The Girl with a Clock for a Heart: A Novel Read Free Page A

intonation he remembered, as casually as though she’d seen him earlier that day.
    “I saw you from over there.” George tilted his head toward the back of the bar. “I wasn’t sure it was you at first. You’ve changed a little, but then, walking past you, I was pretty sure. I got halfway down the street and turned back.”
    “I’m glad you did,” she said. Her words, carefully spaced, had a little click at the end. “I actually came here . . . to this bar . . . to look for you. I know that you live near here.”
    “Oh.”
    “I’m glad you spotted me first. I don’t know if I would have had the courage to go up to you. I know how you must feel about me.”
    “Then you know more than I do. I don’t exactly know how I feel about you.”
    “I mean about what happened.” She hadn’t changed position since he’d come back into the bar, but one of her fingers gently tapped on the wooden bar to the percussive music.
    “Right, that,” George said, as though he were searching in his memory banks for what she could be talking about.
    “Right, that,” she repeated back, and they both laughed. Liana shifted her body around to face George more squarely. “Should I be worried?”
    “Worried?”
    “Citizen’s arrest? Drink thrown in my face?” She had developed tiny laugh lines at the edge of her pale blue eyes. Something new.
    “The police are on their way right now. I’m just stalling you.” George kept smiling, but it felt unnatural. “I’m kidding,” he said when Liana didn’t immediately speak.
    “No, I know. Would you like to sit? You have time for a drink?”
    “Actually . . . I’m meeting someone, in just a little bit.” The lie slid out of George easily. His head was suddenly muddled by her close presence, by the smell of her skin, and he had an almost animal urge to escape.
    “Oh. That’s fine,” Liana quickly said. “But I do have something I need to ask you. It’s a favor.”
    “Okay.”
    “Can we meet somewhere? Maybe tomorrow.”
    “Do you live here?”
    “No, I’m just in town for . . . I’m visiting a friend, really. . . . It’s complicated. I would like to talk with you. I’d understand if you didn’t, of course. This was a long shot, and I understand—”
    “Okay,” George said, telling himself he could change his mind later.
    “Okay, yes, you’d like to talk?”
    “Sure, let’s meet while you’re in town. I promise I won’t call the feds. I just want to know how you’re doing.”
    “Thank you so much. I appreciate it.” She took a large breath through her nostrils, her chest expanding. George somehow heard the rustle of her crisp white shirt across her skin above the sounds of the jukebox.
    “How did you know I lived here?”
    “I looked you up. Online. It wasn’t that hard.”
    “I don’t suppose you’re still called Liana?”
    “Some people. Not many. Most people know me as Jane now.”
    “Do you have a cell phone? Should I call you later?”
    “I don’t have a cell phone. I never have. Could we meet here again? Tomorrow. At noon.” George noticed how her eyes subtly moved, searching his face, trying to read him. Or else she was looking for what was familiar and what had changed. George’s hair had turned gray at the sides, his forehead had wrinkled, and the lines around his mouth had deepened. But he was still in relatively good shape, still handsome in a slightly hangdog way.
    “Sure,” George said. “We could meet here. They’re open for lunch.”
    “You don’t sound sure.”
    “I’m not sure, but I’m not unsure.”
    “I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”
    “Okay,” George said, again thinking that he could change his mind, that by agreeing he was only postponing a decision. Later George thought that there would have been times in his life when he simply would have told Liana that he didn’t think they should see each other. He had no need for justice, not even any real need for closure, and for that