Pat and Marijane broke up quickly and then continued to break up slowly

[breathedout]

Pat [Highsmith] and Marijane [Meaker] broke up quickly (and then continued to break up slowly) during their six months of cohabitation. Pat … moved in and out of the house so many times, that they had to change moving companies a couple of times to avoid embarrassment.

—Joan Schenkar, The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith (Chapter 23: Les Girls, Part 7)

And a follow-up quote from Meaker on the subject: “By then, we didn’t like each other, we didn’t want to be around each other, but in bed it was fire.”