He pressed closer to her, and she lost any sympathy she had for him and pulled him toward the door.

"When can I see you again?" Michael asked.

Fred growled at him, and Alex shot Michael a look from the floor that was surprisingly vicious. "We're going to be working pretty hard on this film stuff until I graduate," he told Michael. "Better not call her until after then."

Michael looked back at him coldly. "And when will that be?"

"At the rate I'm going?" Alex beamed at him. "I should be out by June of '99."

Michael rolled his eyes and let Nina lead him to the door. "You know, I'd be jealous if he wasn't so much younger than you," he told Nina. "Nice of you to help the kid out."

"Yeah," Nina said, turning her head so his kiss fell on her cheek. "I'm the motherly type."

When Michael was safely on the other side of the door, she went over to Alex and kicked him on the shin.

"Ouch!" He rubbed his leg. "Be careful, woman. You could seriously injure somebody doing that."

"No problem," Nina said. "You're a doctor. You can fix it. And if you can't, you'll always have your film school degree to fall back on."

Alex turned back to the TV. "Where did you find that weenie?"

Nina ignored him. "Did you really think he'd believe somebody made a movie called Santa Claus Goes To Mars? How dumb-"

The picture on the TV changed to two robots and a voice over said, "We'll return to Santa Claus Goes To Mars after these messages."

"I told you. It's a classic." Alex patted the floor next to lim. "Come here, sweetheart, and learn what real filmmaking is. But first, get the Oreos."

"I don't believe this," Nina said, but she got the Oreos myway and sat on the couch behind him, giggling over 'Mystery Science Theater" and Fred's futile attempts to schmooze Oreos, and marveling over all the humor and warmth in her life now that Fred and Alex were part of it. The only thing her life needed now was great sex, but she was pretty sure that wasn't part of Alex's equation, regardless of all the careless flirting he did. Why else would he keep showing up with videos and no moves? He wanted a friendship. Fine. That was what she wanted, too.

She looked down at the curve of his shoulder, pressed against the couch near her, and thought wistfully how nice it would be to lean down and kiss him on the neck, just to feel her lips against his skin, just to let him know she was there.

"This is the good part," Alex said over his shoulder, and she smiled at him and said, "This movie has nothing but good parts," and dragged her attention back to the screen where it belonged.


* * *

"Hows IT going with whatshername? The woman upstairs?" Max asked Alex a week later when they were both stretched out in the doctors' lounge in broken-down easy chairs, their feet on the scarred coffee table.

"Hey, I'm dating other women besides Nina," Alex said, trying to sound worldly and unpathetic. "Lots of women." Then he ruined it by adding, "Not that I'm dating Nina."

"If you're not dating her," Max asked, "how are you seeing her?"

"We watch movies," Alex said. "And it's a damn good thing there are a hell of a lot of them in the world or I'd be out in the cold. Even I'm getting tired of them, but that and jogging are the only reasons I can think of to be with her." He closed his eyes, remembering. "She stretches out on the couch behind me, and I can smell her perfume, and she laughs in my ear, and I swear to God, one of these days I'm going to jump her, and then she'll never speak to me gain."

"Don't be a wuss," Max said. "Do it."

"No," Alex said. "I'm not going to screw this up. I want more than a one-night stand here. I want a multiple-night stand. And besides, I'm considering a plan. If it works out, not even Nina will think I'm a kid."

Max snorted. "This should be good."

Alex thought of Nina again. "God, I hope so."


* * *

Nina and Fred came running up the stairs two weeks later on a Saturday afternoon late in June, ready for their after-walk ration of one Oreo apiece, to find Charity sitting on the floor by their door.

"It's almost done, Neen." Charity scrambled to her feet and yanked her blue vinyl miniskirt down with one hand while she clutched manuscript pages in the other. "Only one more chapter to go. I've been working on it night and day, even at the shop.''

She hesitated, and Nina realized that she was nervous, she'd never seen Charity nervous before.

"It's going to be great," she told Charity, moving toward her.

Fred, already there, wiped his nose on Charity's black stockings as a show of support.

Charity looked down in distaste. "Don't they make anti-histamines for dogs? His snot problem is getting worse."

