
