Read Online Anybody Out There - Marian Keyes by Anybody Out There - Free Book Online

my skin flame.

"Neat," Butch said. "And when you get sawn in half, how does that work?"

"False legs," Aidan said, barely moving his lips. His eyes didn't leave my face.
I could actually feel poor Butch's smile trickle away. "You guys know each other?"

Aidan and I looked at Butch, then back at each other. Did we? "Yes."

Even if I hadn't known that something was happening with me and Aidan, the way Butch treated
us was a sign: he backed off--and you could tell that ordinarily he was supercompetitive. "You
kids have fun," he said, a little subdued.

Then Aidan and I were left on our own.

"Enjoying the party?" he asked.

"No," I said. "I hate it."

"Yeah." He scanned the room, at a different eye level from me. "What's not to hate?"

Just then, a short, dark man, the sort of man who'd been my type until I'd met Aidan, butted his
way between us and asked, "Whereja get to, buddy? You just took off."

A look passed over Aidan's face: Were we ever going to be left alone? Then he smiled and said,
"Anna, meet my best buddy, Leon. Leon works with Kent, the birthday boy. And this is Leon's
wife, Dana."

Dana was about a foot taller than Leon. She had long legs, a big chest, a fall of thick multitoned
hair, and radiant, evenly tanned skin.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," I replied.

Anxiously, Leon asked me, "It's a sucky party, right?"

"Um..."

"You're with the good guys," Aidan said. "Tell it like it is."

"Okay. It's supersucky."

"Jeez." Dana sighed and fanned her hand in front of her chest. "Let's mingle," she said to Leon.
"Sooner we start, sooner we can leave. Excuse us."

"Bail just as soon as you can't stand it," Leon told Aidan, then we were alone again.

Was it the two giggling men running off to the bathroom like a pair of schoolgirls with their little
plastic baggie or the poor six-months-away-from-rehab girls scooping out the creamed chicken
from the choux pastry horns and smearing their fronts with it that made Aidan ask, "Anna, can
we get out of here?"

Can we get out of here? I looked at him, annoyed at his presumption. All that spur-of-the-
moment, let's-do-the-relationship-right-here stuff is fine when you're nineteen, but I was thirty-
one years old. I didn't just "get out of here" with strange men.

I said, "Let me just tell Jacqui I'm leaving."

I found her in the kitchen, showing a cluster of rapt people how to make a proper Manhattan, and
told her I was off. But before I could leave, I had to retrieve my coat from beneath a grunting
couple having sex in Kent's bedroom. All I could see of the woman was her legs and shoes, one
of them with gum stuck to the sole.

"Which coat is it?" Aidan asked. "This one? 'Scuse us, buddy. Just need to get this--"

He tugged and the coat moved an inch, then another, then with a final yank, it slithered free and
we were out the door. On a high from our escape, we couldn't wait for the elevator, so, fueled
with more energy than we'd normally have, we belted down several flights of stairs and ran right
out into the street.

It was early October, the days were still bright but the nights were chilly. Aidan helped me on
with my coat, a midnight-blue velvet duster, painted with a silvery cityscape.

"I like your look." Aidan stood back to check me out properly. "Yeah."

I liked his, too. With the hat and the jacket and the big boots, it was very Workingman Chic. Not
that I was going to tell him. And good thing Jacqui wasn't there to hear Aidan because remarking
on my clothes was classic Feathery Stroker acting-out. (Details on Feathery Strokers to follow.)

"Just a point I'd like to clear up," I said, a little snippily. "I didn't `disappear.' I went away.
Because you didn't want to go for a drink with me, remember?"

"I did want to. I wanted you from the very moment you head-butted me. I just wasn't sure I
could have you."

"Excuse me, you head-butted me. What sort of not sure?"

"Every sort."

T wo blocks away we found a small weird underground bar, with red walls and a pool table.
Dry ice