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Florentyna was momentarily taken aback Her plans for Richard had not included any provisions for tomorrows
’Not if you don’t want to,’ he added before she could re)cover
’I’d love to,’ she said quietly
’I’ dinner with my father, so why don’t I pick you up at ten o1clock?’
’No, no,’ said Florentyna, ’I’ll meet you there, It’s only two blocks away’
Ten o’clock then,’ he bent forward and kissed her gently on the cheek
’Good night, Jessie,’ he said, and disappeared into the night
Florentyna walked slowly back to her apart she hadn’t told so ht be over in a few days She couldn’t help feeling that she hoped it wouldn’t
Maisie, who hadn’t yet forgiven her, sp ent a considerable part of the next day asking all about Richard Florentyna kept trying unsuccessfully to change the subject
Floreneyna left Bloodale’s the moment the store closed, the first time in nearly two years that she had left before Maisie She had a long bath, put on the prettiest dress she thought she could get aith, and walked to the Blue Angel When she arrived Richard was already waiting for her outside the cloakrooe where the words of Bobby Short ca me the truth, or am I just another lie? As Florentyna walked in, Short raised his arment Florentyna pretended not to notice Mr Short had been a guest performer at The Baron on two or three occasions and it never occurred to Florentyna that he would remember her Richard looked puzzled and then assu someone else When they took a table in the dimly - lit room, Florentyna sat with her back to the piano to be certain it wouldn’t happen again
Richard ordered a bottle of ithout letting go of her hand and then asked about her day, She didn’t want to tell him; she wanted to tell hi I must’
’Hi, Richard’ A tall, handsome man stood at Richard’s side
’Hi, Steve Can I introduce Jessie Kovats - Steve Mellon Steven and I were at Harvard together’
Florentyna listened to them chat about the New York Yankees, Eisenhower’s handicap - his golf, and why Yale was going froracious, ’Nice to have an to tell her of his plans once he had left business school, how he hoped to come to New York and join his father’s bank, Lester’s She had heard the name before but couldn’t remember in what connection For soether, laughing, eating, talking, and just sitting, holding hands, listening to Bobby Short, When they walked home, Richard stopped on the comer of Fif ty - seventh and kissed her for the first time - She couldn’t recall any other occasion when she was so aware of a first kiss When he returned her to the shadows of Fifty - seventh Street, she left him and her white lies, aware that this tihtly wistful about the whole non - affair
She was take aback by how pleased she felt when Richard phoned her at Blooo out with hi ether: a concert, a film - even the New York Knicks did not escape them When the weekend was over Florentyna found she had told so round that she became inconsistent in her fabrication and puzzled Richard- herself It seemed to make it all the more impossible to tell him another entirely different, albeit true, story When Richard returned to Harvard on the Sunday night, she persuaded herself that the deception would seem unimportant once the relationship had ended But Richard phoned every day during the week and spent the next few eekends in her co to end that easily She was falling in love with him Once she had admitted that to herself, she realised that she had to tell hih hisHe was so irl, he could not even concentrate on the ’Twenty - nine crash’ He wished he could work out how to tell his father that he intended to love and woolly hats counter at Bloodale’s Richard was unable to fathom why she was so unaht : he was certain that if she had had the chances he had been given, she would not have ended up in Bloodale’s Richard decided that his parents would have to learn to live with his choice, because that weekend he was going to ask Jessie to be his wife