“So what does that mean?” Abby said.
“I don’t know.”
“Well, what does it mean to us?” Abby said.
“Us?”
“Us. You know, you and me, who have been sort of dating and sleeping together and stuff like that. Us.”
“I don’t know.”
“Christ!” Abby said. “Think
about it. Does it mean you’re going to annul the divorce?”
“No. Can you do that?”
“No. Does it mean you are going to dash back to L.A.
and move back in with her?”
“bio.”
“See, you can think about this. Do you still love her?”
The waitress came to the booth.
“Who gets the tuna?” the waitress said.
Jesse pointed at Abby. The waitress set the plate down in front of her.
“And you must get the club.”
Jesse nodded. The waitress put it down in front of him and went off. Jesse picked up a wedge of sandwich.
“Do you?” Abby said.
“Still love her?”
“Un huh.”
Jesse put the sandwich wedge back down on the plate and leaned back in the booth.
“I don’t know where it will go with
Jenn,” Jesse said.
“I don’t even know where I want it to
go.”
“That’s comforting,” Abby said.
“What I know is that I’m not a good basket to put all your eggs in at the moment, you understand. I don’t know if I love Jenn or not right now. I don’t know if I can love anybody but Jenn right now. I like you, and we have fun together, but I don’t know what it will he like between us next week or next month. Until I get myself clear about Jenn…” He didn’t finish the sentence
because he didn’t know how to. So he let it hang unfinished.
Abby met his look for a moment and took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her eyes glistened. Then she looked down at her sandwich.
They were quiet for a time neither talking nor eating.
Then Abby said, “Well, consider myself warned, I guess.”
She looked up at him and smiled xfery brightly.
“Doesn’t mean we Can’t eat
lunch,” she said and her voice was as bright as her smile.
Jesse didn’t feel very hungry at the moment, but he staed on his sandwich because he didn’t know what else to do.
Jo Jo Genest came into the restaurant and took a seat at the counter. He was wearing a sleeveless black tee shirt and his arms bulged obscenely. He swiveled on the counter stool and rested his back and elbows against the counter and looked at Jesse. Jesse finished chewing a bite of his sandwich and looked back at Jo Jo. He was a city cop, and he had long ago mastered the dead-eyed city cop stare. Jo Jo’s stare was more of a smirk, Jesse thought. They held the stare for about a minute, which to Abby, sitting in the booth watching them, seemed like an hour. Then Jo Jo wheeled slowly around on his stool and faced the counter and ordered a steak sandwich.
“Doesn’t he scare you?” Abby
said softly.
Jesse shrugged.
“Like hell,” Abby said. “No
shrugging. I asked you a question I want you to answer.”
$esse didn’t like her tone and it showed in the look he gave her. But Abby held his look.
“Talk about yourself, Jesse. I want to know you.”
“What’s to know?” Jesse said.
“Well, for instance, are you scared of Jo Jo Genest?”
