Chapter 11

Tom and Niles spent the night, Niles with Jackie and Tom with Mavis in one of the front bedrooms, but they did some nocturnal visiting and slept only in ragged stretches. In the morning Jackie woke to the sound of a shower running, rolled over, saw that Niles was not beside her, and went back to sleep.

She awoke again a few minutes later when Niles walked back into the room, wearing the blue shorts she'd seen him in the night before. They fitted him better now. She still heard the sound of water running, and rolled over to look out the window. It was raining, hard.

"I found your son's razor," Niles said, rubbing his chin. He had a patch of toilet paper stuck to a cut high on his cheek. "But I couldn't find any new blades."

"He doesn't shave very often."

"It's a good day to sleep," Niles said, looking out the window, "all day."

"Why don't we?"

"I have to sit in on a script conference at ten o'clock. That's one of the bad things about working in New York. They have a lot of old-fashioned ideas about office hours. Nothing like that out on the coast."

"You worked in California for a while, didn't you?"

"Yop," Niles said, putting on yesterday's T-shirt "And I have a standing offer to go back."

Jackie had a sinking sensation, deep inside her somewhere.

"Why don't you?" she forced herself to say.

"My option's up next week," he said. T could go, very easily."

He sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at her.

"You want to know why I don't like the idea of leaving."

"Yes."

"You."

"Me?" She felt warm all over.

"I can't stand the idea of you in Larchmont and me in L.A."

"I don't know what to say," Jackie said.

'The cab fare," Niles said, "would be prohibitive." He was looking under the bed for his shoes.

Jackie got up and put on a robe and slippers.

"I'll go down and start the coffee and fix breakfast," she said.

"Don't bother."

"It's no trouble."

"Tom's up, by the way." Niles was buttoning yesterday's shirt.

"Says he has to get home and feed the cats. Also stay there in case his wife calls. He says she'll know he's not at the club, in this rain."

"Tom's a coward," Jackie said, from the doorway.

"In more ways than one," Niles said, grinning. "I'll be down in a minute."

After the men had left, Jackie and Mavis loafed over coffee and cigarettes for a while, then went back upstairs to bed. It was late afternoon when Jackie awoke, and still raining steadily. She got up, showered, dressed, and went downstairs, slowly. She felt rested, thoroughly relaxed and nothing but lazy.

Mavis was stretched out on the couch, her head propped up, leafing through a copy of Playboy. Bob had brought the magazine home with him. Jackie disapproved.

"How long have you been up?" she asked.

"About half an hour. If you can call it being up."

"I don't know about you," Jackie said, sorting records and putting them in their jackets, "but I'm as sore as a new bride."

"Me, too," Mavis said. "But it was worth it."

"Would it bother you if I played some music? Some quiet music?"

"That's a fine idea. Just listening to the rain come down is driving me up the wall."

Jackie put on three early Eroll Garner LPs. "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" pulsed quietly in the room.

"How would you feel about a whiskey sour? Or a Martini?"

"A Martini," Mavis said. "Lovely."

"Last night was what I would call a memorable evening," Mavis said, sitting up as Jackie put the Martini down on the coffee table in front of her.

"Yes it was." Jackie sat down at the other end of the couch and sipped her drink. It was ice cold and powder dry. Wonderful. There's nothing like homemade, she thought.

"I've been missing a lot, married to Charlie these six years. Or is it seven?"

"Every night isn't like last night, for us single people."

Mavis laughed.

"I have to believe that," she said. "But you know something? Sex is a funny thing." Jackie looked at her. "What's so funny about it?"

"I mean, you can get along without it for so long, or with just a moderate amount. Then all of a sudden, you get a lot, all at once. And all you want is more."

Jackie laughed.

"You're so right. You mean today, you're ready for more?"

"Not really," Mavis said, and shuddered. "Not today. I'm too sore."

"We'll settle for a cloistered evening, tonight."

"Suits me fine. Jackie?"

"What?"

"I've been faithful to Charlie the whole time we've been married. Until last week. I had a little extracurricular screwing, just last week, and last night I wanted it so bad I could taste it."

"It's like drinking with some people," Jackie said. "One's too many and a thousand's not enough."

"Not nearly enough," Mavis agreed, and finished her Martini. Jackie went out to the kitchen and stirred up another. With the rain coming down in the gloom outside, it was going to be an afternoon and evening of confidences. She could feel it in her bones. And she didn't mind a bit. She had discovered that she liked Mavis better than she ever had before.

On the third Martini, she found herself telling her redheaded friend about the night of exercises with Bob's friends, her Beaver Patrol. She thought Mavis would be shocked, but she wasn't at all.

"Sounds marvelous," Mavis said. "like a smorgasbord to a starving man. Or woman," she corrected herself.

"It was an eye-opening experience," Jackie said, sipping. "Not only eye-opening."

"Only one thing," Mavis said, hesitating. "Don't they-well-don't they come too soon when they're that young? I never had much experience with teenagers. I led a sheltered girlhood."

"Only the first time. After that they last longer. To tell you the truth, I didn't explore their full capabilities."

"I read in the Kinsey report on the male that they reach their sexual peak around seventeen or eighteen or somewhere."

"Kinsey was probably right."

"Gee," Mavis said, and was quiet for a long moment. She sipped her drink thoughtfully.

"When do you expect them back?" she asked finally.

"Why, Mavis."

"I was only daydreaming. A girl can dream, can't she?"

"They have to bring back the station wagon sometime this week. Probably not till the week-end, though."

"I have to be home by then," Mavis said sadly. "Oh, well."

"I'll make us another Martini," Jackie said, getting up. "Then we ought to start thinking about dinner."

"Why?" Mavis said. "I'm perfectly happy the way I am."

"Your daydreams would have to stay just daydreams anyway," Jackie said. "My son Bob will be with the boys this time."

"I know that," Mavis said. "I just like to think about it."

On Wednesday the sun was shining, and in the afternoon they went to the club. There was no sign of Tom at the pool, and Mavis was visibly disappointed.

"He's such a nice, funny guy," she said as she leaned back in her chair. "Why do all the nice, funny guys turn out to be married?"

"You're married yourself."

"So I am," Mavis said. "I almost forgot."

"Anyway, all the nice, funny guys are not necessarily married."

"You mean Niles?"

Jackie didn't answer.

"Niles can be a very nice guy," Mavis said. "Sometimes." They dropped the subject.

Tom arrived at poolside just as they were leaving.

"My wife and kids are due home tomorrow," he said, almost apologetically. "I've been resting up. And eating oysters." He grinned evilly.

"Good for you," Mavis said.

"A bad joke," Tom said, looking at Mavis. "Will I see you again?"

"It would be too risky."

"It's worth the risk. For me, anyway."

They were talking as if Jackie weren't there. She didn't mind at all.

"I don't know, Tom," Mavis said. "I'll see."

"Think about it."

"I will."

They left him looking forlornly after them as they walked away, their svelte hips moving, maddeningly, in unison.

Whatever Mavis did or didn't do about Tom, Jackie knew that she would see him again. If she wanted to.