Never Too Late for Love Read Online Free

unvisited.
    After Mimi left for her afternoon game, he made an effort
to calm himself, to rationalize his position, go over his options.
    He was, after all, a lawyer. But contemplation of what a
divorce might entail boggled his mind, made him tired. His wife's harangues
would be hysterical. The children would think he was a monster. Would he hate
himself later?
    He did consider having a clandestine affair, but it was so
foreign to his nature and his morality that he could not bring himself to
accept such a possibility. What he concluded was that he could accept any pain
from Mimi, from his children, from anyone, pay any price for the privilege of
spending the rest of his life with Genendel. Anything was worth that.
    He was tempted to phone her again but lost his courage, deciding
instead to suffer through the long night and day until the meeting of the
Yiddish Club. It was not an easy assignment.
    Feigning a slight cold, he was able to escape from Mimi's
patter by squirreling himself in bed for most of the next day.
    "You're going to the Yiddish Club?" Mimi asked as
he dressed.
    "I feel better."
    "You're acting strangely, Bill."
    "I know," he mumbled, wanting to shout out at
her, to tell her what was happening inside of him. Instead, he walked out into
the warm night, hoping that, in a few minutes, he would once again be in the
presence of the woman he loved. But the slight optimism that he felt as he
walked quickly dissipated when he arrived and it became apparent that she was
not coming. He listened listlessly to the speakers, walked out early, and
roamed through the clubhouse.
    In the long card room, he saw David playing gin. He moved
toward the table and watched the game for a while, waiting for the moment to
ask him news of his wife.
    "Where's Jennie?" he asked casually. "Missed
her at the meeting."
    "Said she missed the kids. Went up north to visit for
a few weeks." He poked Velvil in the stomach. "Look at this," he
said, holding up the score. "I got him on a triple schneid."
    Her absence made his longing more intense, and he spent his
time in long solitary walks around Sunset Village. You must come back to me, he
begged her in his mind.
    "What's wrong with you, Bill?" his wife asked
with casual but persistent interest.
    "I am sad and lonely," he said in Yiddish.
    "That again."
    "You give me no pleasure," he said, again in
Yiddish.
    "This is ridiculous."
    "You are ridiculous," he said in Yiddish.
    "The hell with you," Mimi responded with anger,
slamming the door behind her as she rushed off to the clubhouse. He savored his
cruelty, yet knew that it was wrong.
    After the first shock of Genendel's departure wore off,
leaving him only with a gnawing emptiness, he continued to participate in the
morning cycling and the Yiddish meetings. He went through the mechanical
process of the activities in the hope that when she returned, she would join
him again. He was certain that her life with David was as empty as his life
with Mimi. Was she prepared to compromise her remaining years in the name of
duty? Foreclose forever on the possibility of ... love?
    When she finally returned to the Yiddish Club two weeks
later, he felt that the curtain had been raised on his life again, and he could
barely sit through the meeting waiting for a few private words with her. By
then, he had convinced himself that he would take half a loaf, to leave it as
it had been. Even a few moments of her time were better than enduring the
suffering of her absence.
    When the meeting was over, he dashed over to her, stumbling
over a chair. "Did you enjoy your trip?" he asked, stammering, unable
to control the frantic beat of his heart.
    "It was all right," she responded.
    He imagined that he could detect sadness in her eyes.
    "Would you like to take a walk?"
    She nodded. He had gone over and over this request in his
mind and could hardly believe that he had made it.
    They walked along the familiar path in silence.
    "I promise," he finally said.
    "Promise?" She