One Degree of Separation (23 page)

Marian shivered. “I do like that, but I’m not like you. I will need some time.”

Liddy blushed. “I’m not like me either. I have no idea how I did all that. I’ve never been like that. I don’t know how you knew I could be.”

Marian’s smile was gentle. “I didn’t know you couldn’t be, dear Emma.”

A wonderfully gooey sensation filled the pit of Liddy’s stomach, then it growled loudly. “I’m starved.”

“Me too.”

“Breakfast?”

“What a good idea.”

Liddy thought about the contents of her refrigerator. “Want to go out?”

“Why don’t I make you breakfast at my place? I need to check on my critters.”

Liddy was deeply pleased. Going out meant their time together might end. Besides, she was willing to bet that being seen at any local breakfast place in Iowa City was certain to make the rumor mill.

They’d be the local gossip by noon. “I’d love that.”

“Do you want to shower first?”

“If I can stand up. Join me?”

“I’d love to.”

They stood under the hot water together, taking turns shampoo-ing each other’s hair and washing each other’s back. When Marian started to run the soap over her own breasts, Liddy snatched it away.

“Please, you need help with those. Breasts get
so
filthy and yours are simply atrocious.”

Marian chuckled and leaned back to allow Liddy’s touch. Once the soap was rinsed away, Liddy flicked the inviting nipples with her tongue.

Laughing, she looked up at Marian. “I would really like to do this, but I find I’m more interested in the water.” Marian pulled her up for a joyous kiss. “I’m thirsty too.” Her tongue licked over Liddy’s lips. Liddy shivered as she recalled Marian’s tongue between her legs last night. Marian made a sound that was almost a growl, then her tongue took possession of Liddy’s mouth.

This can’t be happening, Liddy thought. It just can’t. Marian’s hands gripped her waist firmly, and then the shower wall was at her back. It was like the first time, against the door. Hot, hard and explo-sive.

“I’ve got you,” Marian said, when Liddy’s feet slipped. “I’ve got you. Let it go for me.”

Liddy’s voice became a wail. “Fuck me, oh, don’t stop.” She said more, pleaded, and felt the waves of orgasm start in the small of her back.

Marian answered in a low, intense voice that cut through the sound of water and Liddy’s racing heart. “I’m not going to stop, you know I won’t. I
love
being inside you. Emma ... yes ... Emma, I’ve got you.” Then words were lost in a frantic kiss.

Emma, Liddy mused a few minutes later, with her head still on Marian’s shoulder, was obviously multi-orgasmic. Wherever the hell Emma had come from, it felt fantastic. Marian made her feel different, made her feel alive in ways she never had before. Emma was a lucky woman. She giggled.

“All right, let’s dry off and get some food.” Marian directed Liddy to the house, but didn’t realize until the Hummer was in the driveway that it would announce—early on a Monday morning—that she and Liddy had spent the night together.

There was no way any of her friends, including Hemma and Amy, would interpret its presence any other way.

Question was, she asked herself, did she care?

She watched Liddy’s lithe body climb down out of the Hummer.

No, she decided, she really didn’t care. Maybe sex was the best therapy of all. She had let go of Hemma. She had no idea where things were going with Liddy, but she was free to ride the rollercoaster.

“This is Professor Hill. Down! Down! Sorry.” She pulled Hill off Liddy by the collar and admonished him. “You know you’re not supposed to do that.”

“He’s a lover,” Liddy said. “A Lassie dog.”

“Laddie, please. Hill may be fixed, but he’s still very male.” Marian realized there was a three-day accumulation of dishes in the sink. She never had gotten around to vacuuming. The early-morning sunlight caught every piece of pet hair on the furniture. “So, this is home. It’s the maid’s decade off.”

Liddy laughed. “When I want to see the house, I’ll make an appointment. Right now, I’d like to see some breakfast, please.” She nearly offered ham and eggs, but remembered Liddy’s diet preferences in time. “Bagels? Cream cheese? I have some beautiful early strawberries from next door. Here, let me get the dog chow.”

“Everything sounds wonderful, except the dog chow.”

“Smart ass.”

“I try. Shall I get plates?”

“Cupboard next to the fridge.”

Hill’s bowl filled, Marian began assembling their small feast to the sound of his lusty crunching. “Do you like orange juice?”

“Gives me heartburn. Coffee would be good.”

