"Ah, something to look forward to. She already told me about your cousin, the one that does the drag shows in New York."

"You realize of course that not everyone she calls a cousin really is," Laura explained. "I think most of them are her friends children and she truly loves playing the rich maiden aunt."

"Hmpf. I wouldn't have minded having a rich aunt when I was growing up."

"Well, it was nice for what it was but I never wanted her money. Visiting Aunt Helen was like taking a trip to an amusement park. I never what I was going to do but it was always fun for just so long." Without thought Laura kicked her sneakers off and put her feet up on Crystal's bed. "Trust me, there's only so much of a good thing one person can have, hence the crawling trip down the stairs." She reached out and gently slapped Crystal's outstretched leg. "Hey, I got a royalty check today. How about tomorrow night after everything settles down with Mom and you get home from work we go out for dinner?"

"What about Helen?"

"I'll dump her off on Bobby for the evening. She hasn't had a chance to spoil him yet." The writer's creative mind worked for only a minute before she came upon the perfect scenario for her little plot. "I'll plant a bug in her ear about how he would love an evening with her before he leaves for school."

"I'm sure he'll appreciate that," Crystal said.

"You know she bought me my first car when I went to school? It wasn't new but it was rust free and the mileage was low. A nice little hatchback to scoot around campus with."

"You're looking at my first car," Crystal said, nodding with her chin toward the parking lot. "I used my tax return and made payments for three months to get that rust bucket. Had it almost a year now."

"And you probably appreciate yours far more than I ever appreciated my Ford. No snow tires in the middle of a storm plus inexperience led to totaling it less than four months after Aunt Helen bought it for me."

"Ooh, that sucks."

Laura smirked at her friend's terminology but nodded in agreement. "That's one way to look at it, I suppose. The insurance gave me money I needed in time for books so I didn't have to ask Mom and Dad for it so close to Christmas. I put what was left over away and did private tutoring to get another car."

"Bet you were more careful with that one," Crystal guessed.

"I was," Laura admitted. "I made that one last until my graduate year." Her brow furrowed as she tried to remember how they got off on this tangent. Of course when it came to carrying on a conversation with Crystal, subject changes were often and frequent. "Oh yes, dinner." "Yeah, where are you thinking of going anyway? There's a great diner about a mile from the hospital. You know the one, they have the liberty bell shaped windows."

Laura made a face. "How about a place where half your meal isn't made of grease?"

"Are you kidding? That place is the best. They've got a prime rib there" Crystal seemed to think about that for a second. "Oh yeah, you don't eat red meat. But they've got seafood there too." "No doubt it's all breaded and swims in oil too," Laura replied. "There's an Italian place not too far from the mall."

"What about Chinese?" Crystal countered, ignoring her roommate's comment.

"I always eat too much when I have Chinese. What about that new restaurant on Fifth?"

"Too expensive. Michael only had a few hours of overtime this week." Crystal sighed and reached for her cigarettes. "Just like when first started living together. We can't agree on anything."

Laura refused to keep the smile from her lips. "Oh I think we've come a long way from when you first moved in here. I haven't had to pick up a towel off the bathroom floor in weeks. Speaking of the bathroom"

"I didn't do it," Crystal blurted quickly.

"Guilty conscience?" Laura teased. "I know Aunt Helen used my rose soaps but she said she didn't buy the new ones. So where did those come from?"

"Soap fairy?"

"I think I'm a little old to be believing in the soap fairy, Crystal. I do, however, believe that I have a roommate who was being very thoughtful and nice."

Crystal squirmed under the kind words and gave a totally useless frown. "I got used to the scent."

"An air freshener would have taken care of that," Laura pointed out. "You can't get away with that with me. I thank you very much. I think they're even prettier than the ones I had."

The blonde squirmed some more and lit a cigarette. "How did we get on this subject anyway? We were talking about dinner." "I suggested the new restaurant on Fifth," Laura reminded.

"And I said it was too expensive."

"Most of the dinners are less than twenty dollars, Crystal. Besides, it's my treat because I got more in my royalty check than I thought I would. You think I'd ask you out to dinner and expect you to pay?" Laura shook her head. "I'm not that bad a date."

