Read Online Angry Buddhist (9781609458867) by Seth Greenland - Free Book Online Page B

be an endemic ignorance on the entire subject.
    Before Hard there was the fling with the married woman with a successful husband and a kid. The woman claimed it was the first time for her, the cheating part and the same-sex angle. Nadine was sad when her lover ended it, and in a place of genuine vulnerability. That was the week she had met Hard. She wishes she could transplant her Chihuahua’s personality into Hard. She gazes at her dog, lying on the rug at her feet, chewing a golf ball. Diablo looks at her with large brown eyes that bespeak a world of understanding, sympathy and love.
    She suspects Hard no longer loves her, if he ever did. Their relationship had begun in a burst of optimism, Nadine hoping her streak of bad luck had come to an end and was extremely disappointed when she discovered he was married and seemed ambivalent about leaving his wife. And this was five minutes after meeting him. She wonders whether her life is on some kind of frantic loop, an endlessly repeating catastrophe? Are there any men who are not incorrigible liars or manipulative cheats? If there are, they must exist in a shining realm to which Nadine has not gleaned the access code. And she is sick of it. It isn’t like Nadine to raise hell, particularly when it comes to men, but she has reached a point where she is feeling like the universe has painted a target on her back and the gods are hurling darts.
    Her cell phone rings and she checks the caller. Chief Harding Marvin. He’s more than an hour late so she debates for a moment whether or not she should answer.
    â€œWhat?” Hoping her tone will instantly convey her level of displeasure.
    â€œSorry, I didn’t call sooner.” Nadine listens in chilly silence. “I was doing some work for Mary Swain. I’m a precinct captain for the campaign. Didn’t I tell you that?”
    â€œYeah, Hard, you told me. Like, ten times.”
    â€œYou still want me to come over?”
    â€œYou can do what you want.”
    He tells her he’ll be there in half an hour.
    Nadine mixes a pitcher of margaritas. Decides if Hard so much as looks at her cross-eyed, she’ll empty it on his head. She reapplies her makeup and evaluates her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Other than the dark circles under her eyes, she likes what she sees. When the doorbell rings, Nadine waits a full second before getting up to answer it. Hard is holding a dozen roses and a paperback book that he thrusts toward her.
    â€œ
The Collected Poems of Robert Service
?”
    â€œBest American poet in history.” He walks past her into the house. “M. V. goddamn P., Nadine. Most Valuable Poet.”
    Nadine fills a vase with water. While she is arranging the flowers, he reads her
The Shooting of Dan McGrew
, a manly poem about a fellow who gets into a scrape in the Yukon and pays for it with his life
.
There is a catch in Hard’s throat when he gets to the end. Nadine is touched by this, Hard not one to display his emotions anywhere they can be seen. When he kisses her neck, she elbows him away, wanting to punish him for his tardiness, his insensitivity, and what she worries is the general pointlessness of their arrangement, but he persists and when he tries again she lets him. Then they are in the bedroom having sex, Hard on top of her, Nadine staring at the ceiling thinking about whether or not she’d even run off with him were he to ask her, and she briefly wonders if she would even be letting him fuck her had she not overdone it with the Valium.
    After sex the two of them quickly dressed. It was as if they didn’t want to face the intimacy their nakedness suggested. Now her legs are crossed, accenting the fuscia paint on her toenails. Nadine and Hard are seated on the sofa drinking margaritas. Diablo is watching them from his perch on the chair across the room. She finishes her drink and asks Hard if he wants another. When he says no, she gets up and pours one for