Old Love Affairs

Lucretia Blaine had been expecting Simon Coyne to call her, but the man on the phone was Burt McElroy. She was upset because she was crazy about Simon, and not so crazy about Burt, who was crazy about her. Lucretia was an older career-oriented woman who had worked throughout her three marriages as a reporter and is currently an assistant travel editor at her paper. She married first when she was very young, at eighteen, and her second marriage came quickly after. Her third, to Jason, was the most poignant, because he was diagnosed with colon cancer, and died. In both of her earlier marriages, sex had been the greatest bond. With Jason, they were friends long before a relationship began. Lucretia felt that his death would be the end of her life as well. But soon after he died, even though she was in her early fifties, she fell in love with an Italian man almost twenty years younger than she; they were lovers for two weeks and the relation-ship renewed her interest in sex and love. Burt was introduced to her by a friend. They had sex, but he was unable to function properly due to recent prostate surgery. He was nice enough, but she wasn't attracted to him and in fact didn't like him that much. It bothered her that he encouraged her to retire and that he didn't appreciate her current writing assignment on battered women. Unfortunately, he latched onto her and she couldn't think of a way to reject him gently. Soon after she met Burt, Simon called. She had known him a long time ago. They met for dinner and had relatively impersonal but friendly conversation. Soon afterwards they met for dinner at Lucretia's home. Lucretia liked him because he reminded her of her youth, and not, she convinced herself, because she was in love with him. After dinner, she told herself not to think about falling in love, but of course she did.

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