"Want some coffee?" I said to Bob.

"Why not?" he flippantly replied. "When you're offering I'll take whatever's being put out." Then he guffawed. "Pretty good, huh, Jan?" He chuckled. “Especially since Melba never did much putting out where little old Bobbie boy's concerned. Say, when you need a conversation piece, why don't you tell Jan about the time I wanted to play doctor and you wouldn't let me, and "

"Jan wouldn't be interested," I said quickly and in a tone too loud to be polite.

"Want to hear about it, Jan?"

I felt shivers of anger going through me while Bob baited Jan. But Jan rose to the occasion. Her eyebrows lifted, and her expression remained placid.

"she

"Anything that concerns Melba interests me,' said in a well modulated tone. "And if she ever wants to tell me about that incident, okay."

9.9

"I wouldn't waste my breath nor your time, Jan dear," I said.

Then Bob screwed up his eyes until they looked like slits of brown fire. "Bet you if Jan had been in the playhouse and asked you to play doctor with her "

But he never got to complete his sentence. I deliberately shoved a heavy dictionary from the bookshelf. And as it hit the floor the clattering noise drowned out his voice.

"I'll put the coffee pot on the fire," Jan said easily. I watched this slim, exciting-to-me girl, as she took graceful long strides into the kitchen.

When she was out of sight, I whirled toward Bob. "You're still a nasty little brat!"

"Correction," he opened his eyes wide, and ran the tip of his tongue across his lips. "I'm now a nasty big brat. And-" he lowered his voice. "Sometime when your gal friend isn't close by, I'd sure like to show you what a big boy I am.' 44

9.9

I knew what he meant. It infuriated me.

"I didn't want to look at your exhibition when we were kids," I said angrily. "I certainly wouldn't be interested now."

When Jan returned with coffee and doughnuts, I tried to act as if I wasn't wanting to catch Bob by the shoulders, shove him out the front door, and tell him to go home.

I could see that Bob intended to wear us down by sitting there in that chair and preventing our being alone together. Jan was not pleased, although she controlled her displeasure. But as she smoked one cigarette after another, I saw her hand tremble a little.

What Bob talked about was so trivial it isn't worth repeating. He was just killing time. I thought that was provoking enough. Then the next thing he did was even more annoying.

He sprang up, sprinted over to the radio and turned on a program of dance music.

"Want to dance?" he flung the words at Jan.

"No thanks." She took his invitation as a matter of course, not as the gesture of making fun of her, that he intended it to be.

When he didn't get a rise out of Jan, it startled him. Then he squared his shoulders, thrust out his chest and began to snap his fingers and wiggle his hips. "Dance me, doll, dance me!" He took a few steps toward me.

I was going to tell him I didn't want to dance with him. That I wanted to dance with Jan. But I caught the nod signal she was giving me, behind his back. So, although I'd just as soon take a beating as dance with Bob, I got up and went into his outstretched arms.

Just to prevent a scene I spent a miserable ten minutes dancing with him. Jan was tapping her foot to the beat of the music, and pretending she didn't care. Bob was having a wonderful time.