“You said you’d tell me what the trouble was if I bought you one Martini,” he said.
“Yes, I know. Well, 1 find I’ll need two.” She smiled charmingly at him.
“That’s just what you don’t need, darling. You’re already loaded on beer. How much beer did you have?”
“Not very much.”
“You were asleep when I came.”
“I was not. I was thinking.”
“Anyway, you promised you’d tell me after one Martini.”
“Did I? I can’t remember. It’s a funny thing about me, Charlie. I never keep my promises. Never believe me when I promise you something.”
“What’s the trouble, Beth?”
“One more drink,” she pleaded. He looked at her askance and she gave him a little-girl smile and said, “I’ll be good. Honest.” She felt a driving, desperate, relentless need to forget.
“I think you need some black coffee and some food.”
“After this drink.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said.
“Charlie….” Her voice was tender and soft. “Please.”
With a sigh he signaled the waiter. “Two more,” he said, and she smiled. He put his arm around her and said, “Now talk to me, Beth. Talk to me.”
She cocked her head a little to one side and said with sleepy suggestiveness, “Charlie, let’s go to bed. I want to go to bed with you, Charlie.”
He smiled quizzically at her. “Later, honey.”
“I want you to make love to me.” She put her head back against him and looked up at him so that their lips were very near and Laura was very far away. “I want it. I want to be so close to you that I can’t get any closer. I want you to hold me so tight that I can never get away…so it won’t be my fault if I never go back. Can you hold me that tight, darling?”
Charlie felt his heart speed up and he tried to fight the feeling. “I’m worried about you, Beth. I’m worried,” he said. He pushed an errant curl behind her ear and kissed her cheek and said, “Tell me why you want to get drunk.”
She pulled away from him and lifted her glass and drank half the Martini. “I just want to get drunk. I like to get drunk. I haven’t been drunk for years. Anything wrong with that? Besides, I can’t think of anybody I’d rather get drunk with than you.”
“That’s the truth?”
“Um-hm.”
“And nothing but the truth?”
“Yes.”
“Beth?” His voice implied that he knew better.
She turned and looked him full in the face and said, “Charlie, I wouldn’t lie to you,” and shook her head to augment her honesty, and then she picked up her glass and finished her drink.
Charlie watched it go apprehensively. “Why not?” he said. “Why wouldn’t you lie to me?”
“Why, Charlie,” she said, laughing a little. “Because you’re the most beautiful man in the world. You know that, darling? You’re beautiful.”
“Yeah, I know.” He grinned sardonically at his drink. “You told me once. But you can lie to anybody, Beth. Doesn’t matter what they look like.”
“Nobody ever told me that,” she said. “Think of all the lies I could’ve told! I’ve been lying to the wrong people, Charlie. Maybe I should tell them the truth and see how they like it. Maybe they’d start telling lies themselves. It’s awful to be the only one. It’s lonesome.”
He frowned seriously at her.
“One more drink,” she said.
“No.”
She picked up his glass and drank almost all the drink before he could stop her. “My God, you’re a queer one,” he said, laughing.
She put her head back and laughed with him. It seemed unbearably funny. “Oh!” she said, trying to catch her breath. “You called it, Charlie. You’re so right. You have no idea—” and she laughed again. When she was calmer she leaned against him and turned her luscious eyes to his face and said, “Charlie, darling?”
“What?” he said, smiling at her.
“Can I excite you? Just looking at you, I mean?”
His mouth dropped a little and then his smile widened and he turned and fingered the stem of his glass. “Don’t be foolish, honey.”
“Charlie, look at me.” He looked. “I’ll bet I could.”
“Not here, Beth. Not now.”
“Oh, yes. Here and now.”
“I think it’s high time we leave,” he said, making a move to get up, but she gripped his thigh and he stopped cold. “Beth, my God!” he said in a low voice. “Are you out of your head? Damn it, stop.”
She didn’t answer and she didn’t obey. “Charlie,” she said, smiling with her lips parted. “We can’t go now. We can’t go now, you’ll make a spectacle of yourself.”
“Beth—” He stared at her, astonished.
“Waiter!” she said, taking advantage of his confusion. The man saw her two raised fingers and nodded. And now when Beth started to pull her hand away, Charlie caught it and pulled it back. She felt his breath come fast and her own excitement began to mount. She leaned against him and said voluptuously, “We’re going to have a nice slow drink. It’ll calm your nerves.”
“Beth, for God’s sake,” he said. “Oh, Jesus, Beth, you’re crazy. You’re absolutely crazy.”
“I know. I’m crazy. That’s my excuse. That’s my excuse, Charlie. I need an excuse. I’m a girl in need of an excuse. You’d be surprised how I need—”
“I hear you,” he said, smiling a little. “I need one myself right about now.”
“What’s it like, Charlie?”
“What’s what like?” he said cautiously.
“What’s it like to feel the way you do right now?”
“God, Beth,” he said softly, and she felt a tremor run through him. “Stop talking, darling.” He pushed her away.
The waiter brought their drinks.
“Beth, let’s go,” he whispered. “Let’s go, honey.”
“No,” she said. “You haven’t had your nice drink. Drink your Martini, darling, like a
