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thinking about this constantly.
 Me, too, he said.
 Are you nervous?
He said,  No. Just excited.
Fearless, this Sam.  Who, or what, is Sam Hill?
 He was a farmer from somewhere in New England who
ran for public office in the late eighteen hundreds, but no
one knew who he was or where he d come from, he said,
finishing his drink.  He didn t win.
 Never ran again.
 Faded further into obscurity, he said.  He has a famous
name for being an anonymous person.
Frieda, draining her glass, decided she was wrong. She
loved Scotch. It was her new favorite drink. She said,  I
haven t had sex in a year and four months, and that wasn t
real sex. You can t have real sex with someone in the final
stages of terminal cancer. I hope you re not shocked by
that. I never know how much people can take, which is
why I talk about my husband s death so infrequently.
Hardly ever. In fact, never.
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alerie Frankel
She paused, noting his perplexed expression. Not re-
pulsed. But definitely puzzled. Where was she going with
this? She said,  My point is that it s been forever since I ve
done it with any degree of abandon. And I need more
Scotch, please.
He said,  You ve had enough, taking her glass and put-
ting it in the sink. It was only four paces from couch to
kitchen. Ilene would plotz if she saw this place. Frieda was
to have sex, for the first time in forever, in a shit hole.
 How long has it been for you? she asked.
He didn t answer, rinsing out the glasses and putting
them in the drying rack by the sink. He didn t let dishes sit.
That was a good sign. The place was clean. No dust bunnies
or lint. The kitchen orderly. She hadn t yet seen the bath-
room. It could be ugly in there.
Frieda repeated,  How long for you?
He said,  I m thinking.
Didn t seem like a question that required much thought.
Frieda wondered if he were thinking about how to get this
tipsy widow with a hard-on out of this apartment before
she attacked him. Finally, Sam said,  The short answer is
six months. But you gave me more information than a
number. I want to do the same. The long answer would be
that it s been a couple years since I had sex with someone
I cared about. I ve had short-term relationships with a few
women between her and you, but I could see the ending
from the beginning, so the sex part wasn t very satisfying.
The last time was with the actor who s playing Nancy in
Oliver! It started after a party. She didn t want to go home
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alone, so she took me with her. I never thought she liked
me. To tell you the truth, I felt used.
He said the  I felt used part with mock sarcasm. Like
he d been mortally offended. A woman using a man? She
couldn t have been using him for money, or jobs. If she d
been using him for sex, that was promising.
 What s her name?
 Lynette, he said. Seeing her reaction, he added,  I
know. Bad name. But she s a nice person. We re on good
terms.
 Who was the woman you cared about? she asked.
 That was Zina. She s an actor, too. We were best friends,
and decided to try a sexual relationship. That one didn t
work out because, frankly, she was too gross for me. She
loves fart jokes, and burping in public. It s hilarious in a
friend. But not in a girlfriend. We re still close. She s got a
chorus part in Oliver!
 Have you ever had a long relationship?
He said,  I lived with Deborah for two years. She s a Jew-
ish doctor s daughter. A musician, a flutist. She wanted to
get married and have a kid, but I was only twenty-four,
and the sexual attraction wasn t intense enough for me to
want to commit for life. We re still friends, too.
 Let me guess. She s playing in the orchestra at Oliver!
 She is indeed.
 I ve got to see this show. It s a cavalcade of your ex-
girlfriends.
He laughed.  There s another one in this production,
too. The  ripe strawberries, ripe woman.
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alerie Frankel
Frieda knew the part. In the movie, it was the first scene
after the intermission. She sang the line in her best op-
eretta voice. Sam cringed. He said,  I guess we know one
thing for sure.
 That is?
 If I fall in love with you, it won t be for your singing.
Frieda said,  Another wee dram of Scotch?
He demurred.  You seem drammed already.
She was, and she liked it.  Why haven t you been with
anyone in six months? she asked.  No available women
left in the cast?
Sam, still at the sink, poured her a splash and walked
back over. He sat next to her again. His body leaning on
hers was inebriating enough. She put the glass on the table.
He said,  The dry spell. Silence. Sam Hill clearly liked to
think before speaking. A good quality. Frieda bet he hardly
ever said anything in haste that he regretted later. But it
was unnerving to have to wait for an answer. Frieda had
been raised to blurt. As a rule her family members spoke
without thinking.
Sam said,  As you said, I ve pretty much dated anyone I
had an interest in within the company. And, with all the
traveling we do, I just haven t met anyone on the outside.
She d have to remember to ask him about  all the trav-
eling, but she wanted to get to something else first.  You
said,  between her and you. Meaning, you hadn t been
with anyone you cared about between Zina and me. So
you re saying you care about me.
 I am.
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The Not-So-Perfect Man
 You don t know me.
 I don t? he asked.  Don t I?
 Why should you?
He said,  Unless you ve completely misrepresented
yourself, you re kind, smart, and funny. And you frame
beautifully. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]