The China Doll Read Free Page A

shoveled
a handful of cake into her mouth.
    Emily bit her top lip. Martin patted her on
the shoulder. "Em, I’ve got this."
    The dining room was cleared out in fifteen
minutes, but Zainab, Miranda and Emily spent the next hour in the
kitchen. "Z, what’s going on?" Emily asked as they started loading
the dishwasher.
    "I don’t think Richard wants me anymore,"
Zainab said at last. "Sometimes it’s like he can’t even look at
me."
    Miranda frowned. "Um, it doesn’t sound like
that," she said delicately.
    "What?"
    "These walls are a little thin in some
places," Miranda said uncomfortably.
    "God, Miranda, that’s just sex!"
    Emily looked up at the ceiling, thinking. "I
don’t know why I never pictured Richard having ‘just sex’ with
anyone, especially you."
    "Ladies, I hate to break it to you, but
Richard is a man, just like any other. Sometimes it’s wonderful,
precious lovemaking, and sometimes it’s just sex. Lately, it’s been
just sex. Good sex, but just sex."
    Emily grimaced. "Wow, Z, and you’re not even
married yet."
    Miranda turned away, pretending to look for
the dish detergent. It had never been just sex with Michael. Not
when it was bad, not when it was incredible. She closed her eyes.
She couldn’t think about Michael like that right now.
    "And that’s the other thing," Zainab said
quietly. "Richard used to talk about marriage so much the first two
years. But when I graduated and got my pharmaceutical license, he
stopped talking about it altogether. He doesn’t use the future
tense when he talks about us, not unless it’s something happening
the next weekend. I don’t think there is a future with Richard, but
he doesn’t want to say it." She sighed. "And I don’t want to say it
either, but I guess I just did."
    Miranda turned around and shook her head.
They weren’t talking about the man she’d known since she was five.
"Zainab, I don’t know what’s going on with Richard right now, but I
know he loves you. His work is crazy right now. They’re trying to
pull together the second-generation prototype, and he acts like
Michelangelo sometimes, so unsatisfied with what people are
producing. And it’s not free. Alex’s little cash influx bought them
some time, but they still need to find a distributor, not to
mention a manufacturer."
    Zainab shook her head at her roommate. "I
know that, okay? And I know that Richard is good and decent too—you
don’t have to sell him to me. But it’s something else, I just feel
it."
    "So what do you want to do?" Emily said,
sitting next to Zainab.
    Zainab sighed. "I don’t know. I’d love to
talk to him, but the only time I ever get him alone is in bed."
    Emily looked at Miranda, who shook her head.
"You can talk there too, you know."
    Zainab grinned. "Richard’s not the only one
with needs."
    ~~~
    Later that night, Miranda found Alex waiting
for her at the bar of a restaurant on Newbury Street. She kissed
him on the lips. "Sorry I’m late," she said a little breathlessly.
"We had a little more cleaning up to do than we’d planned."
    Alex kissed her again. "I thought it was
something sweet like that." Miranda smiled as Alex took her hand.
"Ready to eat now?"
    The maître d’ showed them to their table.
Miranda made a face as she looked over the menu. "Would you be
offended if I just got some soup? All that birthday cake is rearing
its ugly head now."
    When the waiter came, Alex ordered for the
both of them before Miranda could say anything. "I didn’t say
anything about the chicken," she said once the waiter left.
    "True," Alex said slowly, "but you don’t eat
enough."
    Miranda blinked and smiled. "You know, it’s
kind of odd when you do that. One, because I’m not a little kid
anymore, and two because...well, I’m not a little kid anymore."
    Alex tilted his head back as he looked at
her. "You most certainly are not. And don’t think authority figure,
think interested party. Maybe I just want to make sure that you
keep up your strength for