Jesse stood. The dog stood as soon as Jesse did.
“We’re glad, too,” Jesse said.
In Jesse’s car, the dog sat in the backseat. And in the parking lot of Paradise Pizza, the dog rested his head on the back of Jenn’s seat while Jesse and Jenn ate a pizza with green peppers and mushrooms and drank beer from the can.
“Can I give him my pizza crust?” Jenn said.
“I think he likes those,” Jesse said.
Jenn offered a crust to the dog. He ate it and swallowed and waited. Jesse opened a second can of beer. This is the last one. For God’s sake don’t get drunk in front of her.
“How are you?” Jesse said.
“I’m fine, Jesse.”
“I watch you do the weather almost every night.”
“Good.”
“Do you actually know what a low-pressure system is?” Jesse said.
Jenn smiled. She gave the dog another crust.
“No, but I’m getting very good at pretending I’m pointing at a real weather map.”
“Behind the scenes,” Jesse said, “show biz just isn’t pretty.”
“No.”
“You still dating the anchorman?”
Jenn smiled. “No. I hate to date people cuter than I am.”
Jesse sipped a little beer. Easy, he thought. Easy does it. He spoke as casually as he could.
“So who you dating these days?”
“You, for one,” Jenn said.
“And?”
“Others,” Jenn said.
“Like who?”
“Like guys,” Jenn said. “Why do you need to ask? What’s the point?”
“I don’t know.”
“It’s just the kind of question that pushes me away,” Jenn said.
He thought of saying that it was, probably, however distorted, a form of love. But he didn’t. It would only make them argue.
“It’s the kind of possessive question that drove me away in the first place,” Jenn said.
“When we were married it was probably more appropriate,” Jesse said.
Jenn was silent. Then he could see a little of the tension go out of her shoulders.
“Yes,” she said. “It probably was.”
His beer was gone. Jesse didn’t even recall drinking it. He felt swollen with sadness and desire. He opened a third can. Jenn patted his right thigh.
“We’re still here,” Jenn said.
From the backseat the dog nosed the back of Jenn’s neck, looking for another crust.
“We are,” Jesse said.
Chapter Six
After Jenn left, Jesse drank four scotch and sodas before bed. In the morning, at 7:15, sitting in his office, he felt a little shaky, and a little guilty. He tried coffee, but the coffee didn’t help either one. At ten past nine a woman who introduced herself as Miriam Lowell showed up wearing a lavender warm-up suit and white sneakers. She was also wearing big gold hoop earrings, and rings on four fingers, and a gold necklace with some sort of big medallion on it.
“I believe you have my dog,” she said.
The dog was very pleased. He had jumped up and put his forepaws against the owner’s stomach and was lapping her face. Miriam Lowell squinched up her face and took it for a little while. Then she put his collar on him and hooked his leash. The dog capered a little bit. “His name is Baron,” she said.
“We’ve been calling him Deputy,” Jesse said.
“Deputy?”
“Like in Deputy Dawg?” Jesse said.
The woman appeared to see no logic in that.
