“Or you can hear the ice rattle in the glass when I take a sip,” Jesse said.
“Don’t you want to know why I broke up
with Elliott?”
“He and Tommy Cruise decided to make the picture without you?”
“There’s no need to be hateful,
Jesse.”
“Maybe there is,” he said.
Jennifer was silent for a time. When she spoke it was with a kind of desperate dignity.
“I can’t just sit here on the phone and let you beat up on me, Jesse.”
“No,” Jesse said, “you
can’t. I’ll try not to.”
“Thank you.”
“So how come you broke up with 11 pounds ott,” Jesse said.
“And I don’t need to be humored,
either,” Jennifer said.
“Jcnn,” Jesse said, ,I didn’t
call you. You want to talk, I’ll listen.“
There was a pause. He heard the clink of glassware and realized she was drinking too. Probably white wine. Couple of lushes, Jesse thought, three thousand miles apart…
Better than drinking alone, I gue. ss.
“Do you remember that ridiculous girlfriend Elliott had with him when we had dinner once at Spa, go?” Jennifer said.
“Taffy.”
“Yes, that’s right. God, Jesse, you always remember stuff. She was like an ornament, you know, like his Rolex.”
“A way to look successful,” Jesse,said.
“That’s right, well, I suppose everyone wants to look successful, but…”
“There’s better ways,” Jesse
said.
“Like being successful?” Jennifer said.
“That’s one,” Jesse said.
She wasn’t stupid. She was ditzy enough so you could think she was, but she wasn’t. She understood a lot, when she permitted herself to think.
“Well, he was starting to treat me like Taffy. You know?”
“I’m shocked,” Jesse said.
“Don’t make fun of me, Jesse.
It’s too easy to do.”
“Yes,” Jesse said.
“You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“So I called him on it. I told him
I.wasn’t, you know, like a new hat he could wear around and hang up when he wasn’t using it. And he got really mad, and said he was sick of getting used by all the stupid starlets that he tried to help and a lot of other things… and I started to cry and told him to go fuck himself and got up and walked out of the place.”
“Good for you,” Jesse said.
“I feel like an asshole for crying,”
Jennifer said.
“Everybody cries,” Jesse said.
“The important thing is you didn’t let him use you.”
“Thank you,” Jennifer said.
They were silent across the continent while each of them drank.
Then Jennifer said, “But now what am I going to do?”
“What are you going to do about what?”
Jesse said.
