“I was very honestly studying the problem of this zipper, right this moment.”
“Well, hurry up. We’re late.”
“The party’s over.”
“They all went to the club,” she said. “When Carey came he started talking business with Walter and they all got upset. Walter said-Jack!”
“Was that cold?”
“I’m getting mad, Jack.”
“Why did they go to the club?”
“Because Walter wanted those labor people to come, too. And he didn’t want that to be here.”
“You know what would be best, Patty? You should just take this dress off and then maybe I could do a regular job on this.”
“I know what kind of a regular job.”
“And the zipper too. Honest, Patty.”
“Jack!”
I put my hands on her bare shoulders and she couldn’t do very much about that because she was holding the dress up in front.
“It just makes you shiver. I know.”
“Jack, please. You’re supposed to-”
“I will.”
“You’re supposed to go too. They’re waiting for you.”
“Good.”
“I mean now. Right now.”
“Yes.”
I pulled her around a little and turned her face and held it that way for an earnest kiss.
“No,” she said.
I went back to the kiss. Then she said, “Jack, it’s all the way down. The zipper…”
I switched her around and put my hands on her back where the zipper used to be and to hell with the mechanical interest.
“No!”
Her hands were still in the way. She was still holding the dress in front and I could feel her knuckles where she should be soft.
“Jack, if you don’t stop that,” she said, and later, with a little less breath, “Please, Jack. Walter wouldn’t like it.”
“He’d be mad.”
“I know That’s what I meant.”
“We won’t tell him.”
“You’re hurting my hands.”
“Move them.”
“No!”
I gave her a kiss and leaned her back on the couch. As soon as she noticed that maneuver she put back her hands, to keep herself up, but that left the dress mostly to its own devices. When she tried to take care of that error she had to move her hands and I got her down on the couch. And she couldn’t get her hands back in front because I was too close.
“Don’t get mad,” I said. “Because if you wriggle too much-”
She held still.
“Gimme a kiss.”
She moved her head to one side and I got her ear.
“No!”
I moved my hands away from her back so she would lie more comfortably. “-no.”
With that “no” I felt much less uncertain and I leaned up on my elbows and smiled down at her.
“Patty, if you’ll let me have that dress, like I said, I’ll be able to do…”
“I know what you want to do.”
“You sensed that, Patty. You just sensed that without my having to tell you a thing.”
“Don’t! Don’t move away, I’m all bare in front!”
“I sensed that.”
I stayed close to her because why move and because she was holding me that way. Then we didn’t talk for a while, but when I gave her a chance she said:
“I told you, Jack. You’re supposed to be there.”
“I’ll be late.”
“They’re going to wonder. And Walter, he’s going to wonder!”
“I’ll explain to him. I’ll explain why.”
“Don’t you dare!”
“Hold still.”
“Don’t you dare!”
“You think I’m crazy?”
“Yes!”
“I wouldn’t spoil that for you. Walter Lippit’s all right.”
“Don’t tell me about Walter!”
“You don’t think he’s all right?”
“Of course he’s all right!” she said. “I like Walter.”
“Don’t yell in my ear.”
“Better than you, I like him.”
“That’s only because you have never given yourself, and, of course, me, the most elementary chance which both you and I…”
“I don’t mean that, Jack St. Louis. Let me up. No! — I was talking about how he helps me.”
“Your career. Ah yes. Your career.”
“You know I’m a good singer.”
“You’re much better, given half a chance, in more elemental…”
“Stop using those words!”
“You’re much better, I meant, in…”
“I know what you mean.”
“And all good singers are fat.”
“That’s not true. I don’t have to be fat.”
“Not at all. This was my point.”
“Walter doesn’t talk that way about me.”
“He helps your career.”
“Seriously.”
“So could I, Patty. Seriously.”
She didn’t answer right away. I could tell by her face that I had made the mistake of getting her onto the one cold and serious subject of her life. She lay still.
“You’re kidding me,” she said.
“Ever hear of Blue Beat Records?”
I could tell she had. It wasn’t a big label, but a nice, little thing for the aficionados.
“You mean you could get me on that label?”
“I could get you a trial, maybe.”
Which had been the wrong answer. If I had said yes, she would have thought I was handing a line. When instead I had said the other, she pricked up her ears, because she had caught something serious. Which is what I mean when I say that I had made a mistake.
“Listen, Jack. I want to talk to you.” She rewound her arms on my neck and looked up at my face.
