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When he was driving her back to the Intercontinental, she said, "That’s a real lady you found yourself, Keller I’ used to any other na time now"

"Don’t worry about it"

"But why did she blush when I asked if she ever called you Keller? Jesus, Keller, now you’re the one blushing"

"The hell I aet it, okay?"

"Okay," she said "Mea fucking culpa, and consider it forgotten"

"Do I ever forget and call you Keller? I turned red as a beet"

"I don’t think she noticed"

"Oh? I doubt there’s a great deal that goes unnoticed around your friend Dot I like her Though she’s not quite what I expected"

"What did you expect?"

"Someone older And, well, on the dowdy side"

"She used to be older"

"How’s that?"

"Well, she seeuess She never wore makeup, and she sat around in housedresses I think that’s what you call the iced tea"

"Both of which she still does," he said, "but I guess she gets out ht, and she buys nice clothes now, and gets her hair done It’s dyed"

"I’ She’s very flippant and sarcastic, but underneath it all she’s veryoff the house, she kept pointing out things like theseat that reminded her of her house in White Plains She h-h to burn the place down"

"She didn’t have much choice"

"I realize that, but it still couldn’t have made it easy I wonder if I could do that"

"If you had to"

"When all is said and done, it’s just a house And you could always build me a new one, couldn’t you? With an open-plan kitchen and ceramic tile in the bath"

"And central air"

"My hero Didn’t you say they found a body in the wreckage?"

He was ready for this "She left her false teeth behind," he said "Which they could identify from dental records I never even knew her teeth weren’t her own, so the possibility never occurred to me"

"Oh, that explains it Nicholas?" She put a hand on his arm "I was afraid I’d be jealous, even if it was never that kind of relationship in the past But her whole vibe with you is so sister and Auntie Mame You knohat the elephant was?"

"The elephant in the living roooing to do now"

"I don’t really have to do anything"

"I know You’ve got your sta to have a lot ofthis life, which is exactly the life I want to be living--"

"Me, too"

" -- and not worry about money, and just be comfortable and happy"

"And?"

"And never really feel co in the French Quarter If you went after them, would you knohere to look?"

"Not really"

"Des Moines?"

"I don’t know if any of theot a Des Moines phone number, the one I called every day to find out if it was ti besides water his lawn I wonder if he has any idea how close he ca his ticket punched"

"You don’t think that phone number would lead anywhere?"

"No," he said, "or they wouldn’t have given it to ot"

"I wonder," she said

In the ht they would take a cab, but Julia wouldn’t hear of it Dot headed inside with her suitcase, to give theood-bye

She said, "Be careful, you hear?"

"I will"

"I’ll tell Donny you were called away Family business, I’ll tell hi else?"

"Not really"