He wasn’t looking at Jesse. Arms resting on the railing, he stared out across the water.
“Yes.”
“How’d it make you feel?”
“Bad.”
Hasty nodded.
“You fool around?” he said.
“Not till we separated,” Jesse said.
“You ever wonder why you weren’t
enough?”
“Yes.”
Hasty nodded again. He was silent for a time. Through the glass doors behind, them the band had finished its set and the sound of conversation and glassware replaced the sound of music.
“When we were dating,” Hasty said,
“she was hotter than a cheap pistol. Part of the reason I married her, I suppose.
I never had many girlfriends, and when I started dating her…“ He shook his head at the memory.
”But as soon as we got married she wasn’t interested anymore. The funny thing is when we dated we did everything but it, you know. Heavy petting, I guess you’d say. But never the dastardly deed itself. Didn’t want to cheapen the relationship.“
Hasty laughed at himself derisively.
“Talked a lot about saving it for
marriage,” he said.
“Then we got married and she wasn’t
interested. You know? She’d lie back and close her eyes and think of England.
But it was pretty much of a duty.“
“I guess marriage is different from
dating,” Jesse said.
“I guess it is,” Hasty said.
Across the harbor a small tender plugged in toward the town wharf from one of the yachts moored in deeper water.
Its running lights looked like slow shooting stars in the dark. Hasty finished his drink. Jesse had already finished his.
“I finally just decided that she was frigid and that the hot stuff before marriage was a way to get me. But you know how it is in a marriage. You figure you’re supposed to stick it out.
After a while the way it is gets to seem like the way it’s supposed to be.”
“Yes,” Jesse said. “I
know.”
“She seem frigid to you?” Hasty said.
“Hard to say.”
“Come on, Jesse. She embarrassed us both on the dance floor ten minutes ago. She seem frigid to you then?”
“No.”
“So how come she’s frigid at home, and hot with other men?”
“I’m a cop, Hasty. That’s a
shrink question.”
“Aw, they’re all crazy
themselves,” Hasty said.
Jesse didn’t say anything.
“Well, anyway, I’ve come to terms with it.
We have our life together. Except for the sex, I like her. We get along good. What she does when I’m not home, I know she sees other men. I’m sure she’s hoter than Cleopatra with them.
I… I…“ Hasty made an aimless
hand gesture. ”We get along,“ he said.
“Whatever works,” Jesse said.
“You have anyone?”
“On the side, you mean? No.”
