'I'm only on the Review because of you.'

'Don't do me any favors,' he snapped.

'Listen, you haven't exactly made me happy either.'

'Krissy, you're impossible to make happy.'

'How would you know?' she said loudly, standing up and beginning to limp in agitated lines from corner to corner. 'What have you ever done to try?'

'I went out with you, didn't I?'

You pig, thought Kristina. 'Don't do me any favors.'

'Tell you what,' he said. 'It's a really good idea we don't see each other anymore. I haven't been happy in a long time.'

'Never.'

'Oh, yes,' he said. 'Before I met you.'

Kristina's heart sank, but she managed to say, 'Somehow I find that hard to believe.' Her lips were quivering. She was about to cry. He was about to make her cry, but she wouldn't let him. She knew he had difficulty talking about personal things. That was his way. So be it.

Jim laughed an awkward laugh. 'I can't believe we stuck it out this long.'

'Jim, don't say that. Things weren't always like this.'

'Oh no?'

'No. Only since I realized how you feel about me. Or more precisely, how you don't feel about me.'

Staring at her coldly, still not moving from his place on the bed, he said, 'What are you talking about?'

Kristina was still pacing, still aching, her bad arm hanging limply down her side. She became choked up and couldn't tell him what was on her mind.

'Forget it, Jimbo. I came here hoping maybe we could talk.'

'No, you didn't,' Jim retored contemptuously. 'You woke me up hoping I'd make you feel better about yourself, just like you always want me to do. Well, I wasn't about to ignore my work to make you feel better about yourself. I'm not a psych major.'

'That much is clear,' Kristina mumbled. 'God!' she exclaimed. 'I don't want you to make me feel better about myself. You've got it all so wrong.'

She wasn't going to cry in front of him. Not now. She wasn't. She tried to make her voice as calm as possible when she said, 'I'm going now.'

'Bye, Krissy,' he said, his voice breaking.

When he didn't make any move to stop her, she left.

Kristina sat down dejected on her bed. Instead of feeling better, she felt much worse. God, she thought. I woke up and was feeling so bad, I couldn't see in front of me. But now look at the way I feel.

Everything was quiet and blue in the dawn winter light. Aristotle whimpered.

'Aristotle, I know how you feel, dog,' Kristina said. 'I know exactly how you feel,' she said sadly, lying down on the thin carpet next to him. She kissed the top of his head, and fell asleep after an instant of aching.

Kristina slept through her two morning classes and basketball practice. She hurt too much for basketball. When she woke up on the floor, Aristotle wasn't there. Someone had taken him out and, as a careless afterthought, thrown a blanket on her. Careless or not, she wanted to know who it was. Albert? Jim? Conni?

She woke up with an awful feeling of heaviness and depression that she couldn't shake. She couldn't believe she had been left alone for so long. Usually somebody came into her room and woke her up.

She realized as she struggled up that it wasn't depression. Her body was throbbing.

How long would they have just left me on the floor? she wondered, running the brush through her knotted hair. How long would I have lain here? Would they all have gone off? Wilmington, Cold Spring Harbor, and left me here without Aristotle. She looked at the clock. It was already afternoon.

Getting dressed was agony. The shoulder was worse today, but Kristina was able to lift the aching arm about waist high. She held it there for a few excruciating seconds before gently lowering it.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. She didn't recognize the knock, but when she heard it, her heart sank.

'Who is it?'

'Police. Open up.'

Kristina raised her eyebrows and heaved a depressed sigh. Not this, too. On top of everything else.

'Wait a minute, please,' she said. 'I'm getting dressed.'

The knock came again. 'Open the door, please. Now.'

'Goddammit,' Kristina muttered under her breath and went to the door in just her track-suit top and underwear.

Opening the door, she faced a young, short, heavyset police officer, sticking his police ID into her face, and Spencer O'Malley.

Spencer, standing two feet back, suppressed a smile. The patrolman became extremely flustered.

'Officers, how do you do?' Kristina said in her most formal voice. 'If you could give me a few minutes, I'd appreciate it.'

Spencer said nothing but smiled at her, while the other officer, red-faced and awkward, said, touching his police badge with his hand and trying hard not to look at her, 'Take your time.'

Kristina thanked them and closed the door, reappearing a moment later with her track-suit pants on. 'Now,' she said smiling. 'What can I do for you?' She didn't acknowledge Spencer O'Malley, but she did notice that he was holding her new purse in his hands.

The heavyset officer introduced himself as Patrolman Ray Fell and did most of the talking. 'Miss Kim?' He wore thick, black-rimmed glasses and had a mass of unruly, curly black hair. He looked more like a computer nerd than a cop.

'Yes, that's right,' she said.

'Do you drive a brown 1981 Ford Mustang?' And he read off the license plate number.

'Well,' she said evasively, 'the answer to that has to be no.

