“In my house it was my mother.”
“What did she drink?”
“Port,” Jesse said.
Abby wrinkled her nose.
“Ugh,” she said.
The waitress came back and took food orders. It was a noisy crowd out Oh“the deck. Young men and women, many of them from the same condo complex where Jesse was renting, single, well employed, affluent, stylish, and loud. They were drinking things like Long Island iced teas and tequila sunrises. As Abby looked across the table at him, Jesse seemed to her a figure of stillness in the midst of turbulence, as if he were the only boat with an anchor.
He sat perfectly still, his hands resting on the tabletop.
When he moved it was for a reason, to pour beer, to drink beer, to pick up the menu. He wasted no energy. It was hard to imagine him drunk and out of control. It was hard to imagine him kicking Jo Jo Genest in the balls, too.
Though her official position required her to disapprove, she was glad he had. No one deserved a kick in the balls more b4/Xl“ /&fff?
79 than Jo Jo Genest, she thought. Her martini was’gone. She could handle one more, all right. She loved the feeling of integration and certainty the drinks gave hr. He would be an interesting guy to have sex with. See how contained and steady he was then.
“I’m going to go ahead and order another martini,” she said to Jesse. “If you want to order a scotch,‘go ahead.
Our cards are on the table, I’m willing to risk it, if you
Jesse smiled and ordered a Black Label on the rocks.
“You have any children, Jesse?”
“No. You?”
“No, we tried and couldn’t seem to. I
guess I’m barren.”
“Or he is,” Jesse said.
The drinks came. Jesse was barely able to stifle a sigh as he took some of his scotch in and felt the ease begin to seep through him.
Abby smiled at him over the rim of her martini.
“Good times,” she said and held the glass out. He clinked it with his. Each of them drank again.
“Can a man be barren?” Ab.by said.
“You mean is it a word you can use about men?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know,” Jesse said.
“But if the two of you couldn’t have children, it doesn’t mean you were the one that couldn’t. You do any testing?”
“He refused,” she said.
Jesse nodded as if his point had been made. There was something about his eyes, she thought, as if he saw the world in a funny way and was quietly amused. He had on a blue blazer and a white shirt open at the neck and his skin had a healthy out-of-doors look to it. He was clean-shaven, his dark hair was cut close, and the sideburns were neatly trimmed.
“How long were you married?” Abby said.
·
“Five years.”
“What happened?”
“She was, is, an actress. She started sleeping with a guy, maybe guys for all I know, who could help her in her ca-
“Did you know?”
“Not at first.”
“Did you suspect?”
“Eventually.”
“And that was the end?”
“Yes, I think.”
“You think?”
“Well, at first I sort of denied it, and then I increased my drinking and finally, in fact, she left me. I got fired in L.A. for drinking. It had to be in my record. Hell, I was sort of drunk when I interviewed for this job.”
“Did they know?”
“I don’t know how they could have missed it,” Jesse said. “I must have smelled like a rum cake.”
