Page 54 of Hard to Kill
“And here I am,” he says finally.
“Here you are,” I say.
More gray to the hair and beard. More lines in the face. But still Martin, acting as if sitting in my living room were as comfortable for him as being in his own kitchen.
Maybe I ask him to go in there now and help out with dinner.
“So how are you, Jane?” he asks.
Fine, Martin, discounting my cancer. What about you?
I take a nice, deep breath. An old yoga teacher used to talk about her nighttime routine of “moon breathing.”
I wanted to be on the moon right now.
“Martin,” I say, “what’s the French word for awkward?”
He smiles, with his eyes, mostly.“Genant.”
“Well, this is about asgenantas it gets, wouldn’t you say?”
“I should go,” Ben says again. “So you two can talk.”
Now I smile at him. “I’ll pay you to stay.”
Has Martin somehow found out that I’m sick? Is that why he’s here?
“I would have called,” Martin says. He shrugs. “But I was afraid if I did, you’d tell me not to come by.”
I wonder if he had worn his white chef’s coat at the hedge funder’s house.
“Is there wine?” he asks.
“There is,” I say, but make no move to get off the couch, instead gently placing my hand over Ben’s to keep him right where he is.
“This was obviously a mistake,” he says. “But even though I did want to say hello, my visit actually does have a purpose.”
“You always did take your time getting to the good parts,” I say, and immediately wish I hadn’t, hoping that I’m the only one hearing a double meaning.
“It was an interesting and eclectic group around the table,” Martin says.
“Now I’m happy for all of you.”
I’ve heard about the colorful parties Allen Reese and his wife throw, featuring everybody from rappers to hard-core Republicans like them to jocks to the hot TikTokers.
“Have you ever been to one of their parties?” Martin asks. “It sounds like anybody out here who’s anybody does eventually.”
“I don’t hang with people like the Reeses,” I say. “I defend them.”
He chuckles. Too cool to laugh.
“Is there a point to this story, Martin? Ben and I need to have dinner and then get to bed.”
Take that.
“Two of the guests said they knew you, and to send along their best,” Martin says. “I thought they might have come together.”
“Names please?”