"I just came over to see how you and Eddie got along last night," Carl answered in his deep voice. He walked into the living room, pausing momentarily to shut the door and then continued to within a step or two of Lily.

"Well, Eddie isn't here," Lily answered slowly, not able to take her eyes from the muscular man's figure. "He… went out for a tour of Marin County with your… your wife, Cindy."

"Oh, I see," Carl answered with a chuckle. "Then I guess we're alone, aren't we?"

"Listen, Carl," Lily began. "I've got a lot of work to do, so if you don't mind…"

"I don't mind at all," he said. "But I would like to know what the situation is between you and Eddie before I leave. After all, your son did confide in me and that sort of makes me an accessory, doesn't it?" He laughed out of one side of his mouth in a way that reminded Lily vaguely of Bogart in those old movies with Lauren Bacall.

"The situation between my son and me is just fine. Things are being… arranged."

"Then he's going to stay here with you?"

"Yes, that's right."

"How wonderful! That calls for a celebration, wouldn't you say?" He held out his hand, in which was a neatly rolled marijuana cigarette. "It's too early in the morning for people to get stoned," said Lily, who rarely touched the semi-potent drug. "And I have a lot of work to do."

"Oh, come on now," he said. "A couple of tokes aren't going to hurt you, especially this stuff. It's only Mexican. I wish you'd accept it as a peace offering. I don't know why you dislike me so much, anyway. You don't even know me."

"Really, it-it's too early in the morning for this sort of thing."

"That," he told her, "is plain nonsense." And before she could say anything in reply, he had lit the joint, taken a deep drag and was passing it to her.

Damn him! Lily thought, exasperated. He's so cocksure of himself… and yet, he's so damned sexually attractive, the way he looks and talks and moves. God, he's a desirable man! I don't like anything about him, and yet I can't help feeling attracted to him, pulled to him like a magnet. I wonder what he looks like naked, I wonder how his cock would feel fucking… fucking my cunt!