- Santos. He's from Colombia someplace.

- What time does he get off is what I want to know.

- For G.o.d's sake.

- That's what they always asked. When I was tending.

- Here we are.

- No, really. Do you ever ask him to change a lightbulb or something?

Leslie was searching for the key to her door.

- That's the super, Leslie said. He's another story.

As they went in, she said, - I don't think there's anything here but scotch. That's OK, isn't it? Bunning drank up everything else.

She went to the kitchen to get gla.s.ses and ice. Kathrin sat on the couch with Jane.

- Are you still seeing Andrew? she said.

- Off and on, Jane said.

- Off and on, that's what I'm looking for. On and off is more like it.

Leslie came back with the gla.s.ses and ice. She began to make drinks.

- Well, here's to you, she said. Here's to me. It's going to be hard moving out of here.

- You're not going to get to keep the apartment? Kathrin said.

- Twenty-six hundred a month? I couldn't afford it.

- Aren't you going to get something from Bunning?

- I'm not going to ask for anything. Some of the furniture-I can probably use that-and maybe a little something to get me by the first three or four months. I can stay with my mother if I have to. I hope I don't have to. Or I could stay with you, couldn't I? she asked Kathrin.

Kathrin had a walk-up on Lexington, one room painted black with mirrors on one wall.

- Of course. Until one of us killed the other, Kathrin said.

- If I had a boyfriend, it would be no problem, Leslie said, but I was too busy taking care of Bunning to have a boyfriend.

- You're lucky, she said to Jane, you've got Andy.

- Not really.

- What happened?

- Nothing, really. He wasn't serious.

- About you.

- That was part of it.

- So, what happened? Leslie said.

- I don't know. I just wasn't interested in the things he was interested in.

- Such as? Kathrin said.

- Everything.

- Give us an idea.

- The usual stuff.

- What?

- a.n.a.l s.e.x, Jane said. She'd made it up, on an impulse. She wanted to break through somehow.

- Oh, G.o.d, Kathrin said. Makes me think of my ex.

- Malcolm, said Leslie, so, where is Malcolm? Are you still in touch?

- He's over in Europe. No, I never hear from him.

Malcolm wrote for a business magazine. He was short, but a very careful dresser-beautiful, striped suits and shined shoes.

- I wonder how I ever married him, Kathrin said. I wasn't very foresighted.

- Oh, I can see how it happened, Leslie said. In fact, I saw how it happened. He's very s.e.xy.

- For one thing, it was because of his sister. She was great. We were friends from the first minute. G.o.d, this is strong, Kathrin said.

- You want a little more water?

- Yes. She gave me my first oyster. Am I supposed to eat that? I said. I'll show you how, she said, just throw them back and swallow. It was at the bar in Grand Central. Once I had them I couldn't stop. She was so completely up front. Are you sleeping with Malcolm? she asked me. We'd hardly met. She wanted to know what it was like, if he was as good as he looked.

Kathrin had drunk a lot of wine in the restaurant and a c.o.c.ktail before that. Her lips glistened.

- What was her name? Jane asked.

- Enid.

- Oh, beautiful name.

- So, anyway, he and I went off-this was before we were married. We had this room with nothing in it but a window and a bed. That's when I was introduced to it.

- To what? Leslie said.

- In the a.s.s.

- And?

- I liked it.

Jane was suddenly filled with admiration for her, admiration and embarra.s.sment. This was not like the thing she had made up, it was actual. Why couldn't I ever admit something like that? she thought.

- But you got divorced, she said.

- Well, there's a lot beside that in life. We got divorced because I got tired of him chasing around. He was always covering stories in one place or another, but one time in London the phone rang at two in the morning and he went into the next room to talk. That's when I found out. Of course, she was just one of them.

- You're not drinking, Leslie said to Jane.

- Yes, I am.

- Anyway, we got divorced, Kathrin went on. So, now it'll be both of us, she said to Leslie. Join the club.

- Are you really getting divorced? Jane asked.

- It'll be a relief.

- How long has it been? Six years?

- Seven.

- That's a long time.

- A very long time.

- How did you meet? Jane said.

- How did we meet? Through bad luck, Leslie said-she was pouring more scotch into her gla.s.s. Actually, we met when he fell off a boat. I was going out with his cousin at the time. We were sailing, and Bunning claimed he had to do it to get my attention.

- That's so funny.

- Later, he changed his story and said he fell and it had to be somewhere.

Bunning's first name was actually Arthur, Arthur Bunning Ha.s.set, but he hated the Arthur. Everyone liked him. His family owned a b.u.t.ton factory and a big house in Bedford called Ha Ha, where he was brought up. In theory he wrote plays, at least one of which was close to being a success and had an off-Broadway run, but after that things became difficult. He had a secretary named Robin-she was called his a.s.sistant-who found him incredible and unpredictable, not to mention hilarious, and Leslie herself had always been amused by him, at least for several years, but then the drinking started.

The end had come a week or so before. They were invited to an opening night by a theatrical lawyer and his wife. First there was dinner, and at the restaurant, Bunning, who had started drinking at the apartment, ordered a martini.

- Don't, Leslie said.

He ignored her and was entertaining for a while but then sat silent and drinking while Leslie and the couple went on with the conversation. Suddenly Bunning said in a clear voice, - Who are these people?

There was a silence.

- Really, who are they? Bunning asked again.

The lawyer coughed a little.

- We're their guests, Leslie said coldly.

Bunning's thoughts seemed to pa.s.s to something else and a few moments later he got up to go to the men's room. Half an hour pa.s.sed. Finally Leslie saw him at the bar. He was drinking another martini. His expression was unfocused and childlike.

- Where've you been? he asked. I've been looking all over for you.

She was infuriated.

- This is the end, she said.

- No, really, where have you been? he insisted.

She began to cry.

- I'm going home, he decided.

Still, she remembered the summer mornings in New England when they were first married. Outside the window the squirrels were running down the trunk of a great tree, headfirst, curling to the unseen side of it, their wonderful bushy tails. She remembered driving to little summer theaters, the old iron bridges, cows lying in the wide doorway of a barn, cut cornfields, the smooth slow look of nameless rivers, the beautiful, calm countryside-how happy one is.

- You know, she said, Marge is crazy about him. Marge was her mother. That should have been the tip-off.

She went to get more ice and in the hallway caught sight of herself in a mirror.

- Have you ever decided this is as far as you can go? she said, coming back in.

- What do you mean? said Kathrin.

Leslie sat down beside her. They were really two of a kind, she decided. They'd been bridesmaids at one another's wedding. They were truly close.

- I mean, have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror and said, I can't . . . this is it.

- What do you mean?

- With men.

- You're just sore at Bunning.

- Who really needs them?

- Are you kidding?

- You want me to tell you something I've found out?

- What?

- I don't know . . . Leslie said helplessly.