MODELO DE ECUACIONES ESTRUCTURALES (ANÁLISIS FACTORIAL

Laura couldn't stop thinking about her. She couldn't eat or sleep and spent most of the time daydreaming. Susan called to set up a foursome for dinner and cards, but Laura declined. She needed time to get herself together. She hated all of this emotional turmoil and thought about not seeing Robin again. Should she just quit cold turkey? she wondered.

That would be the smart thing to do. Get on with your life, she told herself. Save yourself some grief. September was only seven weeks away. Could

she go seven weeks without seeing Robin, knowing that she's here? And how much longer would she be here? Robin and her uncle had been interviewing coaches off and on during the last few weeks. Robin could be gone any day now.

Mavis called the next evening in the middle of a sobering cleaning spree. She wasn't in the best of moods either. "What's this I hear about you and Robin seein' each other?"

"We're not seeing each other," Laura said defensively. "We're seeing Susan and Trish."

"Stay away from her. She's got problems enough already."

Laura clutched the phone and returned to her dusting, determined once again not to get upset.

"Robin's havin' lunch with me tomorrow," Mavis said. "I'll let her in on a few things. She'll be wiser when I'm through with her."

Laura tossed her dust rag down and tucked a loose wisp of hair behind her ear. "We're all wiser when you're through with us."

"I can fix you up sometime, Laura. I know a lot of single women." When Mavis was scared or angry she had a tendency to lose her accent, and there was barely a trace of it now. "If

you expect to get somethin' out of this, darlin', you can forget it. Robin won't sleep with you. You're wasthV your time."

Laura shook her head and beckoned Jo-Jo over to the couch with the snapping of her fingers. Had she even thought that far ahead yet? Sex? A relationship? Was she ready for

any of that? She hugged the poodle closer to her chest. "We're friends," she said.

"Like hell you're friends," Mavis whispered. Laura could tel that she was crying.

"Why are you doing this, Mavis? Why can't you just leave it alone?"

"I'm havin' lunch with her tomorrow," she said with a sniff. "I'll fil her in on a few things about you."

Laura heard little alarms going off in her head. "Things like what?" But Mavis had hung up already.

Laura got very little sleep the rest of the week. She cal ed Susan on Wednesday and hinted around to see if she had heard anything. She didn't have the nerve to come right out and ask. She decided to invite Susan, Trish and Robin over Friday evening, giving Susan a time and letting her pass on all the details.

On Friday afternoon, unable to concentrate, she left work early, stopped at the grocery store for salami, cheese, crackers and beer, and went home to pace, glad her guests arrived before the onset of an anxiety attack. Laura fixed a stiff gin and tonic and then

led everyone out to the patio where they found the small plastic wading pool brimming with water.

"It's a pool party," Laura said nervously. "We take our shoes off and soak our feet in it."

"You're kidding, right?" Susan said.

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" Laura took off her sneakers and stuffed her socks down inside. She noticed the amusement in Robin's eyes and felt a little better. "Come on. Get 'em off."

Things seemed to be no different, but Laura couldn't help feeling shy and reserved. She decided

then and there that before the evening was over she would find out what sort of damage Mavis had done to her character. She refused to spend another sleepless night worrying about it.

She set up lawn chairs around the flimsy pool and brought out the platter of cheese and

crackers while the other three took their shoes off. Four pairs of feet rested in six inches of cool water, with wine and beer in an ice chest within reach. It was very relaxing, and after a while the others apologized profusely for doubting the pool's potential. By the time it got too dark to see, no one wanted to go inside.

Trish had protested the loudest but seemed to enjoy the water the most. "Remember the first time you kissed a girl? I thought I'd died and gone to heaven."

"Easter Sunday, nineteen seventy-two," Susan purred.

"I can't even remember the last time I kissed a girl," Laura said to an uproar of laughter.

"They're women, not girls," Susan reminded them in the dark.

"I started with girls."

