She wandered into the living room and picked up the book Erika had been reading, but the words didn't seem to make sense—she couldn't concentrate on their meaning. Friday night, of course, and she had been working since five-thirty. The girls at the office deplored Friday night's tiredness. "I fell into bed before I even did the dishes. I fell asleep watching television." You had a right to be tired and depressed on Friday night, didn't you?

But for her and Erika it was the best part of the week.

She turned the radio dial from station to station, finding nothing she wanted to listen to. Then she washed her face and hands, changed back into her office clothes and went out into the street. I need a good meal, she thought. That's what's the matter.

On an impulse, she took a bus into the shopping area and went to the café where Erika had taken her the night before they moved. It was busier tonight, filled with husband-and-wife couples eating out because it was the end of the week for them too and everyone was too tired to buy food and cook it. There were also two white-haired women who might have been librarians and a couple of high-school girls. Everybody has somebody, Kate thought. She sat down and pretended to read the menu.

Working girls are always bitching because they never have any spare time, she thought, and when they get some they don't know what to do with it. I could go to the laundry. That would take a good hour and a half.

A pleasant voice said, "Hi." Her heart sank. She couldn't get away. She tried to smile back at Doug Martin. "Hi, yourself."

"Mind if I sit down here? Or are you expecting someone?"

"Of course, sit down."

"Erika get away all right?"

"She went straight from school. How did you—"

"She told me she was going. Summer school, huh?"

She knew better, damn it. Kate clenched her hands in hopeless anger under the edge of the table. She knows I don't want him hanging around. Him least of all.

"Feel like going to a movie after we eat?"

"I'm sorry, I just washed all the woodwork in the kitchen and I have dishpan hands and an aching back."

"I bet." He had a pleasant laugh. Well, she admitted in all fairness, he was a pleasant person. It was too bad she couldn't like him. He said, "If you haven't ordered, why don't we cut out and buy some stuff and take it up to your place? I'm tired of restaurant meals."

She weighed the suggestion. It would mean not having to spend the evening alone. And it was time she got over this nonsense. Erika would be pleased with her for being so sensible. She said, "All right, if you'll let me pay for half."

"We'll settle that later. Come on, she's found out we're here."

They went out laughing, leaving the waitress looking indignant. "Thinks we're using her high-class eatery for a place of assignation," Doug said. "What do you like—pastrami, salami, stinky cheese?"