Read Online The Immaculate by Mark Morris - Free Book Online

boyfriend; she didn’t mention one and the traditional engagement/wedding finger was ringless. He couldn’t remember the last time he had hit it off with someone so quickly. Certainly after only an hour in this woman’s company he’d established more of a rapport with her than he’d ever managed with Carol. Despite his intention to remain unattached, Jack found himself attempting to pluck up the courage to ask Gail for her address or phone number. He spent an agonizing twenty minutes trying to contrive a situation whereby he could do so before she conveniently provided him with one.
    They had returned to the subject of his latest novel,
Consummation,
which had been published in hardback but would not be released in paperback for another six months. Gail had asked Jack to tell her what the book was about. “Whet my appetite,” she’d said, “but don’t give anything away.”
    â€œYou don’t want much, do you?” he said, smiling, and then had launched into a stumbling, long-winded explanation of the themes and ideas behind the book. Usually the question, “What’s your book about?” made him want to run in the other direction. Jack thought all plots, especially of the books he wrote, sounded incredibly silly when summarised. It was how they were written that brought them alive, that made the outrageous credible.
    â€œPretty dumb, huh?” he said ruefully when he had finished.
    But Gail’s eyes were shining. “No,” she said, “it sounds wonderful. Oh, wow, I can’t wait to read it.”
    Jack saw the opening he had been waiting for suddenly appear, a great gash of light in his mind’s eye, and he went for it before it could close up again. “Tell you what,” he said, hoping his motives would not seem as transparent to Gail as they seemed to him, “as you’re so enthusiastic, why don’t I send you a copy of the hardback, then you won’t have to wait another six months?”
    She stared at him, dark eyes wide and breathtakingly appealing, and then slowly her lips spread into a stunning grin. Jack felt that light must be blazing from that grin, brightening the whole restaurant. She said, “Oh, wow, that would be lovely.” Then a small frown appeared. “But I can’t ask you to do that. You must think I’m incredibly pushy. I wasn’t trying to drop hints, you know.”
    Jack shook his head, feeling a little guilty. “I never thought you were. Really, I’d love to send you a book. I’ve got loads at home. It’s not as if you’re depriving me of my only copy.”
    This wasn’t strictly true. Of the dozen complimentary copies that Cormorant had sent him, Jack had only three left. But that’s okay, he told himself. He’d be fine with one for people to look at and one to keep on the shelves in pristine condition, and it wasn’t as if he couldn’t get more if he needed them.
    â€œOkay then,” she said, “if you’re sure. You’ll need my address, won’t you?”
    â€œIt would help,” Jack said, “unless you want me to drop the package at some secret location?”
    Gail rewarded him with another stunning smile and wrote her address in tiny neat letters in his notepad. Jack zipped the pad into the inner pocket of his leather jacket, and five minutes later he and Gail paid their bills, said their good-byes and went their separate ways.
    Jack felt certain he would never see her again. When he arrived home the first thing he did was write a brief note to her that read,
“Dear Gail, Thank you for brightening up my lunchtime. Here’s the book I promised you.”
He held his pen poised hesitantly over the page for a moment before signing,
“Love, Jack.”
Trying to make it look casual but as legible as possible, he then printed his address and telephone number in the top right-hand corner of the page. Only then