Read Online Warming Trend by Karin Kallmaker - Free Book Online

Fortunately, she had the savings to tide her over.
    Lisa, as they walked out the back corridor together, was far more concerned. “Great. No job for ten days maybe two weeks? I was just starting to get on my feet. TBE stuck me with the cell phone contract and I had to buy a car because my name wasn’t on the registration even though I paid for half.”
    Over the last ten days, Ani had heard all about the financial situation left from “The Bitch Ex.” She tried to be encouraging. “Maybe it won’t be that bad.”
    Lisa was almost in tears. “I can’t go two weeks without a paycheck, and I’m not going back to dancing. This is what I get for not having a nest egg. TBE took my nest egg!”
    “Dancing?” It was the first Ani had heard of it. Given Lisa’s graceful voluptuousness, the word exotic immediately sprang to mind.
    “Not really. More like Lap Sitting and Grinding at that dump near the airport.” Lisa ran her hands through her already wild hair. “What am I going to do?”
    “Come on,” Ani said. “Let’s go find something to eat.”
    “Nothing’s open but the after-hours clubs,” Lisa predicted.
    She turned out to be right, so Ani offered the meager contents of her kitchen and full use of the bathtub, the offer of which vastly improved Lisa’s mood. Lisa proved herself imaginative by making thick instant coffee, adding slugs of chocolate syrup and pouring it all over tall glasses of ice. She didn’t waste any time filling the tub with cold water, stripping down and climbing in. She wasn’t exactly shy in the process.
    “Oh, stop averting your eyes.” She flicked water in Ani’s direction. “You had your chance. The least you could do is leer a little. I need an ego boost.” She leaned back in the tub, eyes closed as she sipped her iced coffee.
    Ani sat on the commode and had to admit that nothing was wrong with Lisa’s body, and a great deal was right. Yet she couldn’t even conjure up a fantasy. Still, there was nothing wrong with flattery. “Okay, I’m leering.”
    Lisa opened one eye. “You are not.”
    “I’m trying.” If she had a tail, she’d have wagged it for emphasis.
    “You are frigid , aren’t you?”
    “I’ve been trying to tell you that.”
    “How come you’re not freaked about no work for two weeks?”
    “I have something put away for a rainy day. I’m Russian on both sides. We believe that life is meant to be a worst-case scenario, and we plan accordingly.” Given her simple life, she lived off her cash tips and banked her paychecks. She sipped the iced concoction, then went to find some coffee liqueur. After doctoring both their glasses, she settled back on her perch and contemplated the next two weeks. She’d only known Lisa a short while, and it wasn’t saying much for her social skills that Lisa was currently her best friend. She had liked it that way, she reminded herself, prided herself on it, in fact. “I could loan you some money.”
    “That’s sweet, but then I’d just owe you money. I’m trying to get out of debt, not deeper in it.”
    “Better me than the telephone company.”
    Lisa sighed. “Thank you. I don’t mean to sound ungracious. It’s just that I thought I’d hit an easy patch for once. Here I was working with a bartender who put out great drinks faster than a speeding bullet, and scooping up all the tips I could handle without getting handled.” She opened her eyes and leaned out of the tub to put her glass on the floor.
    “Leer,” Ani said, legs crossed in front of her. “Boobages, backside leer.”
    “Oh. Stop. I’m blushing. You’re too kind.” Lisa gave her the patented drop dead glare as she rested her chin on the side of the tub. “What’s that?”
    Too late, Ani saw the folded page of the Fairbanks Gazette where she’d last left it, on the short stack of clean towels. “Nothing.”
    Lisa moved faster than she did. “I knew it! It’s that photo you said you didn’t know that professor.”
    “No, I