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I said, "Elaine, this is Mick Ballou Elaine Mardell"

"A pleasure," Ballou said "Matthew, I've been saying I wished you would coain, will you?"

"I will"

"We'll tell tales all night and go to ain as well"

He turned away Allass and drained it On his way out he left the glass on an empty table

After the door closed behind him Elaine said, "I wasn't prepared for the size of hie, isn't he? He looks like one of those statues on Easter Island"

"I know"

"Rough-hewn fro? Is that code for so?"

I shook ton Street market Every once in a while Mick likes to put on his father's old apron and go to the eight o'clock o with hiirl to the most remarkable places," she said, "and introduce her to the ain, she said, "You live near here, don't you, Matt? You can just put ht"

"I'll see you home"

"You don't have to"

"I don't oing to need that sketch Galindezand start showing it to people"

"Oh, right"

There were plenty of cabs now, and I flagged one and we rode across town in silence Her doorman opened the cab door for us, then hurried ahead to hold the door to the lobby

As we rode up in the elevator she said, "You could have had the cab wait"

"There are cabs all over the place"

"That's true"

"It's easier to get another one than pay his waiting tiht walk ho walk"

"I like long walks"

She unfastened both locks, the Segal deadbolt and the Fox police lock, and ere inside she fastened theain, the two she'd just unlocked and the other, the police lock that could only be engaged fro to be leaving in a et in the habit of setting all the locks the minute she walked into the place And not just et the cab," she said

"What about the cab?"

"All the cabs," she said "You want to keep track, so I can reimburse you"

"Oh, for Christ's sake," I said

"What's the matter?"

"I can't bother with that kind of chickenshit," I said "I don't go through that when I have a client"

"What do you do?"

"I set some kind of arbitrary flat rate and it includes my expenses I can't et on the subway It drives me crazy"

"What about when you do a day's work for Reliable?"

"I keep track as well as I can, and it makes me a little bit nuts, but I put up with it because I have to Ifor them anyway, after the conversation I had with one of the bosses this "

"What happened?"

"It's not i some time off, and I'ain, I'o back"

"Well, you'll work it out," she said She walked over to the coffee table, picked up a little bronze statue of a cat, and turned it over in her hands "I don't mean keep receipts," she said "I don't et paid back for whatever out-of-pocket expenses you have I don't care how you arrive at a figure, just so you don't cheat yourself"

"I understand"

She walked over to the , still passing the little cat froside her and we looked at Queens together "Someday," I said, "all of this will be yours"

"Funny ht"

"No thanks are due"

"I think they are You saved et out of here, but it was ood ti an's You didn't have to let ood a tie to be seen with a beautiful woman on my arm"

"I'm not beautiful"

"The hell you're not What do you want, reassurance? You must knohat you look like"

"I know I'm not a bo," she said "But I'et all those houses across the river?"

"You don't have to look like Elizabeth Taylor to ht to know that You just have to be a person a man'll want to spend time with I'll tell you a secret It's mental work"

"Whatever you say"

She turned away, put the cat back on the coffee table With her back to me she said, "Do you really think I'ht so"

"That's so sweet"

"I' to be sweet I just-"

"I know"

Neither of us said anything for a moment, and the room turned deeply silent There had been a moment like that in the film hen the htened the suspense, as I recall