“Really, really hard,” I said.
She emptied her glass. I poured more for each of us.
“Has Hawk shared his theory with you?” she said.
“About my identification with Doherty and how Alderson fi lls in for Russell Costigan?”
“Yes.”
“He has,” I said.
“What do you think?” she said.
“That was then,” I said. “This is now.”
“So he’s wrong?”
“I don’t know that he’s wrong,” I said.
“And how do you feel now that you’ve avenged Doherty’s murder, and destroyed Alderson?”
“Pretty good,” I said.
We each sipped our champagne. The pinkness didn’t have much to do with flavor, but it certainly was pretty. And different.
“Is it a good time to talk about marriage?” Susan said.
“The medieval courtly love tradition holds that love is impossible in marriage because it is coerced,” I said.
“And what do you think of the courtly love tradition?” Susan said.
“I think it’s bullshit,” I said.
“Me too,” Susan said.
“So maybe we should recline here together on the couch and consider alternative theories,” I said.
“What a very good idea,” Susan said.
