“Broke? With a car like that?”
“I’ll probably end up losing it. I can’t keep up the payments.”
“You shouldn’t have to worry about things like that. You shouldn’t ever have to worry about things.”
“Well, I’m afraid I do have to worry.”
He thought a moment. “How much you put in so far? You mind me asking?”
“Almost four hundred dollars. Oh, no,” she said, because he was taking out his checkbook.
“Don’t say no before you hear,” he said, writing.
“I can’t take a gift from you like that. If that’s what it is.”
“It’s not a gift. I’m buying your car. Give me the papers when you get a chance, and I’ll get it fixed for me to take over the payments.”
“Well, thank you but for one thing, I need a car.”
“Sure. I didn’t mean for you not to have it. Look, I’m not giving you money, or even loaning you money. I’m buying a good car off you for four hundred bucks. So that’s good for me. And then, since you need a car, I’m letting you borrow this car I just bought, for as long as you need. That’s not such a big thing, is it? Just letting your friend borrow your car?”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“I know, you’re thinking, okay, and what if I don’t want to keep on being this guy’s friend? Well, I’d be sorry about that, I’d be very sorry, but then all you’d have to do is hand over the keys and that’s that. And you’d still have money in your pocket for a good used car, and some left over. See how good it is?”
He tore off the check and held it, as if it were a report card full of A’s and he was ready to hand it to his mother to sign and be told he was clever. He was like a kid. When she didn’t reply, he got sheepish. “All right,” he said, setting it down. “I guess I’m coming on a little strong. All right, I didn’t mean to put you on the spot like that.”
Just like a kid.
“You? Put me on the spot?” she said. “Little smalltown hick like you? That’ll be the day. Now give me my money, please,” she said, and held out her hand imperiously.
He grinned and gave her the check.
“And thank you very much for the loan of your nice car.”
“Don’t mention it,” he said.
After dinner they drove to the pier. It was his idea. He loved the boardwalk, even at night. “Look around,” he said. “It’s better than the zoo.” They took the photo-booth strip in one of the arcades by the water. It seemed natural to sit on his knee on the little stool. They both hammed it up, making the faces they’d seen in publicity stills, and pretty soon he had her laughing too much to go on. She said, “You’re funny.”
“Really?” he said. “You know, I do think I’m funny. But it seems like no one else does. I guess, in my line of work, they don’t call you funny much.”
“What line of work’s that?”
“Becky. You know what I do. I know you do. Cause all evening you haven’t said, Oh, and what do you do? You didn’t want to put me on the spot, either.”
“I guess I sort of know.”
“I’m a hood, all right? I can’t act, but I found out there’s other things I can do, and I do them. I’m one of the bad guys.”
“You don’t seem like a bad guy.”
“Well, I am.”
“Maybe I know different,” she said, and put up her mouth to be kissed.
She wasn’t all that good at all the other stuff, in spite of having done as much as she had, but she liked kissing. Halliday kissed very nicely. He was even gentlemanly with, maybe she shouldn’t tell me this but, well, with his tongue. He waited until she finally used hers, just to let him know it was okay. Hood, she thought, kissing, hood, hood, hood. It was a ridiculous word that couldn’t possibly mean anything. Not with him being so nice and so worried she wouldn’t like it when he’d given her the check. She didn’t even want to cash the check. She wanted to keep it. But the check was still a problem. He murmured into her ear: “Listen. Let’s get into my car, and you get into my other car, and let’s go someplace. Let’s go home.”
“No,” she had to say.
She felt him go very still, then, and for just a moment, she had the idea that if she could see his face, she wouldn’t like it.
But then he pulled back and looked at her, and his face was fine. “No?” he said softly.
She shook her head. “I’m sorry but not tonight. I can’t tonight because you just gave me money.”
“Well, I’ll be — You’re kidding. You can’t even be thinking like that. A girl like you.”
“You’d be surprised what I think like, a girl like me. I’m sorry. But there it is.”
“Well, I’ll be damned. Well. I guess that’s a good one on me. You mean I wrecked it, just like that?”
She shook her head again. “I’m off again Thursday night. And maybe you could ask me out again, for then? And this time not give me any money.”
“Thursday, huh? Sure. Will you go out with me Thursday?”
“I’d love to. And remember, this time, please don’t give me any money.”
“Ho boy. Sure. No money. I get another kiss, anyway?”
She kissed him again.
“Ho boy,” he said again. “No money. Well, I’ll remember.”
On Thursday she put on a dress she hadn’t worn for a while. When she’d first gotten to town and still had some money, she’d bought a couple of what she thought of as movie star dresses, very immodest, especially in front, but she hadn’t been able to wear them since she’d made the first movie. They made her feel too much like a whore. But that night, she said, she put one on and turned in the mirror, happily. She imagined him looking at her and thinking, all for me? And then taking him home and giving him everything and making him happy. That night they went out to LaRue and he looked at her just as she’d imagined, and then they’d had a wonderful dinner and gone back to his house. His house surprised her. It was just like somebody’s aunt’s house, with a big flowered armchair in the middle of the front parlor. He was back in the kitchen, getting ice for their drinks, and she was wandering around the room, a little nervous so that she had to remind herself to put down her purse, and she was looking at things. There was a door to the side of the parlor, and she opened it and peeked inside and stopped. In there was a plain-looking bedroom, and in the corner of the room was a movie camera on a stand. Halliday came out of the kitchen holding two drinks, saw her standing there, and made a face. “Looking over the old workroom, huh?”
“You make those movies,” she told him.
“Sure. I told you, I’m a hood. I do lots of things. C’mon, close the door. Let’s not think about things like that tonight.”
She was shaking her head. “You make those movies.”
“Rebecca,” he said softly. “What? C’mon. I do worse things’n movies. I told you.”
“You didn’t tell me movies.”
“Well, what do you care? I’m not in them myself. That’s just, that’s just work.”
“Yes? Work? And what am I?”
He stared at her. He looked like he’d been kicked.
“What?” he said. “Aw, no. Oh, no, no, you can’t be thinking like that. Look, if I sold shoes, and I met you and I asked you to dinner, would you say, that guy only wants me so he can sell me a pair of shoes? That’s work. You’ve got nothing to do with that.”
“Yes, I do. I have had to do with that. I’ve had everything to do with it.”
He was silent.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“Well, I’m sorry, too. What do you mean, you’re sorry?”
“I’m sorry. I have to go now. I’m sorry, I can’t see you any more.”