“Yes. Is it a kind of sushi or what?”
Abby smiled.
“God, you California kids,” she said.
“A lobster roll is lobster salad in a hot dog roll.”
“Oh,” Jesse said. “Actually I
wasn’t a Cal’ffornia kid.
Didn’t move there until I was fifteen.“
“Where’d you grow up before
then?”
“Around Tucson. My father was with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.“
“Ah,” Abby said. “Second
geheration.”
“Un huh.”
“Why’d you move?”
“My father was working paid detail with a film crew in
Tucson, and he got friendly with one of the stars and took a job as the star’s driver, personal assistant, bodyguard, whatever. So we moved.“
“So do you know a lot of famous movie
people?”
“Nope, my father lasted about a month and got fired and took a job at Hughes.”
“Oh my,” Abby said. “who was the
star?”
Jesse shook his head.
“Why not?” Abby said.
“Old news,” Jesse said.
“Well, aren’t you private,” Abby
said. “Your folks still alive?”
“Brothers? Sisters?”
“Brother.”
“where is he?”
“I don’t know. He and my father
didn’t get along. He took off.”
“And you don’t know where he
went?”
She drank the rest of her martini. The waitress stopped by at once. The profit here was on drinks. Abby nodded 78
Ierff e. Ps.t‘ yes, she’d have another
one, and she noticed that Jesse had another beer.
“I wouldn’t have figured you for a beer drinker,” Abby said.
“I’m not. I’m a scotch on the
rocks drinker, but I didn’t want to get drunk, on our first date.”
“Do you get drank?”
“I have some trouble stopping when I
start,” Jesse said.
“You’re open about it,” Abby
said.
Jesse shrugged.
· “I have Ixouble too,” she
said.
“Stopping?”
“Un huh. My father was a boozer.” She
smiled. “Drank only beer.”
