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drawer

There had been entire days, weeks, even, when she’d been able to forget its existence

It was like that with Haret what life with hie at her leaving et it all the ti would re sharply to a woman; a woman with a cowed look in her eyes Then it would all co back and she’d re about her, still relishing what he’d do when he found her

Dawn sat up in bed She thrust her hands into her hair, shoving it back from her face

These were not things you wanted dancing through your head first thing in theShe pulled on her robe—she slept in a T-shirt and panties but she didn’t like walking around the apartment that way because it ed in the coffee she’d set up last night and ran a glass of cool water from the faucet

The only reason she kept thinking about Harman was because that man had helped her with her car yesterday

She took a sip of water, then rolled the cold glass against her forehead

It was an unlikely juxtaposition, to go froer, but she could see an awful kind of logic to it She hadn’t stood that close to a man since she’d left Harh—although, just for aat his handso within herself that she hardly recognized

Then he’d asked her all those questions about where she was from and she’d wondered why he wanted to know, if someone had sent him, even as she’d told herself how crazy that was A man with all that polish and charm wouldn’t be, couldn’t be, involved in any ith her husband

Dawn put down the glass and walked slowly through the little apartainst her bare feet

Back to square one, and wasn’t that pointless? She couldn’t go through life letting everything, even a fleeting attraction to a hts in the same direction The therapists she’d dealt with in Phoenix would probably say it was a healthy sign that she’d found a h the women hom she’d had whispered conversations in the safe darkness of the dormitory had all warned her to be careful if she ever felt turned on by a ht find herself back in a relationship with the sa, cruel bastard as the one who had sent her fleeing into the night

“Women like us,” said the world-weary black wo to end up with the wrong et all that therapy crap I’ve been back and forth to this shelter enough tih to hook up with so it”

Daasn’t going to test the preh of one man to make her more than content to stay away from all of them There would never be room or need in her life for an intimate relationship That hat the therapists called theit a fancy nae it from what it actually was to what they claimed it could be

No sir, she thought as she gulped down a cup of coffee and a slice of fattening, delicious, cold, bad-for-you pizza No relationships If her car broke down again and a man with Mel Gibson’s looks, St Francis’s disposition and Bill Gates’s bank balance dropped to one knee right in front of her and begged her to let him replace her old wreck with a convertible before he married her, she’d just smile and say no, sorry, but I’m happy just the way I am No man, no worries, no trouble

And no job, if she didn’t get a move on