"It was Mavis, I'm sure," Laura said thoughtfully, and then remembered Tonita the bartender in Hawaii.

"I was born gay," Trish said. "Interested in it even before it had hair on it, so to speak.

When I was seventeen my girlfriend's mother walked in on us one night while we were making out. It scared me shitless."

"My father caught me kissing my lover in the

pool one day," Robin said from somewhere in the darkness next to Laura. Occasionally their toes touched in the water, but Laura made no attempt to move away. "My mother still

blames him for everything. You should hear her sometimes. 'It's that GI Joe you bought her, Julian,' " she mimicked in a high-pitched nagging tone.

"I always wanted a GI Joe!"

"Me too."

"I had a Barbie and Ken," Laura said smugly.

"Jesus. No wonder you throw like a girl."

Laura splashed water on them and started a water fight that helped cool everyone off.

Once the squealing stopped and they settled down again she leaned back in the chair and waited for the moon to peek out from behind the clouds. It was quiet, and for the first time all evening she wondered if Mavis had lied about having had lunch with Robin.

"I told my mother once that I turned out gay because she fed me Froot Loops when I was a kid," Laura said in a small, faraway voice. A while later she got everyone fresh drinks and settled back in her chair. They were contented voices in the dark, mere silhouettes when the moon allowed it. As the laughter continued, the alcohol mellowed them even more. "This is great. I should've bought a pool years ago."

"You sound sleepy," Robin said, reaching for her hand. In the safety of the darkness she laced their fingers together while the tumbling in Laura's stomach threatened to make her speechless. "Are you?"

"No." Surely the others could hear her heart

pounding. Laura hoped no one asked her anything else. There was no way she would be able to answer.

"I can't think of a better way to spend a Friday night," Susan sighed. "At least not with clothes on."

Robin gave Laura's fingers a light squeeze and then let go. "Are you sure you're okay?" she whispered.

"Mmm... yes. Thanks." Laura gulped her beer and wondered where the buzz went when she needed it. Someone moved a foot back and forth through the water, making small waves splash higher on their shins. "I think I'm having a crisis," Laura said. "A Mavis crisis."

"What's Ms. Hooterville up to now?" Trish asked cynically.

"She was supposed to have lunch with Robin this week."

"She did," Robin confirmed. "Twice, in fact."

"Twice?" Laura had talked to Mavis on Tuesday. Twice? They'd already had lunch twice?

Obviously things had been interesting enough to warrant more than one meeting. "What did she tell you?"

"It doesn't matter."

"It matters to me."

"I've taken care of it already."

"I have to know what she told you." The silence was eerie, with nothing more than a cricket somewhere in the yard and Jo-Jo going in the house through her swinging door. Robin

reached for Laura's hand again.

"We're going to the bathroom," Trish said diplomatically. They stepped out of the pool and hurried into the house with wet, bare feet. The light from the kitchen filtered out onto the patio and uncovered them from the darkness.

"I forgot they were here," Robin said.

"We were talking about Mavis."

"Yes, I know. How can I convince you that it doesn't matter?"

"You can't. Just tell me what she said."

Robin let go of her hand again but looked at her for a long, excruciating moment. "I can't.

I'm sorry."

Laura finished her beer and forced herself to meet Robin's eyes. "Why not?"

"It's not important. I don't put much stock in Mavis's version of things. She has a way of shaping the truth to meet her own needs. Lunch number two finally ended in a screaming match. She's not happy with me right now."

"The dog house is a lonely place," Laura said philosophically. She leaned her head back and shook her hair away from her face. "Mavis doesn't want us to be friends."

"Personally, I think she's still in love with you."

Shocked, Laura was absolutely speechless. She hadn't heard anything this outrageous in years. After a few seconds, she blurted, "Why would you say such a thing?" Robin didn't answer, but continued looking at her. "She's had four serious lovers since we broke up."

There was still the silence. Laura was willing to let it drop. "What else did she tell you at

lunch?"