“Oh, you got it. What a great idea.”

“Your dishes are beautiful, the way the blue washes into the red.” Marian turned to admire them with Liddy. “From my folks. Yeah, I’ve always liked the colors.”

She sliced the strawberries into a bowl and lightly sugared them before setting out knives for cutting bagels and spreading the cheese.

With the coffee plugged in, she shook Trombone’s food container and the feline sidled into the kitchen, looking suspicious of the extra two-legged creature.

“This haughty creature is Trombone, just one, not seventy-six.” She grinned, but Liddy looked blank. “You know, from the musical?”

“You lost me.”

“
The Music Man
.”

“Oh, I’ve never seen it.”

Strangely enough, Marian was pleased. “Good, then you can’t sing the words to ‘Marian the Librarian.’ Ellie does that to punish me.”

Liddy goggled. “Is that where that comes from? I have to admit, I did think of you that way, but it wasn’t from a musical.”

“Really? Where then?”

“A book. Marian the Librarian, an S and M queen. I don’t remember the title, though.”

“Oh!” Marian blushed. “Oh, that book by Nicholson Baker. Yes, I’ve had to live that one down, too.”

She had the tray on the table when Trombone hopped up onto the chair Liddy was pulling out.

“Get down,” Marian ordered.

After a disdainful look, Trombone peered at the chair cushion and began heaving.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” Marian scooped the cat off the chair and put her in the sink where Trombone finished throwing up. “Ha! Beat you to it.”

“I think I’m not wanted.”

“The cat might think she runs my life, but she doesn’t. She’s tried that trick before. I do anything out of the ordinary and I find gifts in my shoes. Heck, I do anything at all and she pukes in my shoes. She only chooses the chairs for new people.”

Liddy, at least, didn’t seem put off by it. Marian pushed away the memory of Robyn’s disgust at Trombone’s territorial behavior. She hadn’t liked the way Hill smelled either. Face it, she told herself.

Robyn didn’t like anything about you, that’s why she chose you. It was never about you.

Liddy tucked into her food with pleasing gusto, finishing two glasses of water along with a cup of coffee.

Marian found herself grinning helplessly.

“What?” Liddy licked a bit of cream cheese from the corner of her mouth.

“You make love like you eat. With energy and appreciation.” Liddy flushed. “I could say the same thing about you. And it’s also true—you fuck like you drive.”

Marian laughed delightedly. She felt so good she had to warn herself against mood swings. “If you’re done I’ll show you the house, such as it is. I’m sorry it’s such a mess.”

“A neat house is a sign of sick mind, if you ask me.”

“I’m glad you feel that way.” Even with Liddy’s assurances, her own housekeeping appalled Marian. She rarely had company, and she’d gotten lazy. The bed was unmade and the sheets were less than fresh. Towels accumulated in the bathroom had a questionable odor after several weeks. “The ongoing presence of allergens can bolster your histamine immune response. And I’ve got a link to a research study that proves it.”

“You don’t have to convince me.” Liddy was grinning. “The only reason my house is clean is I’ve only been there a week.” Marian didn’t want to talk about how long Liddy would be stay-ing. “I really am just lazy. Of course when school starts I’ll have an excuse.”

“School?”

Marian explained the value of getting a second master’s degree to make use of the first one. “It feels really good to have decided to become a professional librarian. Not that I’m not already. Sheepskin just makes it official.”

“I hear that. What’s this?” Liddy bent over a small figure on Marian’s desk.

“That’s the official Librarian Action Figure.” Liddy gave her a look that said she didn’t believe her. “Really. Press down and she will shush you.” Marian demonstrated.

“Now I’ve seen everything.” Liddy let herself be shushed twice before she pointed at the wall calendar next to the window. “Are you a Harley and leather fan?”

Marian chortled. “No, I just like to look at fellow librarians who are.”

“You’re kidding.” Liddy peered more closely at the description.

“With all those tattoos? Those are really librarians?”

“Yeah. And when they shush, you listen.”

“Okay, now I’ve
really
seen everything.”

“Wait until I show you the Leather Librarian site on the Web.”

“I can hardly wait.” Liddy turned from studying the calendar.

“When are you going to be Ms. August?”

“It’s not my style,” Marian protested.

The twinkle in Liddy’s eye made Marian feel breathless and dizzy.

