I ordered two lightly boiled eggs, toast and coffee. I was just getting down to serious eating when the guy who rented the apartment opposite walked in. This guy gave me a pain. There are some guys who just can’t help giving anyone a pain. You don’t know why… they try like hell to put themselves across, but they stick.
I tried to hide behind my newspaper, but I was too late. He came across with an odd expression on his face and sat down.
He said, trying to look shocked, “You didn’t ought to have girls in your place, Mason; it gives the building a bad name.”
I said, “You’re kiddin’ yourself. The place had a bad name long before I moved in. Besides, I don’t know what you’re talking about. What’s all this about dames?”
The waitress came up just then and took his order for tomato-juice and toast. When she had gone, he spread himself over the table. “I saw her when I was getting the paper,” he said. “She came out fast, just like she had been chased out.”
I thought: if I’d seen her, she’d come out faster than that.
“You’re nuts,” I said. “Soon as I saw you, I thought your liver had been shot to hell.”
A look of doubt crossed his face, then he came back again. “You can’t kid me,” he said, with an attempt to leer. “She was some baby… a real hot mamma.”
I finished my coffee and lit a cigarette. “Do you often get like this?” I said anxiously. “I bet you’ll even be able to describe her to me.”
“Sure I can,” he said. “She was tall, blonde, with a make-up that just knocked me. She wore black, and had a large black felt hat, and a gold something or other round her neck. She was moving fast, but I’d know her any time.”