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There had been a message waiting for her at the desk when she registered. She had wired Rudolph that she was arriving in New York and had asked him to have di
She went up to the suite, unpacked, took a bath, and then hesitated about what to wear. Finally she just threw on a robe, because she didn’t know what she was going to do with the evening. All the people she knew in New York were Willie’s friends, or her ex-lovers, or people she had met briefly with Colin when she had been in the city three years ago for the play that was a disaster, and she wasn’t going to call any of them. She wanted a drink badly, but she couldn’t go down to the bar and sit there by herself and get drunk. That miserable Rudolph, she thought, as she stood at the window, looking down at the traffic on Forty-fourth Street below her, can’t even spare one night from his gainful activities for his sister. Rudolph had come out to Los Angeles twice during the years on business and she had shepherded him around every free minute. Wait till he gets out there again, she promised herself. There’ll be a hot message waiting for him at his hotel when he arrives.
She almost picked up the telephone to call Willie. She could pretend that she wanted to find out if Billy was feeling all right after his sickness on the plane and perhaps Willie would ask her to have di
She prowled back and forth in the small, old-fashioned room. How happy she had been once to arrive in New York, how wide open and inviting the city had seemed to her. When she was young, poor, and alone, it had welcomed her, and she had moved about its streets freely and without fear. Now, wiser, older, richer, she felt a prisoner in the room. A husband three thousand miles away, a son a few blocks away, put invisible restrictions on her behavior. Well, at least she could go downstairs and have di
She went into the bedroom and pulled out her plainest dress, a black concoction that had cost too much and that she knew Colin didn’t like, and started to dress. She was careless with her make-up and hardly bothered to brush her hair and was just going out the door when the telephone rang.
She almost ran back into the room. If it’s Willie, she thought, no matter what, I’ll have di
But it wasn’t Willie. It was Joh
Liar, she thought, nobody just is passing by the Algonquin at a quarter to nine in the evening. But she said, happily, “Joh
“I’m downstairs,” Joh
“Well,” she said, sounding reluctant, and despising herself for the ruse, “I’m not dressed and I was just about to order di
“I’ll be in the bar,” Joh
Smooth, confident Wall Street sonofabitch, she thought. Then she went in and changed her dress. But she made him wait twenty full minutes before she went down to the bar.
“Rudolph was heartbroken that he couldn’t come down and see you tonight,” Joh
“I bet,” Gretchen said.
“He was. Honestly. I could tell over the phone that he was really upset. He made a special point of calling me to ask me to fill in for him and explain why …”
“May I have some more wine, please,” Gretchen said.
Joh
“If he possibly could have made it,” Joh
“Don’t you boys have anything better to chat about on the long winter nights?” Gretchen took a sip from her glass. At least she was getting a good bottle of wine out of the evening. Maybe she would get drunk tonight. Make sure she’d get some sleep before tomorrow’s ordeal. She wondered if Willie and her son were also dining in a discreet restaurant. Do you hide a son, too, with whom you had once lived?
“In fact,” Joh
“He admires me so much,” Gretchen said, “that after not seeing me for nearly a year he can’t take a night off to come and see me.”
“He’s opening a new center at Port Philip next week,” Joh
“Yes,” she admitted. “I guess I didn’t pay attention to the date.”
“There’s a million last-minute things he has to do. He’s working twenty hours a day. It was just physically impossible. You know how he is when it comes to work.”
“I know,” Gretchen said. “Work now, live later. He’s demented.”
“What about your husband? Burke?” Joh
“He’s arriving in two weeks. Anyway, it’s a different kind of work.”
“I see,” Joh
“You’re not defending Rudolph,” Gretchen said. “You’re defending yourself.”
“Both,” Joh
“Guess again, brother,” Gretchen said. “I’d like some more wine.” She extended her glass.
Joh