“I think you’d look great.”

Blushing, Marian led the way to the stairs.

“This quilt is beautiful.” Liddy touched the hanging gently.

“My mother’s work.”

“Lovely. You like being a librarian? I considered it, but then I found out—”

“You wouldn’t get to read books all day?” Liddy laughed. “Yeah. Something like that.”

“Common misconception.”

The guest room was at least tidy, albeit dusty. “You can see part of Amy and Hemma’s garden from here.” Marian raised the blinds. “I helped build that fountain and retaining wall. And the arbor.”

“They’re the ones who are moving, right? Maybe they can put visitation rights for the fountain in the sales contract.”

“I wish.” She was suddenly nervous. What if Liddy noticed the window opposite?

“You have a box of ruins?”

She turned from the window and realized Liddy was standing next to the box in the corner, reading the label. “From the vicious ex.” She paused. “I should get rid of it.” Liddy just looked at her. “I’m so sorry it happened, Marian. I’m sorry she hurt you.”

“So am I.” Making up her mind, Marian began pulling tape off the box. “Ellie and Hemma helped me clean all this up, but I haven’t looked at it since.”

“Are you sure you want to?”

“I think I can.” She pulled open the flaps and slowly lifted out the cover of
Francie to the Rescue
. She had to swallow hard. “I had a collection of old books.”

Liddy took the cover and turned it over. “Where’s the rest?” When Marian gestured at the box, Liddy looked inside. “Holy shit. How could someone do that? To
books
?”

“She was nuts. She knew it would hurt me.” Liddy lifted out a handful of torn pages. “This was sick.”

“I didn’t know what she was doing. It took a couple of hours.” Marian made herself breathe through the stab of remembered pain.

“Oh. While you were—”

“Yeah. Tied to the bed.”

Liddy dropped the papers and threw her arms around Marian.

“That’s so awful. I’m so sorry it happened. It makes me so angry to think of someone being cruel to you!”

“It’s okay.” Marian held Liddy for a long moment and realized it was true. “It’s okay now. Well, not okay. But ... better.”

“I’m sorry that yesterday I tried to compare my rotten ex to yours. That’s not appropriate, is it?” Liddy gave her a rueful look.

“But I have to admit this is more along the lines of my crazy ex.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Liddy hesitated. “I’ve only told my mom, and my thesis advisor had to know. It’s just—she left. No word. And took my laptop, books and research notes with her. They were in her apartment and she packed up everything and left.”

Marian took Liddy’s hand. “There’s more, though, isn’t there?” Liddy nodded. “That was bad enough. That was actually the most work to get past. I had a backup, but I lost a lot of time redoing a lot of work. No, it gets worse with the part I can’t really fix.” Marian drew Liddy to the spare bed. “I’m not suggesting we lie down, but we can sit.”

“Oh, I don’t know. This is more comfortable.” Liddy stretched out on the bed and patted it invitingly. Marian couldn’t move.

“What?”

She shook her head slightly. “You’re so beautiful. I can’t believe you trusted me that way last night.”

Liddy reached for her hand. “I’ll never regret a minute of it, you know. Never.”

Marian eased onto the bed, feeling nervous. But she had to smile at the twin
clomp
of shoes being kicked to the floor. “So, your crazy ex.”

“Yeah, well, she walked out of her teaching job. And her reason was me. She said I’d stolen money from her and threatened her.

That I was a stalker, basically, the crazy one. I didn’t know she’d told people that. So then I showed up at the office she shared with another prof demanding to know where she’d gone, and I was angry, and upset and not exactly pleasant about it. I didn’t know they’d been sleeping together, either. I found that out later.”

“Oh. So the other woman believed you were the crazy one.”

“Yeah. She believed it. And told my thesis advisor to find a way to fail me, because she’d been told I was buying my research.”

“Oh, wow.”

“Word got around. I could never be sure which professors knew and which didn’t. I thought everyone was talking about me.” Liddy’s sigh was deep and heartfelt. “I couldn’t do anything about that. She smeared my reputation and you don’t realize until that’s done what it meant. I knew a lot of faculty. I had switched my major a lot.”

“But you graduated.”

“Yes, but that’s where I got a little lucky. I finally broke down and told my thesis advisor everything. And because she knew me, she sided with me. At least, she believed that my research was my own, and the thesis was my writing.”