ONCE.

Now she was crying, very quietly. Then she asked me once more. 'For me, Oliver. I've never asked you for anything. Please.'
I couldn't do it. Didn't Jenny understand? It was just impossible. Unhappily I shook my head. Then Jenny spoke to me quietly and very angrily. 'You have no heart,' she said.
She spoke into the telephone again. 'Mr. Barret, Oliver wants you to know...' She was crying, so it wasn't easy for her. 'Oliver loves you very much,' she said, and put the telephone down quickly.
I don't know why I did it. Perhaps I went crazy for a moment. Violently I took the telephone and threw it across the room.
'Damn you, Jenny! Why don't you get out of my life?'
I stood still for a second. My God, I though, what's happening to me? I turned to look at Jenny. But she had gone.
I looked around the flat for her. Her coat was still there, but she had disappeared.
I ran out of the house and searched everywhere for her: the law school library, Radcliffe, the music school. Was she in one of the music rooms? I heard somebody playing the piano, loudly and very badly. Was it Jenny? I pushed the door open. A big Radcliffe girl was at the piano.
'What's the matter?' she asked.
'Nothing,' I answered, and closed the door again.
Where, oh where, had she gone? I felt terrible. I searched the university, the streets and the cáfes. Nothing. I stood there, in the middle of the street, wondered what to do. At last I went back to the flat.
Jenny was sitting on the top step. I was too tired to cry, too glad to speak.
'I forgot my key,' she said.
I stood there on the bottom step. I was afraid to ask how long she had been there. I only knew that I had hurt her terribly.
'Jenny, I'm sorry'
'Stop!' she said. Then she added, 'love means you never have to say you're sorry.'