Read Kendra for Free Online Page B

after play practice, while waiting for Renée to get home.
    Renée takes off her pants and throws them on the chair with her blouse. “I’m standing at the bar with my friend Jennifer, and this guy comes up and tells her that she’s the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen and how he just has to know her name. Then when Jennifer tells him she has a boyfriend, he turns to me, without missing a beat, and gives me the exact same line of bullshit.” She laughs. “I was standing right there the whole time. He didn’t think I heard him the first time?”
    I laugh, too. “Was he at least cute?”
    She flashes me an oh, please look. “There were a few decent guys, but as soon as they walked into the club, all the desperate girls would practically pounce on them. As a sociologist, I have to tell you, the whole club scene is fascinating. It’s like watching the mating rituals on an alien planet, trying to make sense of everything.”
    Renée opens her little suitcase and takes out a T-shirt. I stand there and watch her take off her bra and let it fall to the floor, then pull the T-shirt on over her head. Every time I see her change I notice the same thing, that her body is almost, like, the total opposite of mine. She’s all curvy and sexy and everything. Me, I can only hope to maybe grow into a body like that one day. But it’s not looking good for me. Not any time soon, anyway.
    As Renée lays out the sheet and blanket that’s been waiting for her on the couch, I lean against the wall, not really knowing what to say to keep her talking. I do know I wanna sit down on the couch with her and talk for a while, but I don’t wanna keep her up too long when she just said how tired she is.
    The real truth is, I wanna tell her that I wasn’t really reading anything for school, that I waited up just to talk to her. But I don’t wanna come off sounding all needy. I just wanna say something . I mean, it’s like I’m looking at the person I been waiting for my whole life. And here she is, right in front of me, and I don’t even know how to get to her.
    “Do you know where you’re gonna work yet?” I ask, slowly going over to where she’s sitting on the couch.
    “Not yet,” she says, moving over to make room for me next to her, “but I think City College will make me an offer real soon. They were talking to me as if I were already part of their faculty. I’ll probably get an offer from Boston, too, but I think I’d prefer City. I love it here in New York, and a lot of my friends from college and grad school live here. And Gerard lives in Jersey, not that a woman should choose a job because of a man—don’t ever do that, Babe—but it would be great teaching and doing research here in the city, and getting to spend time with Gerard. Because long-distance relationships never work.”
    I swallow hard.
    Renée goes on. “Gerard and I have already spent too much time apart with me studying and writing all the time. For once, I actually have time for the man.”
    I met Gerard a few times, and he was there at the graduation on Sunday, but all I know about him is he’s a New Jersey cop and he’s even cuter than all of Renée’s other boyfriends, who were pretty cute, too. He’s tall, dark, and muscular, with a real deep voice and everything. Other than that, I don’t know a thing about him.
    “Well,” I say, “I hope you get the job at City.”
    “I will.”
    Something tells me not to get too excited for her because nothing is official yet. It feels weird, too, because whatever decision she makes is gonna change my life, too. If she ends up teaching in Boston, I’m gonna have to move and change schools and friends and everything. But if she chooses City College, maybe she can stay home for a while, at least ’til she saves up enough money to get us our own apartment.
    “There are so many great things about being in the city again,” she says, and I’m not really sure if she’s talking to me or just thinking out