"I don't remember."

Laura laughed again. "You don't remember? Two lunches and a screaming match and you don't remember?"

"I'm choosing not to remember," Robin said carefully. "I've already said that it doesn't matter."

Laura could see that they were getting nowhere, and Robin's unwillingness to share whatever else Mavis had elaborated on was beginning to get annoying.

"We'd better go in," Laura said, and with one step she was standing in the middle of the tiny pool. "They won't come back if they think there's a heavy discussion going on out here."

"There is."

"There was. You chose not to remember, remember?"

Robin held out her cane for Laura to pull her up from the chair. It was one of the few forms of intimacy they had shared over the last few weeks. Laura liked touching the smooth, cool wood and thought of the offer for assistance as a sort of privilege.

The scent of honeysuckle came to them in the breeze. Robin's eyes were searching and mischievous. It was then that Laura realized how much she wanted her. She reluctantly released the cane.

"Nice pool," Robin said.

"Thanks. Have dinner with me tomorrow."

"Alone? Without Frick and Frack?"

"Alone. Me and you."

Laura functioned better on impulse, and she didn't dare take time to think about what she was doing. She leaned over to kiss her, their lips touching gently in a whirl of emotion. It was magic, like falling in a dream, and she knew that Robin was feeling the same way. She

brought her hands up and

filled them with that wonderful thick red hair before lightly touching her face. When the kiss was over she wasn't sure she would ever recover from it.

"Stay with me tonight," Laura whispered. She kissed her again and felt as though she had found something that she had been waiting a very long time for. She took in the fresh scent of strawberries that clung to Robin's hair and said, "Stay with me."

"I can't." Robin tilted her head back for more and made the most delightful moaning sound Laura had ever heard.

"Of course you can."

Robin kissed her again with a possessiveness that she sensed made them both weak, but then pulled away and laid her head on Laura's shoulder. "I don't want an affair with you."

Laura swallowed hard to keep the lump from forming in her throat. The butterflies that had been dancing in her stomach only moments before had suddenly turned to lead. It came to her out of nowhere, like a shot tearing a gaping hole in her gut. It's Mavis, she thought.

Mavis must have told her something else. The goddamn bitch! What else could she have said? Laura felt the warmth slowly draining out of her, rejection hardening her as the seconds ticked away.

"I'm leaving in September," Robin said hoarsely.

Laura stepped out of the pool and began picking up shoes as if by remote control. She handed Robin hers and gathered up the other three pairs in her arms.

"Laura —"

"You don't have to say anything." She opened the

back door and dropped her shoes beside the refrigerator. Susan and Trish were waiting

expectantly at the breakfast bar. "Good," she said. "You found more beer." She gave them their shoes and got herself another beer.

"How's everything?" Trish asked.

"Everything's fine," Laura said quietly. The humiliation began to seep through every pore of her body, but she refused to give in to it. There would be plenty of time for all of that

later, after they were gone.

"You two ready?" Robin asked from somewhere behind her. They had their shoes on and drinks finished quickly.

Laura held Jo-Jo against her chest and drew comfort from her closeness. Anger was finding its way through the devastation in her heart. She remained distant, and let everyone share equally in the awkwardness.

At the door Trish and Susan offered hugs while Robin waited on the sidewalk leaning heavily on her cane.

"We're going out to buy a pool tomorrow," Trish said.

Laura forced a smile. "Get the one shaped like a turtle. You can set your beer on his head."

She noticed that as soon as they opened the screen Robin turned around, looking as though she wanted to be anywhere else in the world at that moment.

"We had a good time," Susan said. "If nothing else, we've got clean feet."

Laura set Jo-Jo down to fend for herself and was more than ready to have this nightmare of an

evening over with. She watched them shuffle down the sidewalk where all three got in Susan's car without looking back. The slamming of the doors confirmed the finality of their actions, and she was once again adrift in a sea of confusion.