'No?'

'No, I no longer drive a Ford Mustang.'

Spencer O'Malley smiled again. Sergeant Fell furrowed his brows and his voice became firmer.

'You are listed as the driver of said vehicle.'

'I no longer drive it as of yesterday,' she said.

'Has it been in an accident?'

'Yes,' she said. 'Definitely.'

'Miss Kim, did you leave your car after the accident?'

'Well, yes,' she said, looking at Spencer O'Malley. Unlike Raymond Fell, he was dressed in street clothes.

'Do you know that it's a crime to leave the scene of an accident?' said Ray Fell. 'It's called conduct after an accident, and it's a class-A misdemeanor. The driver of the vehicle is not allowed to leave the scene of an accident if there's been any body or property damage.'

'I'm sorry,' she said. 'I didn't know that.'

'You didn't know to wait till the police came?'

'No,' she said. 'It was very dark, and I just wanted to get out of there.' She paused. 'I was going to have a tow truck get the car today and take it to a junkyard.'

'Miss Kim, you have to file an accident report, don't you know that? Did you notify your insurance company?'

'No,' Kristina replied. 'I was going to do that all today.'

The officer nodded. 'Could you come with us to the police station to have a little chat, please?'

'Officers,' she said, 'I want to do everything I can to cooperate. But I have a calculus test that I absolutely can't miss.'

'Miss Kim,' said Fell, raising his voice, 'obstructing the police department in their investigation of the accident is a class-B misdemeanor, punishable either by a fine or a jail term. Now, would you like to come with us?'

'My intention is not to obstruct,' Kristina said seriously. 'I would very much like to come with you. What about later this afternoon? Maybe at four or so?' She had a few errands to run first.

'No, Miss Kim. Come with us now.'

Detective O'Malley stepped forward and put his arm on the young cop's shoulder.

'Miss Kim,' said Spencer, 'have you been to the hospital?'

Kristina shook her head.

'Perhaps we could take you to Dartmouth-Hitchcock. Your face looks pretty banged up.' He looked at her bad arm. 'Someone should take a look at you.'

Kristina thought that someone had.

'Sergeant,' Fell said quietly, turning to Spencer, 'I thought she was supposed to come with us now.'

Spencer nodded. 'I know, I know,' he said. 'Don't worry, she's not going anywhere.' Turning back to Kristina, Spencer said, 'But a doctor should take a look at you, Miss Kim.' He enunciated 'Miss Kim' slowly, almost tenderly.

Kristina stared up into Spencer's light blue eyes. 'I really feel all right,' she said. 'I can always go to the Dartmouth infirmary, thanks. But would this afternoon be okay?'

'Not possible. You're already facing probable grounds for arrest,' said Fell. 'It's police procedure to fill out the accident report immediately. You left the scene. It's a misdemeanor. You have to come with us.'

Coughing, Spencer O'Malley again placed his hand on Fell's shoulder. 'Raymond,' he said. 'Could you wait for me downstairs, please?'

Ray Fell was reluctant to leave, but as little as Kristina understood police hierarchy, she knew Ray Fell had been given an order he had to obey.

After Fell left, Spencer turned to Kristina and smiled, handing her her purse. T didn't think we'd meet again so soon.'

Taking her bag from him and dropping it near the door, Kristina replied, 'Well, don't you know? I staged the whole accident just so we could meet.'

Without missing a beat, Spencer said, 'You didn't have to go to all that trouble.'

'No trouble.'

'You're in a lot of trouble, you know. You made the patrolman quite upset.'

'Thanks for helping me out.' Kristina wanted to ask Spencer to come inside, but her room was such a mess, and she was embarrassed by it. She didn't want Spencer O'Malley to think she was a slob. She made a mental promise to clean it as soon as she could. Thank God she brushed her hair.

'You did commit a crime, you know.'

'I didn't know it was a crime, did I?'

'Why didn't you just wait for help?'

Kristina felt impelled to tell Spencer the truth. 'I don't like hospitals much. Plus yesterday was my birthday. We were having a party.'

'Ah, happy birthday. Was it a nice party?'

'Very nice,' said Kristina.

'Twenty-one feel old?'

'Yes, how'd you know?'

'Because I recently turned thirty. And it felt really old.'

She was thinking how young Spencer actually looked, even with his stubbly hairdo. He looked like a lanky kid just out of the army.

'Do you really have a calculus test?' he asked her gently.

'Well... if I took calculus, then yes.' Kristina watched his expression and then said, 'I don't really have one. But I kind of have to get to the bank before three.'

'What, rearranging your finances at twenty-one?' Spencer was joking.

Kristina said, 'Something like that,' and looked away.

Standing in front of Kristina with his arms crossed, Spencer said, 'Tell you what. Do you want me to hold your accident report on my desk until after the holiday?'

'You can do that?' she said eagerly.