"Yeah well the last time someone wanted to pick up the tab for my dinner it was because they were expecting a benefit later." Crystal smiled. "Since you don't have a chance with me I figured it was Dutch treat."

"Oh please. It's worth dinner to me just to see you and Aunt Helen getting along so well. What were you two talking about?" Seeing a stray ash sitting on the night stand, Laura reached over and wiped it away. Seeing the multitude of crumpled up empty packs, she tried to collect those as well without being noticed.

Crystal smirked. "You mean besides which is better, paper or pipe?" The smirk faded when she saw what Laura was trying to do. "Hey, leave my junk alone." Laura opened her hands to allow her roommate to take the trash.

"I was just trying to help," the dark haired woman said, opening her hands to allow the empty packs to be taken from her. "Yeah, help clean," Crystal said, taking the trash and stuffing it into the already overstuffed wastebasket. "This is my room. It can be as messy as I want it."

"There's a difference between being cluttered and having the room declared a disaster area."

"But it's my disaster area," the blonde pointed out proudly. "I don't make a mess in your room and you aren't allowed to come in and clean mine. I behave everywhere else in this house."

Laura wiped her hands on her pants before lacing her fingers together, resisting the urge to reach down and pick up the pack that missed the basket. "You're right."

"It's not like I'm damaging the walls or carpet or anything. I'm just"

"Cluttered," the writer offered.

"Cluttered, yeah that sounds good." Crystal smiled. "Of course saying I'm a little cluttered it like saying Maine only gets a little snow in the winter."

Both women laughed at the joke, sharing more similes and poking fun at both Crystal's messiness and Laura's fastidiousness. "So other than which is better, paper or pipe and no, I don't want to know the answer," Laura said. "What else did you two talk about?"

"Sisters." Crystal shrugged. "I told her she should be worried more about how her sister was doing than whether the house had drafts in it or not." "Did you tell her about Patty?"

"A little. I told her we were separated a long time ago and I wouldn't care if she was living in a box, I'd still want to see and spend time with her."

"So that's why she said she wanted to go see Mom tomorrow," Laura said. "I wondered why she had a sudden change of heart." She looked at Crystal thoughtfully. "I guess sometimes we all need to be reminded of what's really important."

"I dunno. I guess so." Crystal shrugged her shoulders and pulled her legs up, resting her wrists on her knees, her back and rest still pressing a pillow against the headboard. A sad, faraway look came over her face.

"How did your session with Jenny go today?" Laura asked after a moment, remembering which day it was. Crystal often tended to be in a more solemn mood after her sessions. Laura wondered if this would be another night her roommate needed to stay up and talk.

"Okay, I guess." Crystal shook her head as if realizing how she must look and stubbed her cigarette out in the ashtray. "It's nothing." "You sure? It doesn't look like nothing."

"We talked about my mother a bit." Crystal looked down at her hands. "It wasn't one of my better times in her office, I can tell you that." Laura remained quiet, knowing that being there to listen was what was needed now, not comments. "Doc made me do that stupid role playing thing where you pretend you're yelling at your parents." Laura nodded, understanding what was meant even she had never actually participated in a session. Crystal continued, her eyes taking on a faraway look. "You know what's really weird? As much as I thought I hated her, there's still a part of me that still cares." She picked at an imaginary piece of lint on her blanket. "You know how upset you were when you got the call that your mom was sick? I wished I cared enough about my mom to do the same but you know what?" Crystal gave a small snort and shook her head. "If I got a call like that today

I'd go."

"Sounds like a late night tea chat for us," Laura said, knowing the conversation was too serious to be ending any time soon. "We'll go down on the couch, put the TV on in the background and talk."

"Laura? Do you think it's possible to love and hate someone?"

Taking a deep breath, Laura thought about her answer before speaking. "I think we can hate things that a person has done and still love that person. And I think there are those people for whom loving them will never be an option," she said, thinking of Crystal's father. "The best we can hope for is indifference. I don't like to waste energy hating someone. If they've wronged me to the point where I can't forgive or trust them again, I just write them out of my life and move on." Laura got to her feet and held her hand out. "Come on, I thought we were going downstairs. Talk to me nice and I think I might know where some mini marshmallows are hiding for hot chocolate," she offered, knowing Crystal's preference for hot chocolate over tea.