But he's so tough, like tonight. He stuck with Gibson against me.' Rosemary shook her head. 'I always wanted to be as tough as Hock,' she said. 'I modeled myself after him.'
David said, 'I think he's a very nice gentle guy.'
'But he's fond of you,' Rosemary said. 'Really, he told me so. He said you look so much like your mother and you act just like her. He says you're a really sincere person, not a hustler.'
She paused for a moment and then said, 'I can see that too. You can't imagine how humiliated I felt when all that stuff spilled out of my purse.
And then I saw you picking everything up and never looking at me. You were really very sweet.' She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He could smell a different sweeter fragrance coming from her body now.
Abruptly she stood up and went back into the suite; he followed her. She closed the glass door of the terrace and locked it and then she said,
'I'll call for your limo.' She picked up the phone. But instead of pressing the buttons she held it in her hand and looked at David. He was standing very still, standing far enough away not to be in her space. She said to him, 'David, I'm going to ask you something that might sound odd.
Would you stay with me tonight? I feel lousy and I need company, but I want you to promise you won't try to do anything. Could we just sleep together like friends?'
David was stunned. He had never dreamed this beautiful woman would want someone like him. He was dazzled by his good fortune. But then Rosemary said sharply, 'I mean it, I just want someone nice like you to be with me tonight. You have to promise you won't do anything. If you try, I'll be very angry. '
This was so confusing to David that he smiled, and as if not understanding, he said, 'I'll sit on the terrace or sleep on the couch here in the living room.'
'No,' Rosemary said. 'I just want somebody to hug me and go to sleep with. I just don't want to be alone. Can you promise?'
David heard himself say, 'I don't have anything to wear. In bed, I mean.'
Rosemary said briskly, 'Just take a shower and sleep naked, it won't bother me.'
There was a foyer from the living room of the suite that led to the bedroom. In this foyer was an extra bathroom, in which Rosemary told David to take his shower. She did not want him to use her bathroom. David showered and brushed his teeth using soap and tissues. There was a bathrobe hanging from the back of the door with blue-stitching script that said elegantly 'Beverly Hills Hotel.' He went into the bedroom and found Rosemary was still in her bathroom. He stood there awkwardly, not wanting to get into the bed that had already been turned down by the night maid.
Finally Rosemary came out of the bathroom wearing a flannel nightgown that was so elegantly cut and printed that she looked like a doll in a toy store. 'Come on, get in,' she said. 'Do you need a Valium or a sleeping pill?' And he knew she had already taken one. She sat at the edge of the bed and then got in and finally David got into the bed but kept his bath robe on. They were lying side by side when she turned the light out on her night table. They were in darkness. 'Give me a hug,' she said, and they embraced for a long moment and then she rolled away to her side of the bed and said briskly, 'Pleasant dreams.'
David lay on his back staring up at the ceiling. He didn't dare take off the bathrobe, he didn't want her to think that he wanted to be naked in her bed. He wondered if he should tell Hock about this the next time they met, but he understood that it would become a joke that he had slept with such a beautiful woman and nothing had happened. And maybe Hock would think he was lying. He wished he had taken the sleeping pill Rosemary had offered him. She was already asleep-she had a tiny snore just barely audible.
David decided to go back to the living room and got out of bed. Rosemary came awake and said sleepily, 'Could you get me a drink of Evian water.' David went into the living room and fixed two Evian waters with a little ice. He drank from his glass and refilled it. Then he went back into the bedroom. By the light in the foyer he could see Rosemary sitting up, the bed sheets tight around her. He offered a glass and she reached out a bare arm for it. In the dark room he touched her upper body before finding her hand to give her the glass, and realized she was naked.
As she was drinking he slipped into the bed but he let his bathrobe fall to the floor.
He heard her put the glass on the night table and then he put out his hand and touched her flesh. He felt the bare back and the softness of her buttocks. She rolled over and into his arms and his chest was against her bare breasts. Her arms were around him and the hotness of their bodies made them kick off the covers as they kissed. They kissed for a long time, her tongue in his mouth, and then he couldn't wait any longer and he was on top of her, and her hand as smooth as satin, a permission, guided him into her.
They made love almost silently as if they were being spied upon until both their bodies together arched in the flight toward climax and they lay back separate again.
Finally she whispered, 'Now go to sleep.' She kissed him gently on the side of the mouth.
He said, 'I want to see you.'
'No,' she whispered.
David reached over and turned on her table light. Rosemary closed her eyes.
She was still beautiful. Even with desire sated, even though she was stripped of all the arts of beauty, the enhancements of coquetry, the artifices of special light. But it was a different beauty.
He had made love out of animal need and proximity, a natural physical expression of his body. She had made love out of a need in her heart, or some spinning need in her brain. And now in the glow of the single light, her naked body was no longer formidable. Her breasts were small with tiny nipples, her body smaller, her legs not so long, her hips not so wide, her thighs a little slender. She opened her eyes, looking directly into his, and he said, 'You're so beautiful.' He kissed her breasts and as he did so she reached up and turned out the light. They made love again and then fell asleep.
When David woke and reached out, she was gone. He threw on his clothes and put on his watch. It was seven in the morning. He found her out on the terrace in a red jogging suit against which her black hair seemed even darker. A table had been wheeled in by room service, and on it were a silver coffee pitcher and a silver milk jug and an array of plates with metal covers over them to keep the food warm.
Rosemary smiled at him and said, 'I ordered for you. I was just going to wake you up. I have to get my run in before I start work.'
He sat down at the table, and she poured him coffee and uncovered a dish that held eggs and sliced-up bits of fruit. Then she drank her orange juice and got up. 'Take your time,' she said. 'Thanks for staying last night.'
David wanted her to have breakfast with him, he wanted her to show that she really liked him, he wanted to have a chance to talk, to tell her about his life, to say something that would make her interested in him.
But now she was putting a white headband over her hair and lacing up her jogging shoes. She stood up. David said, not knowing his face was twitching with emotion, 'When will I see you again?' And as soon as he said it he knew he had made a terrible mistake.
Rosemary was on her way to the door but she stopped.
'I'm going to be awfully busy the next few weeks. I have to go to New York. When I come back I'll give you a call.' She didn't ask for his number.
Then another thought seemed to strike her. She picked up the phone and called for a limo to bring David back to Santa Monica. She said to him, 'It will be put on my bill-do you need any cash to tip the driver?'
David just looked at her for a long moment. She picked up her purse and opened it and said, 'How much will you need for the tip?'
David couldn't help himself He didn't know his face was twitching with a malice and a hatred that were frightening. He said insultingly, 'You'd know that better than me.' Rosemary snapped her purse shut and went out of the suite.
He never heard from her. He waited for two months, and then one day on the movie studio lot he saw her come out of Hocken's office with Gibson Grange and Dean. He waited near Hocken's parking space so that they would have to greet him. Hocken gave him a little hug and said they had to have dinner and asked how the job was going. Gibson Grange shook his hand and gave him a sly but friendly smile, the handsome face radiating its easy good humor. Rosemary looked at him without smiling. And what really hurt was that for a moment it seemed to David that she had really forgotten him.
