Read No Cure For Love for Free Online Page A

sipped her warm rum and Coke and nodded in all the right places. That was one thing about a conversation with Lisa; it wasn’t too demanding, if you had plenty of patience. Laughter spilled from inside the house, glasses tinkled and Kiri sang on about how she lived for art, her warm soprano soaring in the clear night air.
    ‘Next he starts hanging around outside the bank where she works,’ Lisa went on. ‘She was an assistant manager. I mean, she’s one bright lady. And the guy was a stockbroker or something. We’re not talking lowlifes here. Anyway, finally she gets really freaked. She starts to believe it really is her fault, that she must be encouraging him in some way, giving him signals. Like, maybe she really did want him .’ Lisa put her index finger to her temple, turned it a hundred and eighty degrees and back, and mimicked the Twilight Zone theme.
    ‘What happened?’ Sarah asked.
    ‘He goes too far is what. Just when she’s starting to feel like it might be easier to give in than keep on dealing with him. I mean, he’s got her so messed up she’s even starting to feel flattered by the attention. This guy would neglect his job and hang around outside the bank all day just to catch a glimpse of her. I mean, just a glimpse. She wouldn’t even talk to the sucker. He keeps telling her he loves her, buys her diamonds and stuff and she won’t give him the time of day.’
    ‘But how did he go too far?’ Sarah asked, fascinated despite herself. ‘What did he do?’
    ‘I guess he didn’t feel he was getting anywhere. Like, she never answered his calls or his letters. She always returned his presents. She’d even cross the street to avoid him and make sure there was someone with her when she went out on her lunch-break. Well, one time she’d been to lunch with this guy, you know, from the bank, a few times, and he comes out from work one day and finds his tyres slashed. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who did it, right?’
    ‘What did your friend do?’
    ‘She confronted him with it next time he phoned.’
    ‘And did he admit it?’
    ‘Sure he did. Tells her it’s just a friendly warning. That she belongs to him . Then he starts talking about how if he can’t have her alive they can be together in death. That, like, brought her to her senses again. What a loser. I mean, the guy’s almost got there after months of presents and stuff, then he blows it. Anyway, she’s all freaked now and he’s like getting really mad.’
    ‘Did she go to the police?’
    ‘Not at first. She just warned him, like that was it. No more. Nada . Goodbye. That’s all she wrote.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘And one day while she’s at work he, like, breaks into her house. You know what he does?’
    Sarah shook her head.
    ‘He steals a pair of shoes, that’s all.’
    ‘Shoes?’
    ‘Uh-huh. Navy pumps. Is that weird, or what? But wait for it. Not only does he steal a pair of her shoes. The next time he phones, do you know what he tells her?’
    ‘What?’
    ‘He tells her he’s had the fucking shoes bronzed, that’s all. Bronzed! ’
    ‘I don’t believe it.’
    ‘Cross my heart.’
    ‘What happened next?’
    ‘She calls the cops. What she should’ve done right from the start, you ask me. They slap a restraining order on him. Like, he isn’t supposed to go within two miles of her or something. This is a while ago. I hear we’ve got better laws now.’
    ‘Did he obey the order?’
    ‘Dream on. Two days later he breaks into her house again. This time while she’s there. First he shoots her in the head, then he takes her clothes off. Then he gets undressed, puts his arm around her and shoots himself in the head. The cops find them huddled naked and dead together on the sofa like some modern-day Romeo and Juliet. Isn’t that just so bizarre?’
    Sarah shivered. Even the sweater wasn’t warm enough to keep out the chill of Lisa’s story. Kiri finished and Jack started with the sixties music again.