Читать книгу And Then There Is Love - Lori Buckman - Страница 2

The horror of the nightmare that had invaded her more harmless dreams two or three times a year began to subside, though with it, the delicious ending. The paralysis that had kept her head on her pillow, her body in the middle of the bed and tangled in her satin sheets, slowly weakened. She reached over her head and spread the thick curtains. The feeble morning light shot daggers through her brain. She closed her eyes and began to rub them but the inside of her lids were like sandpaper. Dragging her cottony tongue slowly over her lips, she tried to remember the night before but after a long moment she exclaimed anxiously, “I can’t remember!” She pushed herself up to a sitting position and immediately grabbed her head. A ‘shit’ escaped her. Slowly, she pushed her bare legs over the side of her bed. She looked down at her rose-colored, satin pillow – oh, how inviting. How she wanted to go back to sleep! But she rarely called in sick and now wasn’t one of those times. Besides, she would be the sole employee at the restaurant for at least an hour so whom would she call?

Her bare feet lowered to the soft nap of her carpet, and she shuffled toward the bathroom. She turned the light on but immediately turned it back off. Squinting in the dimness of the room, she attempted to examine herself in the large mirror over the sink but the bathroom was too dark. She hurried back out to her bedroom and approached the mirror above her dresser – “My eyes, they’re red… puffy and,” she stuck out tongue, “Oh God, it’s white! What happened last night?” Her almond eyes opened wide. “My God, did I do anything to be embarrassed about this morning?” She returned to the bathroom, stripped off her nightgown and put her long, mahogany hair up in a loose bun. She turned the knob of the shower to ‘cold,’ and squaring her shoulders and holding her breath, she stepped in. As the cold water hit her, she exclaimed, “Carol! I remember Carol and… some restaurant…and… being somewhere else and her walking out the door with a guy and…“

She felt better, less anxious, after the fog partially lifted from her brain. After drying her slim body and after dressing in a coral silk blouse, flowery blue cotton skirt and mismatched sandals she took the two steps up to the kitchen, made herself an espresso and sat at her oblong dining room table that was on the same level as the kitchen, the little cup to her lips. The caffeine from the cup of strong coffee rushed to her head. Everything became clearer. While sipping her coffee, she stood and gazed out appraisingly at her beautiful living room. “Cozy and at the same time elegant. I have my grandmother to thank for most of the furnishings. Of course a man sitting over there in his loosely-tied, silk dressing gown barely covering a ripped, naked body would make it even cozier and even more elegant.” She had to admit that she was lonely. Had been lonely everywhere she had gone. She hadn’t stayed in one place or given herself enough time to make friends, male or female. What was wrong with her?