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328 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
Watching her I felt the little knot in my stomach that I always felt when I left her. She walked a ways down the concourse, and looked back and waved and then turned a corner and was out of sight. I still stood for a moment, looking at the last place I had seen her, being careful not to be routine, while I became the other guy again, the one I was without her. It took a couple of minutes. And then I was him. He wasn’t a bad guy; in fact sometimes I thought he had strengths that the other guy didn’t have. Certainly he wasn’t worse. But he was no one I wanted to be all the time.
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I parked in the town lot and got out and walked around to Dixie’s side of the car. She sat still in the front seat and didn’t get out. I opened the door. She still sat without moving.
“Care to dine?” I said. She looked up at me and I realized she was crying. “Or not,” I said.
“You don’t have to pay me off,” she said, “just because I showed you where Anthony lived.”
“I know,” I said. “But I like your company.”
“Are you going to expect anything after?”
“No.”
Dixie sat staring straight ahead. She sniffed a little as she cried. “It’s been a long time,” she said, “since anyone took me to dinner.”
“Well, let’s try it,” I said. “If you like it we can do it again.”
She nodded and got out of the car while I held the door. The food in the restaurant wasn’t too good, but we had a pretty nice time.