Tall Poppies Read Online Free Page B

joggers huffed past her and Nina flashed them a beaming smile. No
    matter what, when she was with Jeff, life was good. ‘Hey!’
    She spun round, the wind lifting her coal-black hair, and saw her boyfriend lounging under an elm tree. She felt her heart jump. God, he was so gorgeous, all those muscles huge and hard under his navy sweatsuit, picking out his cornflower-blue eyes. He was wearing the latest black Nike runners and a steel Rolex. Nina pulled her
     
    threadbare duffel tight against the chill and told herself clothes didn’t matter.
    ‘Hey,’ Jeff repeated, when she caught up to him. He smiled, his eyes trawling lazily over her wrapped-up body. ‘Where you been?’
    ‘Sorry I’m late. I had some trouble back home,’ Nina apologised. She knew he hated to be kept waiting. ‘I got out as soon as I could.’
    ‘No problem,’ Jeff said graciously. He turned and started walking west out of the park, heading for the cheap hotel on Eighth Street they always used. Nina used to think that was so cool of him, the way he’d casually spring for a whole night although they only took a couple of hours - ‘So we don’t need to sneak around at my place,’ he’d explain, kissing the nape of her neck. Often he’d order up room service, too, and that made her feel spoiled affd exotic; waited on hand and foot, even if it was only cheeseburgers and beer. The sex was usually just OK; she always felt hot and weird when he started, but after Jeff collapsed across her with that strangled groan, bathed in sweat and looking drained, she felt … unsure. Left out. Maybe the flashes of excitement and tenseness she felt sometimes were an orgasm. Maybe that was what they felt like when you weren’t doing it to yourself … She wasn’t sure, and something told her there was no way she could ask Jeff. It was being alone with him, being kissed, stroked, told how beautiful she was that was what Nina loved. In bed with Jeff she was accepted. Desired. That made up for everything else.
    But today Nina could still hear her mother’s carping voice. Suddenly the hotel didn’t seem so magical … it seemed a little cheap, a little seedy.
    ‘Hey, Jeff ?’ She caught up with him, putting a hand on
    his arm. ‘Could we maybe do something else tonight?’ He stopped short, frowning.
    ‘You don’t like the Payne? Where d’you want to go?”
     
    z3
     
    ‘I was thinking maybe we wouldn’t go anyu, here.’ Nina paused nervously at the shadow that crossed over his face. ‘I’d like to go to your house and meet your mom and dad.’
    ‘Oh yeah? XFhat for?’ Jeff demanded, irritated. Nina Roth looked pretty sharp, despite the cheap clothes and lack of grooming: her creamy skin, perfect without makeup, was flushed and glowing from the fresh air; her heavy-lidded eyes glittered like polished slate and her ebony hair cut down across her cheekbones in a gleaming cap. But he could imagine the reaction if he took her home! His mother would go ballistic! She was always nagging at him to find a ‘nice girl’, but to the Glazers, that meant someone like Melissa or Josie … someone like themselves. Not a Jewish checkout girl from South Slope, a scholarship kid with a lush for a mother.
    ‘It’s a dumb idea. Te can’t just drop in on them like that.’
    ‘Why not?’ Nina asked stubbornly. ‘Are you ashamed of me? That’s what my morn said.’
    “‘She’s nuts,’ Glazer said warily. He didn’t like that mutinous look she was giving him, though. Nina’s body had nearly given him a heart attack once he finally coaxed her into bed, and there was no way he was letting her go now. ‘Look, we can’t go tonight, because, uh, we’re having some people over for dinner. Let me talk to Morn and you can maybe come for tea, or something. OK?’
    ‘Sure.’ Nina smiled up at him, bursting with happiness. He does love me, she thought triumphantly. He does, he does, he does!

Chapter 4
    Murmurs rose from the crowd as Elizabeth descended the