“Alone?” Marcy said.
“Not likely,” Jesse said.
Marcy nodded.
“Good news and bad,” Marcy said.
“The good news?”
“That you’re starting to rethink.”
“You’ve never been a fan of Jenn’s,” Jesse said.
“I’ve always been a fan of yours,” Marcy said.
“And you’ve said your say already about Jenn.”
“Yes,” Marcy said.
“No need to plow that field again,” Jesse said.
“No,” Marcy said.
They each drank a little.
“Too bad we don’t want to get married,” Jesse said. “We get along so well.”
“Maybe if we wanted to get married,” Marcy said, “we wouldn’t get along so well.”
“Possible,” Jesse said.
He drank some more scotch.
“You’ve slept with a lot of men,” Jesse said.
“Excuse me?” Marcy said.
“Oh, stop it,” Jesse said. “We’ve both slept with a lot of people, and enjoyed it, and neither one of us is embarrassed about it.”
“Well,” Marcy said. “Yes.”
“Any of the men you know that didn’t want to look at you naked?”
“Didn’t?” Marcy said.
“Didn’t,” Jesse said.
“Are you implying something dreadful about my body?” Marcy said.
“No,” Jesse said. “I’m serious. Do you know any straight men who don’t want to look at a woman naked?”
“No,” Marcy said.
“Do you want to look at men with their clothes off?”
“What kind of survey is this?” Marcy said.
“Bear with me,” Jesse said. “Does male nudity interest you?”
“If a man’s in good shape, and we’re in the process of making love, yes, I sort of like to look at his body.”
“If I had a bunch of pictures of naked men, would you want to look?”
“No.”
“What about male strippers?” Jesse said. “Many women seem interested in them.”
“I’m not,” Marcy said. “I think that’s mostly about proving what wild-and-crazy girls they are.”
“You know any pornography for women?”
“Not for straight women,” Marcy said.
“Whorehouses for women?”
“Where women go to have sex with male prostitutes?” Marcy said.
“Yeah.”
“Ugh,” Marcy said.
“I’ll take that as a no.”
Jesse finished his drink and looked around for the waitress.
“This is about that guy that breaks in and photographs women,” Marcy said.
“I guess,” Jesse said.
“You’re trying to figure him out,” Marcy said.
“I guess.”
“Jesse,” she said. “Maybe there’s a difference between normal male impulse and this guy.”
Jesse nodded.
“He doesn’t forcibly photograph nude women because he’s a man,” Marcy said. “He does it because he’s a wack job.”
The waitress came with their next round.
