The living room was bookshelves floor to ceiling. Whenever I was in Eddie’s apartment, I was thinking about all the things I meant to read, though I wasn’t thinking about that now.
“I thought maybe you were dead,” Skip said, and Eddie walked straight into him, leaned against him as one might a tree.
“Everything was late,” Eddie said.
“You might have called,” Skip said. He was in his sock feet. In the dim light he looked considerably less foreboding. I wondered if he’d been taking a nap.
“I might have, except I didn’t know you were coming in.”
“That was the surprise,” Skip said. “I brought dinner.”
Eddie’s eyes stayed closed. “How big of a surprise? Is Polly here?”
“She’s at Mae-Mae’s. I told her I was coming in to check on you.” Skip put his hand on the back of Eddie’s head. “You got yourself a cane.”
“I don’t use it,” Eddie said, his face still leaning into Skip’s chest.
“I’m going to go,” I said.
Skip shook his head. I want to say he shook it sincerely. “Don’t go. We’ve got dim sum,” he said. “There’s plenty.”
I wondered if he bought food the same way Polly did. I told him I had to get back to Bronxville. Jonathan was waiting with dinner as well.
“Jonathan,” Skip said. “I liked him.” He was remembering our disastrous, long-ago brunch.
I tugged the cane from Eddie’s hand. He let it go. “Get somerest, okay?”
“She keeps saving my life,” Eddie said to Skip. “It’s not like this is our first go-round.”
“She’s a good one,” Skip said, and then he looked at me over the top of Eddie’s head, mouthed the wordOkay?
I nodded. I kissed the side of Eddie’s head. Somehow in that exchange, Skip gave my head an affectionate pat. I wondered what anyone ever knows about another person’s relationship. Looking at these two men leaning against one another in the middle of the room like a couple of support beams, one of them too tired to even go and sit down, I realized the answer was nothing. I knew nothing at all.
I managed to make it down in the elevator, through the lobby, and out onto the street before I called my husband. “Are you home?”
“Of course I’m home. Where are you?”
“Everything was late,” I said, and then I had to stop because I was afraid I was going to cry. I leaned against Eddie’s building, much the way Eddie had leaned against Skip.
“Daphne? Where are you?”
“I just got Eddie home. I’m on my way to the station. I wanted to tell you I’m late.”
“Do you want me to come and get you?”
“No,” I said, though honestly, I wasn’t sure if I could remember all the steps I needed to retrace to get back to my own life.
“Are you walking?”
“Not yet,” I said.
“Okay, point yourself uptown.”
I looked at the street signs to orient myself. “Uptown,” I said.
“We’re going to walk until you see a taxi, then you’re goingto get in the taxi and go to Grand Central. Or you can stay where you are and I can call you a car.”
“No, this is good. I want to walk.” How had I missed how hot it was? The day itself was hot to begin with, but now the pavement and the buildings were all releasing the heat they absorbed over the course of the day. At least the phone was cool against my cheek, the phone having spent the day inside my dark purse.
