285
 

ck,puma ferrari shoes, and I won't look
ahead. I like this life. I'm content."
"Are you?" he challenged. "Don't you ever stop to wonder what it might
have been like-"
"No," Chloe said with force and pushed herself out of the chair. "I
didn't ask you to come here, Ross. I didn't ask you to stay. As of right
now"-she pointed at the floor for emphasis-"I don't care what you do,
but don't expect to change the way I see the world and my life. I've
done just fine on my own for the past eleven years. I plan to do it a
while longer." Her hand was shaking. She jammed it into the back pocket
of her jeans. "I'm going to bed. Let yourself out." With a whirl that
sent her hair flaring out behind, she strode from the room,mbt panda, ran up the
stairs to her room, and firmly closed the door.
Trembling uncontrollably, she collapsed onto the bed and stared at the
ceiling. Her ragged breathing was the only sound that broke the night's
quiet-that, and the opening and closing of the front door when Ross left
the house.
For what seemed like hours she agonized, locked in silent battle with a
horde of private ghosts. If only she had never seen Ross again. To be
free, once more, of this gnawing at mind and body.
But she had seen him again and, if he stuck to his plan, would see more
of him before he left. There was only one solution, as she saw it.
Indifference. What man would put up with that for long? Indifference. It
would turn him off,Puma Drift Cat, wouldn't it? Surely then he would leave her in
peace.
She awoke the next morning on an optimistic note, showered, dressed, and
sailed downstairs for breakfast. It was with momentary dismay that she
found her kitchen in use-until she recalled the night's resolve, tilted
up her chin, and advanced.
"Ah," she said as she helped herself to a cup of the coffee he had
brewed, " you've made yourself at home."
His grin was as bright as the morning sun that slanted across the porch
beyond the screen. "It's a luxury. I'm enjoying it. It's not every day
that I get to putter around a co