Derik's Bane (21 page)

Everyone was nodding. Even Charley was nodding, making the camera wobble.

“It just . . . takes over. Totally takes over your life. You start to plan events around how you can drink. Like, if I have breakfast
here
with my friend, I can hit an alley afterward
there
, while she’s going uptown. Or, if I blow another friend off for supper, I can reschedule on
him
and get my fix instead.”

Everyone was nodding harder. A few of the men appeared to have tears in their eyes! Charley, thankfully, had stopped nodding, but was getting in on the woman as tightly as he could.

“Get the suit in the shot,” the reporter whispered.

“I’m not used to this,” the woman continued. “I mean, I’m used to wanting things, but not like
this
. I mean, gross.”

A ripple of laughter.

“I’ve tried to stop, but I just made myself sick. And I’ve talked to some of my friends about it, but they think I should just suck it up. Ha ha. And my new friends don’t see that as a problem at all.” More nods all around. “So here I am. Nobody special. Just someone with a problem. A
big
problem. And . . . I thought maybe coming here and talking about it would help. That’s all.” Silence, so she added, “That’s really all.”

Spontaneous, almost savage, applause. The reporter had Charley pan back, getting the crowd’s reaction. She wasn’t sure the rep would let all their faces be shown on the ten o’clock news, but she wanted the film in the can, just in case.

She wanted Charley to get the woman walking to the back of the room, but when he panned back, she was gone.

The reporter and her cameraman looked for the gorgeous stranger for ten minutes, with zero luck.

Gone.

Shit.