'Nothing at all,' I said. 'Though finally it seems to me that a love life is better.'
'If you find a Susan,' Paul said.
'True,' I said.
'And the Susan finds you.'
'Meaning?'
'Her first marriage, for instance, didn't work,' Paul said.
'Meaning?'
'Meaning Susan is not a simple woman.'
'Not hardly,' I said.
'Not everyone could be happy with her,' Paul said.
'Maybe not,' I said.
'But you can.'
I nodded.
'You dating anyone regularly?' I said.
'Three people,' he said.
'They know about each other?'
'Of course they do,' he said. 'Who brought me up?'
'Mostly me, I guess.'
'All you,' Paul said. 'And the psychiatrist you got me. My first fifteen years were without upbringing.'
'Well,' I said. 'We did a hell of a job.'
'Me too,' he said. 'You in town on business?'
'Yeah.'
He nodded. Paul never asked about business.
'You okay?' I said.
'Me? Yeah.'
'Enough money?'
'Yeah. I still get a check every month from my father. I'm getting a lot of bookings for my choreography, and I've started acting a little. Got a part in a thing called Sky Lark about ten off-offs.'
I nodded. Paul looked at me carefully.
'Why do you ask? You never ask questions like that.'
'Just wondering.'
Paul didn't say anything. He drank some wine, poured some into my glass and some more into his.
'You're all right?'
'Absolutely,' I said. 'Healthy as a horse, and damned near as smart.'
Paul chimed in on the damn near as smart so that we spoke it simultaneously. We both laughed.
'Okay,' I said, 'so maybe you've heard my act.'
'And maybe I know it pretty well,' Paul said. 'You're worried about something.'
'Not worried exactly, just alert to all possibilities. If something happened to me, you could count on Hawk to help you in any way you needed.'
'I know.'
'And Susan.'
'I know that, too.'
'And if she were alone, you could be very helpful to her.'
'And would be. You and she are the closest thing I ever had to real parents.'
'Good,' I said. 'Can we come down and see you in this play?'
'You don't want to talk about all the possibilities you're alert to,' Paul said.
'No.'
'Okay.'
Paul drank some wine and cut a piece off his sushi-quality tuna steak and ate it. Then he looked at me for a minute and nodded silently.
'Whatever it is,' he said, 'my money is on you.'