Nina took the manuscript from her. "It truly is going to be great. I've read the first chapters, and they're terrific, really interesting."

"I don't know." Charity clasped her hands together tightly. "I just don't know. After a while, the chapters all started to sound alike.''

Nina sighed in relief. She'd noticed that problem, too. "Well, it'll help in the rewrite if you make Jane learn something each time," Nina told her. "This is a first draft. You'll get it in the rewrite."

Charity looked at her. "You'd be tougher on a writer you didn't know, wouldn't you?"

Nina looked back at her, exasperated. "I am never tough during a first draft. You want me to beat you up, fine. But let's get the whole book done first. Then we can look at it and see where it needs fixing. I'll call you all the names you want then."

Charity shook her head. "I wish I knew somebody else to give this to. Another reader, you know? Somebody who doesn't know me like you do. You'd like it just because I wrote it."

Nina flipped through the manuscript, stopping at the ninth chapter title. "Oedipus Rat?"

Charity nodded. "That was Bob. He cheated on me with his mother. Told me he was too busy to see me and then took her to bingo. I thought it was A Sign."

Nina nodded with her. "Yes, I'd think that, too." She flipped through the pages again. "Did I miss something? Where's the chapter on your marriage?"

"It's in there," Charity said. "Keep looking. Chapter ten. It was tough to write."

Nina winced, feeling guilty because she was making Charity relive her one-year disaster. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah," Charity said. "The theme of that chapter is never marry a doctor because they're never home, and when they do come home they're too tired to have sex, so they watch television and go to sleep. This chapter alone is going to be worth the price of the book in heartache avoided."

Nina thought of Alex the night before, propped up against her couch, cheering while Harrison Ford found the ark of the covenant. "You're exaggerating."

"Oh, yeah?" Charity leaned against the door. "One night, in order to jump start my marriage, I met Kenneth at the door in the nude. He kissed my cheek, walked into the bedroom, crawled into bed and fell asleep. It's all in there. Chapter ten-The Naked and The Dead."

Nina started to laugh and then stopped herself. "Okay, you want some criticism? I don't know about these chapter titles. We may have to rewrite some." She tucked the manuscript under her arm and fished her door key out of her sweats' pocket. "And even though I do think this is great, you're going to have to make it a little more upbeat," she told Charity as she put her key in the lock. "We can take care of it in the rewrite, but some of this comes close to being bitter."

"That's because I am bitter," Charity said. "You really think it's too bitter?" She shook her head. "We need another reader on this. Somebody who doesn't know me at all."

Great, Charity wanted other readers. Now she was going to have to go door to door to find somebody for a second opinion. Nina started to shove her own door open and then stopped, remembering a door worth knocking on. "Wait a minute. How about if I get you several other readers?"

Charity looked cautious. "Who?"

Nina pulled her door closed. "Come on. You have to meet Norma." She started for the stairs, and Fred and Charity followed her up to the fourth-floor apartment.

"Norma, this is Charity," Nina said when Norma opened the door, and then she stopped while elegant Norma-dressed in olive cashmere and khaki linen-and over-the-top Charity-dressed in electric blue vinyl and silver lycra-sized each other up, came to their separate conclusions and smiled at each other. "Charity's written a book," Nina went on when it seemed safe. "Does your readers' group ever read unpublished manuscripts?"

"Well, we haven't before," Norma said. "That doesn't mean we can't start." She opened her door wider. "Come on in and tell me about it," she said, and Fred trotted in.

Fifteen minutes later, they were down the stairs again, and Charity had a new deadline.

"I can finish the last chapter by Thursday," she told Nina. "This is so great of Norma to do this. Can you get the copies run off if I get it to you by Thursday night?"

"Sure." Nina put her key in the door. "Norma can give them out on Friday and then the next Friday-" Her voice broke off as she opened the door and heard her television.

"We're out of Oreos," Alex called from the floor in front of the TV, and Fred went to join him.

Charity raised an eyebrow at Nina.

Nina lifted her chin. "I must have left the window open." She led Charity over to the couch. "This is Alex. Alex, this is Charity."

Alex turned from the TV. "Ah, the great author-" he began, only to stop as his eyes traveled up Charity's endless black-stockinged legs to her vinyl miniskirt and lycra tank top.