“If that were rape,” Jesse said, “most of the women in America would have a case.”
Jesse could feel her head nod slightly against his chest. 2 2 0
H I G H P R O F I L E
“Did he rape you?” Jesse said.
“You’ll never . . .”
“There’s no never, Jenn. I don’t know what’s wrong with us. I don’t know what we’re doing, and I have no goddamned clue where we are going. But whatever and wherever, there’s no never between us.”
She raised her face a little from his chest. Her eyes were red, and her eye makeup was streaking.
“Is there an always?” she said.
Jesse looked down at her. The question hung in the silent room like blue smoke.
“Yes,” Jesse said. “I don’t know what kind of always, or what kind of life it implies, but yes. There will always be an always between us.”
The blue smoke that was only a metaphor seemed to dissolve. Jenn put her head back against his chest. She stopped crying. They were quiet.
Then she said softly, “No. He didn’t rape me.”
Jesse patted her shoulder.
“I told him I’d been an actress. He was impressed,” Jenn said. “He told me he’d love to use me in some of his marketing and promotion venues. Public appearances, modeling, it would have been a wonderful career boost.”
Jesse continued to pat her shoulder. Jenn’s voice was tranquil, as if she were talking of a happy childhood.
“So we had a little fling,” she said.
Jesse nodded.
2 2 1
R O B E R T B . P A R K E R
“But nothing worked out much. He didn’t ever seem to have the right spot for me in what he was doing . . . and he wasn’t that much fun.”
They were quiet while Jenn remembered how much fun Tim Lloyd hadn’t been.
“There’s a lot of men like him,” she said. “A surprising number of them. They’re eager for sex, but not very good at it. They just want to sort of . . .” She paused, aware of Jesse.
“Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am,” Jesse said.
“They’re mostly interested in their own experience,” Jenn said. “And they’re just not very adroit.”
“So sex with Tim Lloyd wasn’t worth it for its own sake,”
Jesse said.
“God,” Jenn said. “That sounds ugly.”
“It is what it is,” Jesse said.
“It wasn’t working out,” Jenn said. “The last time we were together, I told him that it wasn’t.”
“And?”
