Page 5 (1/1)

"Oh daonna do?"

"What arehis head "I’ll take care of her, of my kid What else do you do?" He shook his head sadly "I want it," he said "I know--it’s stupid I should probably try so Get her to , I want a part of that I’ht?"

Joe smiled patiently "I don’t know Maybe you’re not nuts about that--but what about theto be able to ith on that?"

"No telling," he said "She wants to getto do this irl I love so much I can’t stop myself If I married this woman, it would really fuck her up, worse than she already is I can’t fake it--not so like this I’d be the worst husband You don’t , permanent step," Joe said "Only you know if you canlike that work If you can’t, you do the next best thing," Joe said "Man up Take care of her"

"It’s just that I slept with her when I love someone else Why the hell did I do that? What kind of sorry bastard does that? What was I thinking?"

At this point in the conversation Joe was coot together and talked about women they had crushes on--they just didn’t They rarely said how they felt, period He’d known Paul a long time and there’d been very feomen He was the quiet one; he kept back Even when they were abroad together, at ith a lot of tension to unload, Paul never hustled the women

The bartender delivered Paul another beer, from which he took a deep drink

"Love someone else?" Joe repeated

"I’, that’s all I had no business…"

"Paul You love someone?"

"Yeah I was a real horseshit best friend for years Vanni I just couldn’t help it I didn’t want it to be that way, but--"

Joe drank a big gulp He was prepared to help Paul through just about anything, but he never saw this co And why hadn’t he? Probably because he’d have done for Paul what Paul did for Matt--stay with thethrough everything "Whoa," he finally said "Oh, shit"

"Oh, shit," Paul echoed

"Vanni?"

Paul nodded griuilty I feel about that? I tried like hell to talk ot damn close I stayed away from them, you know? Because I could talk to Matt just fine, but if I saw Vanni, my heart wanted to explode…Aw God" He put his head in his hand "And now I’ve got sos up any worse?"

Joe shook his head, but he was thinking--yeah You could’ve been the dead guy "You sure this baby is yours?" Joe asked "Maybe it’s not yours"

"I thought about that," he said "Then I decided that was probably wishful thinking ontiot lazy on the pills And what did I have? Soonna get out of that package I probably wore a da in and out of the truck Nah, it’s onna find out for sure before you set up the college fund, right?"

"Yeah Sure Right now, though, I don’t want to push on her too hard She’s a wreck--a crying,to step up--who knohat she et an abortion just out of fear that I won’t be responsible I’ with the assumption it’s mine, since it most likely is We’ll sort out the details later"

"What are you gonna do about Vanni?"