Neil said, "Okay, so the plan is that we'll get back together tomorrow afternoon. We might as well do it here. We should be able to have more information by then." He smiled. "This will be pretty incredible, if it works."
They all began to stand up and stretch. The stadium group had been surprisingly small, and they had met right on the stage, sitting on uncomfortable wooden folding chairs. Perry had noticed SarahBeth and Sarah Little leaving the boat people group (as it was already becoming known) a few minutes after the meeting began and running across the back of the empty auditorium to the door to the alternatives group. They had seemed to be giggling. SarahBeth had not looked at him, but Sarah Little had glanced in his direction.
Then, much later, a little before the stadium group had broken up for the night, there had been a good deal of noise from the direction of the alternatives group, and a few people had wandered in from that direction, so apparently that group had ended a little bit earlier than his own. He didn't see Sarah and SarahBeth again.
He had managed to avoid thinking about this during the group meeting by concentrating on the plan being put together, which seemed both unworkable and suicidal. This helped to focus his attention, at least.
But after the meeting broke up, he started to feel very bad about how things had gone. He had known that he and SarahBeth would fight eventually. It was, he knew, inevitable in relationships, and probably especially so in this one. But it was one thing to know it and another to experience it.
He noticed that Tammy was walking toward the exit also, and he slowed down. He really didn't want to walk back to the hotel with her, and he knew that was probably where she was going. He glanced back at the stage and saw Vicki and Neil were still talking, so at least he wouldn't be walking back with Vicki.
He had known that he and SarahBeth would fight, but he hadn't imagined that it would happen in front of her ex-lover. Vicki had been very nice about it, but it had still made the whole thing even worse than it would have been otherwise.
If it weren't for the fact that Vicki happened to be unavailable, he thought SarahBeth would probably be back with her, since she was obviously a more congenial and passionate partner. And he also remembered the times he'd been with SarahBeth and Sarah, how inseparable they had been.
So, it was better to try to keep thinking about the impractical and probably suicidal plan. He had been proud of how he'd handled the situation on the bridge that morning, but this was going to be far more dangerous than that had been, and he could tell already that a lot of the plan was going to depend on him.
Out on the street, he zipped up his jacket and turned toward the hotel. He realized that he hadn't needed to worry about walking with Tammy, she was already half a block ahead of him, striding at a pace that he would have had difficulty matching.
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