Read Online Trouble by Kate Christensen - Free Book Online Page A

arms around her, handing her Kleenex and assuring her over and over that she would be all right, that she would get over this.
    “I didn’t judge you,” I said.
    “I was a fool, and you know it.”
    “We’re all fools, Indrani.”
    “I don’t want you to end up alone, like I am,” she said.
    “I would rather be alone than lonely in a bad marriage,” I said. “It’s the worst kind of loneliness. It’s like a deadweight. Actually, I feel sort of excited about leaving. Sad, too, but mostly relieved. I feel like I just woke up from a coma.”
    “What about Wendy?” Indrani asked.
    I looked searchingly at her for a moment. Her lips were pursed; she was squinting at me. Cruelly, I noticed that the skin around her eyes seemed to have softened and melted slightly. I always tried not to see signs of aging in my friends; the fact that I was allowing myself to notice Indrani’s meant that I must have been angry at her, no matter how hard I was trying not to be.
    “It will be hard for Wendy at first, I imagine,” I said. “She can choose whom she wants to stay with. Maybe it’s best for her to stay with Anthony, but that is up to her.”
    The French doors to the terrace opened and Mick tumbled in with Indrani’s younger brother, Ravi, and three gorgeous young women, one of whom was Indrani’s teaching assistant. The five of them were laughing and windblown and pink-cheeked, manic. A cloud of cigarette smoke had blown in with the fresh air. They all wore their coats and hats. They all carried empty wineglasses. “More wine!” Mick said. “Indrani, come and join us! Oh, hello there, Shrink; it’s snowing out there.”
    The three young women giggled. Indrani and I exchanged a look, immediately united in our resistance against their debauchery, no matter what deeper differences we had.
    “No, thanks,” said Indrani. “I think it’s time for you all to go home to bed.”
    “No way,” said Ravi. “We’re in the prime of our lives now.”
    “Dr. Dressler,” said the teaching assistant, whose glittering, zany eyes made her look not only high as a loon but sexually jacked up, as if she’d been hotly making out with someone for hours, “sorry. We really can leave now if you’d like.”
    “I would like, very much,” said Indrani crisply. “And Elissa, in general, like I said last night, I advise you strongly against hanging out with my brother.”
    “She’s hanging out with me,” said Mick, putting a jovial, proprietary arm around her.
    “Even worse,” I said darkly.
    “What have you got against me?” Ravi said indignantly.
    “I could ask the same thing,” said Mick, as if he didn’t much care what I thought of him. He disappeared briefly into the kitchen and reemerged with two fresh bottles of wine. He put them on the table behind the couch Indrani was sitting on and deftly removed the corks with a corkscrew he took from his pocket, the same antique silver corkscrew, I was interested to note, that I had given Indrani for Christmas just the night before.
    “Nice corkscrew,” I said. “Don’t you guys have any respect for the wishes of your hostess?”
    Mick didn’t seem to hear. “I’ve been wondering about the origin of the phrase ‘Go soak your head,’” he said. “Soak your head in what? Why your head? Why not ‘Go shave your balls?’” He refilled everyone’s wineglasses.
    “Also,” said the loveliest of the three ravishing girls, “soak your head in what? Hot oil? Dishwater? Piss?”
    “Out,” said Indrani, “all of you. If you won’t leave, then at least go back outside.”
    They all traipsed back out onto the terrace and the French doors slammed shut.
    “Oh my God,” I said. “They’re on crystal meth?”
    “They’ll be out there till tomorrow morning. With any luck, they’ll all fall off the terrace and splat on the sidewalk.”
    “Doesn’t your TA worry about losing her job if she acts like this in your apartment?”
    “Apparently not,” said Indrani.