“What’s that smell?”
“Me,” I said.
“My God, you’re filthy...what happened to you?”
“I told you, I was in Vegas.”
“Don’t they have showers in Las Vegas?”
“Why did you have to come over here?” I said. “Why couldn’t you listen to me?”
“Because I was lonely and I wanted to see you. Aren’t you happy to see me?”
“This was really stupid,” I said. “If that detective—”
“You don’t have to worry about him,” she said. “I saw that slob following me again when I left my building. I found a police officer on the corner and told him that a man was following me, then I got in a cab and came over here. Oh, but first I stopped at a Chinese restaurant and bought you a couple of containers of hot-and-sour soup. It always does wonders for me when I feel a cold coming on.”
“How do you know he didn’t follow you out of the restaurant?” I said. “Maybe you just didn’t see him.”
“My God, will you stop being so paranoid? The way you’re talking you’d think you did have something to hide.”
She passed by me and went toward the kitchen counter. I closed the door and bolted it.
“I hate to be so blunt,” she said, “but you really could use a shower and a maid.”
“If you don’t like the way I smell, there’s the door.”
She thought about it a second then said, “No, actually I’m starting to like the way you smell. You smell raw. It kind of turns me on.” She put the shopping bag down on the counter. “Now I have a surprise for you so close your eyes.”
I just stood there.
“You’re no fun. Come on, play the game.”
I crossed my arms in front of my chest.
“All right, but it won’t be nearly as shocking.”
She opened her coat and, except for her shiny black boots, she was buck naked.
“Get out of here,” I said. I was looking away, trying not to see any more. “I’m serious.”
“Well, that wasn’t exactly the response I was expecting.”
She came up to me and put her arms around my waist, rubbing against me, then she kissed me on the lips. I pushed her away.
“Just put your coat on and get out of here.”
She took a few steps back. She was shaking a little bit too, maybe because she was so drunk.
“I only came here because I thought you wanted to see me,” she said. “Because I thought we—”
“Look, whatever happened the other day, let’s just forget about it, all right?”
“What’s the matter, you didn’t have a good time?”
“No.”
“I don’t think this is any way for you to treat your future wife.”
“Excuse me? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Frank wants a divorce. He wanted to make an out-of-court settlement with me. At first, I was thinking about trying to milk him for all he was worth, but now I’m thinking about just accepting it. He said something about how he wants to move to Arizona, open a bar there. If I accept the settlement I’ll get the apartment and enough money to live on comfortably, or for us to live on comfortably.”
“How the hell did you get the idea I’d want to marry you?” I said.
“Why wouldn’t you? Not only would you be getting a woman who’d pleasure you like no woman could, but with Frank’s money you’d never have to work again.”
I started to laugh. I couldn’t help it—it was just so damn funny.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Believe me,” I said, “if you were me, you’d be laughing too.”
“I really don’t think you should be treating me this way. I might leave here very angry at you and then there’s no telling what I might do. Maybe I’ll just tell everybody about your dirty little secret.”
“What do you mean?”
I wasn’t laughing anymore.
“You know exactly what I mean.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said.
“I saw you the other night—stealing that money.”
I stared at her, trying to figure out if she was lying.
“I think you’re drunk and you should go home,” I said.
“I was on my way to the bar to look for Frank and I saw you,” she said, “walking home with that garbage bag. I was wondering why you were taking garbage home from work with you, but the next day it all made sense.”
“You’re full of shit,” I said, but I knew she was telling the truth. There was no other way she could’ve known about the garbage bag unless Rodrigo had told her, and I didn’t see why he would have.
“It’s too bad,” she said. “We could’ve had a good life together.”
“You’re wrong,” I said. “I didn’t take that money.”
“Oh really? Then what’s that?”
She was looking toward the kitchen table where the money left over from the robbery—five hundred dollars, in twenties and fifties—was spread out.
“I bet you gambled the rest of it away in Las Vegas,” she said.
She was buttoning up her coat.
“Where are you going?”
“Where do you think I’m going? Obviously, you don’t want me here.”
“Hold up a second,” I said. “Come on—stay. I was just so tired from my trip I didn’t know what I was saying before.”
“I think you’re lying.”
“I’m serious,” I said. I opened the buttons of her coat and pulled her toward me. I smelled the Scotch on her breath. “I don’t want you to go—I’m glad you’re here. Why wouldn’t I be glad? You just can’t believe the shit I’ve been through the past couple days. Driving back from the airport I thought I was gonna pass out at the wheel. Come on, stay. I want you here. That’s the real truth.”
I kissed her hard, swirling my tongue around in her one-hundred-proof mouth.
After a while I pulled back and said, “So what do you say?”
“I don’t know. A second ago you sounded like you were really mad at me, like you hated me—”
“Forget about that. I’m telling you, I really didn’t know what the hell I was saying. If you wanna know the truth, I was pretty excited when I heard you and Frank were splitting up. I’m tired of being single, struggling, waking up alone every day. I’m getting to the age where I want to settle down.”
She held onto the edge of the table, trying to keep her balance.
“You know what I think?” she said. “I think you’re just saying all this to shut me up because you’re afraid I’m gonna call the police.”
“No, I’m saying this because I want you to get into bed with me.”
I took off her coat completely and let it fall onto the floor. I started kissing her again.
“Tommy, can I ask you one more thing?”
“Shoot,” I said.
“Before, when you laughed about us getting married, you didn’t really—”
“Of course not,” I said.
“—because I didn’t mean it the way I sounded. I guess I’ve just been drinking and...I mean that’s what I’d like to happen someday, but it doesn’t mean it has to happen right away...I mean we can let it happen naturally and—”
“Forget about it,” I said.
She smiled.
I kissed her some more, then she said, “Do you have anything to drink in this apartment?”
“There’s beer in the fridge,” I said. “Help yourself.”
While she went to get a beer, I went into the bathroom. Standing over the bowl, I felt like the floor was moving and I had to hold on to the shower door to keep my balance. Then I caught another whiff of myself. I smelled so bad I didn’t know how Debbie could stand to be in the same room with me.
When I came out of the bathroom, Debbie had pulled open the couch. She was lying on her back naked. I turned out the light. It wasn’t totally dark outside yet so I could still see the outline of her body. I didn’t know how I was going to go through with this. I got into bed and climbed on top of her. I was holding her down with my arms, taking it nice and slow at first, then speeding up. She started to moan and then I decided to just get it over with. I picked up a pillow and pressed it down over her face. She fought back awhile, kicking and swinging her arms like a maniac, but I kept pushing down. Finally, she stopped squirming.