He pulls his lips away from the girl and whispers something into her ear. Is he saying how much he loves her? Is he asking whether she wants to come back to his place? Whatever it is, she smiles and kisses him back. But he's no longer paying attention to her. His eyes have finally turned to Samantha.
She doesn't hear what he says. She doesn't feel Judy's hand around her arm, pulling her up. She can only see him kissing this other girl and thinking, It should be me.
She runs. She loses the platform shoes along the way and keeps running down a wet alley in her stockings. Judy calls after her, but she doesn't hear the words. She doesn't hear anything except the question burning in her mind: Why?
In a city of over a million people why had she run into the only person she could never bear seeing again? Of all the clubs in the city why had Judy decided on the one place he frequented? More important, why did she arrive in time to see him with her?
Her bare foot steps into a hole, pitching her forward. She lands face-first in a rancid pile of filth, screaming as a rat skitters past her nose. She tries to run, but pain explodes from her left ankle. It's broken. She drags herself back against the wall of a building, burying her face in her hands.
She knows she shouldn't be angry with him for kissing another girl; she left him after all. He has a right to move on, to find someone new. Isn't that what she'd wanted? Hadn't she wanted him to find someone else and be happy?
She knows it's better for him this way. It's better for her this way too, because she couldn't bear for a disaster to claim him like Aunt Beth or her parents. Disaster followed her around like a shadow, always blotting out those she loved. She'd wanted to protect him from that. From her.
A hand touches her hair. Not Judy's delicate hand. His hand. The muscular hand that once had caressed her cheeks, her thighs, and her breasts. Even after two years this touch is as familiar to her as her own. His hands move down now to pull hers away from her face. She looks up at him, into his eyes.
No words are necessary. He kisses her and it's as if the last two lonely years have evaporated. As he picks her up, she presses her cheek against his shoulder, allowing herself to feel the warmth of his body again. For a moment she's safe.