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Maybe they hadn't been looking at ave her the hour and fifteen minutes she'd asked for I spent half of it as productively as the two idlers on Eighth Avenue, lurking in a doorway ofPeople caers tofor Motley, I suppose, but he didn't show

I made myself wait until precisely one o'clock before I went over there and presented myself to her doorman He called upstairs, handed me the phone She asked me who had drawn the sketch, and I went blank for an instant, then told her it was Galindez I gave the phone back to the doorman and let her tell him it was okay to let me come up When I knocked on her door she checked the judas first, then unfastened all the locks

"Sorry," she said "I suppose it's silly to go through all that-"

"That's all right" I walked over to the coffee table, where a floral arrange all that black and white I didn't know the nanized a couple of exotics, bird-of-paradise and antheriu at seventy-five dollars' worth of floral affection

She ca a yellow silk blouse over black harem pants, and her feet were bare She said, "See what I mean? They're prettier than yesterday"

"If you say so"

"So to open, I think that's what it is" Then I guess she picked up on the tone of what I'd said and she looked atwas the matter

"They're notdifferent?"

"I didn't send any flowers, Elaine"

It didn't take her long I looked at her face and watched the wheels turn in heraround, are you, Matt?"

"Of course not"

"There was no note, but it never even occurred to me that they weren't from you For God's sake, I thanked you for them Yesterday I called you, remember?"

"You didn't mention flowers"

"I didn't?"

"Not specifically You thankedromantic"

"What did you think I y at the tiht you were referring to the night we'd had together"

"Well, I was," she said "Sort of The night and the flowers In ether"

"There was no note?"

"Of course not I figured you didn't bother with a note because you knew I'd knoho sent them And I did, but-"

"But I hadn't"

"Evidently not" She had paled at the news, but her color was back now She said, "I' to this I've spent the past twenty-four hours enjoying the flowers and thinking war sent them, and now they're not your flowers at all I suppose they're from him, aren't they?"

"Unless someone else sent theentlemen friends don't send flowers, I' them out"

"They're the sao"

"I know, but-"

"What tiet here?"

"When did I call you, around five o'clock?"

"So like that"

"They came an hour or two before then"

"Who delivered them?"

"I don't know"

"Well, was it a kid froet the na on the wrapper?"

She was shaking her head "Nobody delivered them"

"What do you mean? They couldn't have just turned up on your doorstep"

"That's exactly what they did"

"And you opened the door and there they were?"

"Just about I had a visitor, and when I let hiht they were from him, which didn'ton my welcome mat when he arrived At which point I iured I just dropped theht you probably had them delivered And then I was in the shower and didn't hear the bell, so the delivery boy left them Or he left them with the doorman, and the doorman left them there when I didn't respond to the bell" She laid a hand on ive the ht I was just, well, moved, you know? Impressed"

"And touched that I had sent you flowers"

"Yes, that's right"

"It certainly makes me wish they were mine"

"Oh, Matt, I don't-"

"It does And they're beautiful flowers, you can't get around it I should have kept my mouth shut and taken credit for them"

"Think so, huh?"

"Why not? They're a hell of a good roet laid on the strength of so like that"

Her face softened, and her arm moved to circle my waist "Ah, baby," she said "What makes you think you need flowers?"

Aftere lay quietly together for a long while, not asleep but not entirely awake At one point I thought of soh, because she asked etarian"

"So eyes at me "A person who abstains entirely fro period of ti a vitamin B-12 deficiency"

"Is that serious?"

"It can lead to pernicious aneood"

"It shouldn't It's fatal"

"Really?"

"So they tell me"

"Well, you wouldn't want to chance that," I said "And you can get that on a strict vegetarian diet?"

"According to what I've read"

"Can't you get B-12 from dairy products?"